What would be the difference between the "soft maple" body of the Squier VM '70s Jazz and the basswood body of the Squier VM Jazz? I have no idea what "soft maple" is; I've always understood maple to be a hardwood. Thanks.
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'Soft maple' vs Basswood
- Thread starter FerruleCat
- Start date
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
And soft being a relative term. I don't know how hard / soft soft maple is compared to a softer wood like basswood - but someone surely does. Maybe there's a wood hardness scale online somewhere...
Edit: Indeed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test - and the softest maple listed (silver) is still almost twice as hard as basswood.
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
Hmmm, I wonder what a bass made of this stuff would sound like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocasuarina_luehmannii (too rare and endangered to find out, probably).
Yeah, basswood is 410 on that scale. Though that's still just over 4 times harder than balsa!
Here are the first three results that came up when I typed "soft maple" on the Yahoo search engine. I've never heard the term, either. Now I know.
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/differences-between-hard-maple-and-soft-maple/
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Hard_vs_soft_maple.html
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Edit: My post is not meant to come across as being snarky. I can see how it could be read that way, but that's not my intention.
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/differences-between-hard-maple-and-soft-maple/
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Hard_vs_soft_maple.html
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Edit: My post is not meant to come across as being snarky. I can see how it could be read that way, but that's not my intention.
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
Yeah, basswood is 410 on that scale. Though that's still just over 4 times harder than balsa!
Basswood is sometimes known as Linden and you see it planted as windbreaks in the mid-west due to it's fast growth and large canopy.
Makes sense - I believe the general correlation is faster growing with softer wood. I was looking up the woods harder than maple wondering who might have used them for instruments - reading up on Lignum Vitae - Pete Seeger chose it to make his famous "This machine kills Fascists" banjo out of - if it's good enough for Pete...
Fantastic replies; thanks very much. I don't know why I didn't just Google it.
The reason I ask is that I'm continuing my expansion from short scale to 34" scale, and I'd like to pick up either the Squier VM '70s Jazz bass (soft maple, natural finish, maple board) or the Squier VM Jazz Bass (basswood, sunburst finish, rosewood board). I prefer the visuals of the VM sunburst, but if the body woods make that much difference, I'm fine with the '70s. Between the soft maple body and maple board, there's good reason to expect the 70s to be brighter, which I'm guessing plays favorably into the "Jazz Bass growl." There's a lot of good flak on the 70s, too, so that's probably the way to go.
By the way, I was just working on my Bronco bass yesterday, expanding and squaring off the pickup rout to accommodate a soapbar humbucker. The basswood definitely was easy to work with.
The reason I ask is that I'm continuing my expansion from short scale to 34" scale, and I'd like to pick up either the Squier VM '70s Jazz bass (soft maple, natural finish, maple board) or the Squier VM Jazz Bass (basswood, sunburst finish, rosewood board). I prefer the visuals of the VM sunburst, but if the body woods make that much difference, I'm fine with the '70s. Between the soft maple body and maple board, there's good reason to expect the 70s to be brighter, which I'm guessing plays favorably into the "Jazz Bass growl." There's a lot of good flak on the 70s, too, so that's probably the way to go.
By the way, I was just working on my Bronco bass yesterday, expanding and squaring off the pickup rout to accommodate a soapbar humbucker. The basswood definitely was easy to work with.
I carved this scroll out of basswood. It's very easy to work with and I was trying to combat neck dive. The bass came out almost balanced. Very little dive considering the size of the head. If basswood is finished correctly it's pretty durable, but not as much as other hardwoods as it dents a little easier.
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Here's the whole bass. The body core is basswood as well, with maple top and back. Total weight of this bass was around 9lbs.
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Here's the whole bass. The body core is basswood as well, with maple top and back. Total weight of this bass was around 9lbs.
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I just picked up a MIJ P bass maple neck with basswood body. This bass is an 87' and it looks brand new no nicks marks,dents anywhere. I love the weight and the heavier maple neck seams to transmit the tone thru the body producing one of the best P tones I have ever owned.
VERY nice Bassmanmike1!
I have owned both the basswood VM P5, made of basswoo,d and the VM jazz 5, of soft maple. Soft maple is quite a bit harder than basswood but the basswood on these is well protected. I think I prefer the basswood tone slightly over the soft maple but it's a very minor difference.
I think the only significant negative for soft maple is its weight compared to basswood. My VM Jazz V weighed 10.6 lbs and the VM P V weighs 9 lbs.
All the best,
Bob
I have owned both the basswood VM P5, made of basswoo,d and the VM jazz 5, of soft maple. Soft maple is quite a bit harder than basswood but the basswood on these is well protected. I think I prefer the basswood tone slightly over the soft maple but it's a very minor difference.
I think the only significant negative for soft maple is its weight compared to basswood. My VM Jazz V weighed 10.6 lbs and the VM P V weighs 9 lbs.
All the best,
Bob
Well, that developed quickly. My local GC had the Squier VM 70s Jazz in stock, so I went to check it out. Plays like butter, has great tone, got the growl thing going. I'm very happy with it.
Well, that developed quickly. My local GC had the Squier VM 70s Jazz in stock, so I went to check it out. Plays like butter, has great tone, got the growl thing going. I'm very happy with it.
So that's the soft maple body, I'm guessing? It has the kind of "bigger" grain pattern you might associate with ash - I'd read that the softer maples had bigger grain like that (big leaf, etc.).
It's a wide grain pattern, but definitely maple. I'm not a big fan of the way ash looks, so a less intense grain is fine with me. My bathroom scale puts this one at 9.4 pounds, by the way.
Stuff like the Buloke and other "ironwoods" are incredibly hard to work with, pun intended. They dull the luthier's tools and are often quite heavy. While they have their applications (fretless fingerboard, for example), I'd much rather have a body made out of nice, light, toneful Basswood.
If I was going for a maple body, I'd want it to be a semi-hollow or chambered (I like lightweight instruments, always have).
If I was going for a maple body, I'd want it to be a semi-hollow or chambered (I like lightweight instruments, always have).
Basswood is a very soft and light wood,I've used it several times for carving.It's got a nice even grain but you can also easily dent/scratch it with your fingernail.I would only use it for an instrument with a very tough finish."soft" maple is much harder(and heavier) and only soft in relation to "hard"maple and is available with a much wider variety of grain character.
