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Something my bass teacher said .
- Thread starter Hordehunterx
- Start date
I think so too, all the way around. However, 7 planks of Alder can all sound different from each other, yet still sound like Alder... A friend of mine put out the thought that if he built 7 identical basses they would all have their own sound and their own quirks.
Can the player tell the difference? Can the listener tell?
Dbassmon said it best, and it is a lesson I need to learn as a player, practice, practice, practice!
As you practice and continue to learn, you will know what you want out of a bass. Also, by playing everything you can find, when you are not practicing, you will start to learn why you want what you want out of a bass.
Ooo! Ooo! I get it - a trick question - right?
OK - here's the answer: Your 'music teacher' is California certified to teach auto shop and they already had an auto shop teacher.
Right?
Did I win? How much?
OK - here's the answer: Your 'music teacher' is California certified to teach auto shop and they already had an auto shop teacher.
Right?
Did I win? How much?
Lol my iPhone doesmy computer got ****ed so my phone is autocorrecting everything
hope you weren't offended haha
my stupid iphone does crap like that all the time. I didn't mean anything by it. i just thought it was funny
I know this.... It was sarcasm. I'll try to inflect more in my typing from now on.
I think Pick up brand is not what it is about.
Pickup design (geometry, the wire, number of windings , magnets and so on...) does make a difference however.
Because, with the right pickup, it may let more of the influence of the wood on the strings reach the amp.
i agree.. when i am at home and play my j bass every day for up to 4 hours, when i go somwhere else and take my Zodiac BXP(it is a leamon, the neck joint was weak and needed repairing, the split coil pups are moving apart?) i play it maybe 1/2 hour a day if that. if you have a bass you like to play, and you can make it sound like a nice bass, unlike the ceap ones which sound like a pillow has been put on their lows then you will play it more. this is what makes the real difference, practise induced by love for your instrument
Let's say that both pickups and wood have a noticeable effet on tone. If that is the case which would be the most logical choice for replacement? Would you spend hundreds on new neck or body or ~$200 on a set of pickups? I wouldn't recommend the former unless you knew EXACTLY what you were after tonally. Either way it would be a good idea to have a general idea of the tone you're after before swapping stuff around.
When I swapped out the stock pup on my Yamaha BB300 for an EMG P-style (the same style as the stock pup), I noticed a tremendous difference. Later, when I added a J style EMG to the bridge position, it also changed my sound and tone options. I imagine the biggest difference is that I went from a passive stock pup to active EMG's.
But, with everything else on it still stock, it sounds completely different. just my .02.
But, with everything else on it still stock, it sounds completely different. just my .02.
If you're going to change the body, I'd say just buy a new bass with that already has the wood, electronics, etc that you want already. I suppose I could get behind the idea of swapping out the neck... but, honestly I rarely would be motivated to go through that much trouble. Swapping out pups, on the other hand is no big deal, and usually much cheaper than buying a new bass.
No negatives involved here - but I feel that you are looking for a bright-sound, one that has clear highs and you like to remove the fundamentals of the lows - right?
All well and good - but not everyone is like that. Let me go on a little:::
I think that although wood is misunderstood and severely overrated as additive to tone and voicing of a bass, it actually removes tones or areas of sound that a player desires.
Others - myself included - may want to have the deep low-ness of a bass become the backbone of the music and are quite content to hone our talents in that direction.
Perhaps I'll extend that a bit - slappers and modern lead-type players (Wooten-types as an example) will dislike the deep chocolate-y sounds of the lower strings and opt for the clearer sounds and nuances of a piano-y sound.
There's room for both - but not usually on the same instrument. This is why the great wood-debate goes on as I see it. Those who like their lows out of what they call: 'mud' will tend to gravitate toward the HM and firmer woods that they feel add to their tone.
I still state that the wood is not much of a contender here - not in things like frequency response and multiples of harmonics and amplification of the sound they like - quite the opposite.
Wood is, however, a device that removes those sounds-tones-voices that some players want removed; to them the wood has added when in reality it has taken away those sound that they don't want.
The ability of certain woods to ablate certain ranges of frequencies is what it's all about - never can something passive add to a sound unless reinforced by some sort of amplification in and of itself.
FINGERS
and STRINGS
and QUALITY of PICKUPS
and of course their DESIGN
and ASSOCIATED WIRING/POTS, etc
.
Lets just say everything makes the difference in sound from fingers, wood, electronics, amp, speakers, strings, cables. As I tell my students it's many things that you work toward to make a sounds that becomes YOU. One thing has a small influence over the other, it's the combination or everything.
As a Luthier, yes, wood does play a part in the overall sound, more so in your choice of neck and fingerboard wood than the body wood.
For electric I believe the pickups and any kind of active electronics have the greatest affect on your sound at least from the standpoint of the bass itself.
As a Luthier, yes, wood does play a part in the overall sound, more so in your choice of neck and fingerboard wood than the body wood.
For electric I believe the pickups and any kind of active electronics have the greatest affect on your sound at least from the standpoint of the bass itself.
My experience is that the neck has more influence than the body. My current primary instruments are nearly all neck with very small body wings, just enough to attach the pickup, controls and jack. The bridge and string anchor are actually on the neck extension.
