The Official MTD USA Thread

[Saluki]

The owl: If I were going for aggressive fingerstyle with big bottom my combo would be ash body, walnut top or possibly maple, and maple neck and board. This will give you a aggressive (if you play over the bridge pickup) fingerstyle with a huge bottom and clarity. If the maple/maple is has to much highs then roll the treble tone control back slightly and......sweet. My prefs would be to stay away from the wenge/wenge as well unless your were looking for that somewhat natural scoop sound. Killer for slap, but I have to aggree with Vic, that a least for me, lack a bit in the fingerstyle department (I still like to own one..or two). The ash neck IMO my have a bit more clarity and aggression then the maple neck. I am not sure it is my favorite combo yet but it is very cool. In the end, everyone has their own preference.

I also used to be a wick head and loved the wick growl (I think I have owned 7) but I have tried them after I have owned a MTD and find that they don't match the tonal goals that I want.

 

[evilgus]

If you are just comparing tops, I suspect a soft-maple top would soften the ash body sound a bit more than walnut, as walnut sits slightly higher on the Janka Hardness scale. That's assuming that Black, Claro and American walnut are roughly the same woods!

And to take the analysis further, Bird's-Eye Maple is actually softer than the other common fingerboard woods and closer in hardness to ash, so that might explain why a BEM board on ash is slightly more "open" and aggressive. The harder woods will result in different sweetness, snap and focus in the higher frequencies.

Did I warn you guys I currently have the flu and am still on flu meds, so maybe I'm just imagining things?

Cheers,

EG

 

[Vic]

Haha you're no dufus, Vic. You may have missed it on the previous page. I've got the korina body/wenge neck/fb, no top. I think it sounds great, but for that "sound in my head," I could use a little more aggressive tone, something a little punchier. And I've not been fortunate enough to play the ash/maple neck, so I was curious.

From what I've read on here and various other places, I think the wenge/wenge with ash body/maple top would nail that sound I'm looking for, but with a lack of MTD's to try out in Alabama, I have to ask a lot of questions about what's happening, and I keep hearing about the ash neck/maple board.

You're right... an ash body would definitely add aggression to that formula. Just depends on if changing the body woods would add enough. Just judging by your language, it might.

Thing is, if you're buying new, shipping a couple basses back and forth from a dealer or two is small change for a big purchase decision, and IMHO, well worth it.

 

[Vic]

If you are just comparing tops, I suspect a soft-maple top would soften the ash body sound a bit more than walnut, as walnut sits slightly higher on the Janka Hardness scale. That's assuming that Black, Claro and American walnut are roughly the same woods!

This is probably very true for a spalt, but I doubt true for flamed, quilted, or even a burl (unless it has a lot of voids in it anyway).

And to take the analysis further, Bird's-Eye Maple is actually softer than the other common fingerboard woods and closer in hardness to ash, so that might explain why a BEM board on ash is slightly more "open" and aggressive. The harder woods will result in different sweetness, snap and focus in the higher frequencies.

This sounds sensible to me if you're talking ebony, pau ferro, etc, for "other", but if you're talking other maple boards, the birdseyes are actually small knots and are very dense, so while its density is inconsistent, at least on average, it should be slightly denser than straight maple.

 

[evilgus]

This is probably very true for a spalt, but I doubt true for flamed, quilted, or even a burl (unless it has a lot of voids in it anyway).

Yes, I imagine the hardness in those will vary quite a bit, so it's just a generalisation and more about averages and approximate outcomes.

This sounds sensible to me if you're talking ebony, pau ferro, etc, for "other"

Yep, was generally meaning ebony, pau ferro, rosewood and close variants, not including BEM. I'm more familiar with those woods and haven't had a maple-board bass for years, let alone a pretty BEM one.

EG

 

[bassnote6]

Here we are again. All of you guys own ash basses. Yes ash is very aggressive. But to say wenge is best for slapping and less for finger style is IMO not a good account. When I choose a bass I have to be able to go from slap to finger in an instant without any major adjustments. I do not own an ash MTD but I have had other ash basses,and played many ash MTD's I had to make adjustments while doing either of the following slap or fingering. Again thats just me. I have always been a fan of the wenge wenge combo because it gave me the tone that I needed with minor tweaking. My suggestion to anyone looking to buy an MTD is to try as many as you can and talk to MIKE himself .2 basses that have the same wood combo won't sound the same each one of Mikes basses are individual. Peace

 

[evilgus]

Sorry if it sounds like we're bragging or crapping on too much about the ash, but they are cool. I'll happily admit I've only ever played one MTD, so I can't compare them very much at all. Just trying to describe the qualities in a fair and descriptive way, in case it helps someone else make a decision, or at least consider something different. The WORST thing about MTD basses is they ALL sound great, which leads a lot of us to want more than one, dammit!!!

And I put some more sound samples on my myspace page, namely Electric Chair Cover (Buckley) and Sunset Over Sea Sample, a longer version than I had before.

Cheers,

EG

 

[bassnote6]

Sorry if it sounds like we're bragging or crapping on too much about the ash, but they are cool. I'll happily admit I've only ever played one MTD, so I can't compare them very much at all. Just trying to describe the qualities in a fair and descriptive way, in case it helps someone else make a decision, or at least consider something different. The WORST thing about MTD basses is they ALL sound great, which leads a lot of us to want more than one, dammit!!!

And I put some more sound samples on my myspace page, namely Electric Chair Cover (Buckley) and Sunset Over Sea Sample, a longer version than I had before.

Cheers,

EG

I truly understand. I'm just trying to say there is more than just ash. Which a lot of people on here own but there are a lot of others that don't. A little thing on my myspace page called BILL was done with an tulipwood wenge wenge and a avadorie wenge wenge David Dyson's old and now new bass.

 

[Tony G]

My 635 has a mahogany body.

 

[Marlat]

Mine 535 is reasonably unique:

535-21
Chambered alder body
Walnut top
Wenge neck
Birdseye maple fingerboard

Both fingerstyle and slap are spot on IME. The combination of the pickups and preamp means you can make minor tweaks and get just about any sound you need. Most of the stuff I have been playing recently has been solo chording and then playing over it and the bass just fits beautifully. Although I would be keen to try an ash/ash MTD, I would be surprised (given the pickups and preamp), that the tone so different as to be practically different in a playing context. No doubt there are audible differences, but I doubt you would go seriously wrong with either ash/ash or ash/wenge as a combination. Not everyone is so pedantic with regard to tonal discrepancies as some of the more voluminous posters posting in this thread. I don't mean that as a slam in any way, just as something to bear in mind when assessing whether a bass may suit your tonal needs. Oft repeated opinions by a few people is, ultimately, only a few opinions and it might be that none of those opinions match your own. FWIW.

 

[bassnote6]

Mine 535 is readoably unique:

535-21
Chambered alder body
Walnut top
Wenge neck
Birdseye maple fingerboard

Both fingerstyle and slap are spot on IME. The combination of the pickups and preamp means you can make minor tweaks and get just about any sound you need. Most of the stuff I have been playing recently has been solo chording and then playing over it and the bass just fits beautifully. Although I would be keen to try an ash/ash MTD, I would be surprised (given the pickups and preamp), that the tone so different as to be practically different in a playing context. No doubt there are audible differences, but I doubt you would go seriously wrong with either ash/ash or ash/wenge as a combination. Not everyone is so pedantic with regard to tonal discrepancies as some of the more voluminous posters posting in this thread. I don't mean that as a slam in any way, just as something to bear in mind when assessing whether a bass may suit your tonal needs. Oft repeated opinions by a few people is, ultimately, only a few opinions and it might be that none of those opinions match your own. FWIW.

+1

 

[tombowlus]

My suggestion to anyone looking to buy an MTD is to try as many as you can and talk to MIKE himself .2 basses that have the same wood combo won't sound the same each one of Mikes basses are individual. Peace

That is good advice.

 

[rockstarbassist]

This may sound like a stupid question, but for all the other wenge/wenge guys out there, on the older MTD's does your neck/board get more "slick" over time?
Mine was new, and it feels like, well, wood. My first MTD (that needed that major overhaul, to whomever it was passed to a few times!) felt like it was almost oiled a bit.
And then last week I (attempted) to play a fellow forumite's MTD with wenge/wenge+avadoire/walnut (I think?) and his neck felt the same way, almost "oiled". Is that just buildup over time, or was that an actual finish, etc.?
Did Mike used to do this on his older wenge/wenge models, and now leaves them "dry"?
Sorry if this is vague, it's kind of hard to describe, but I can definitely tell the difference.

 

[Vic]

Yep, was generally meaning ebony, pau ferro, rosewood and close variants, not including BEM. I'm more familiar with those woods and haven't had a maple-board bass for years, let alone a pretty BEM one.

EG

I'm with you on all that except rosewood... depending on what you mean by rosewood, of course. At least as far as I know, true rosewood is not as dense or hard as maple... at least for the cuts used for fingerboards. Thing is, there's so much that falls under the umbrella of "rosewood", it's hard to say. What I call rosewood is like on the old Fender's... fairly open grain, warms up a lot more as you play it, relatively soft, definitely not as snappy at the high end.

 

[Vic]

My suggestion to anyone looking to buy an MTD is to try as many as you can and talk to MIKE himself .2 basses that have the same wood combo won't sound the same each one of Mikes basses are individual.
...
I'm just trying to say there is more than just ash. Which a lot of people on here own but there are a lot of others that don't.

Agreed, and I even said the same thing, BUT, not everyone lives a stone's throw from Mike's shop like you do... or even close enough to a major metropolis to find a dealer that might have a few, so we still have to do our best to offer our opinions to at least quantify in our terms for those with much less access (or resources to spend on shipping eval basses back and forth).

Your experiences and mine are different, and that's the way it should be. It's up to the person asking the question to "tune" what our comments mean based on how their orientation might differ from ours.

 

[Vic]

Mine 535 is reasonably unique:

535-21
Chambered alder body
Walnut top
Wenge neck
Birdseye maple fingerboard

Both fingerstyle and slap are spot on IME.
...
Although I would be keen to try an ash/ash MTD, I would be surprised (given the pickups and preamp), that the tone so different as to be practically different in a playing context. No doubt there are audible differences, but I doubt you would go seriously wrong with either ash/ash or ash/wenge as a combination. Not everyone is so pedantic with regard to tonal discrepancies as some of the more voluminous posters posting in this thread. I don't mean that as a slam in any way, just as something to bear in mind when assessing whether a bass may suit your tonal needs. Oft repeated opinions by a few people is, ultimately, only a few opinions and it might be that none of those opinions match your own. FWIW.

Huge +1

I even said I have yet to hear an MTD that couldn't do everything well, but the problem is, that doesn't help the shopper at all. So they get frustrated and confused and either give up or just buy something some dealer tells them to.

While some of us (likely including myself) are posting at a fairly detailed level, that's where you have to go to even TRY to categorize Mikes artful works. And even if you (truthfully!) bring up the fact that even similar wood combos can still be fairly unique... in particular with Mike's stuff, that's even more frustrating to someone trying to make a decision.

Again, we just have to say what we can about how these things differ in as useful a way as possible... and it can be hard sometimes... but we still have to try our best to help folks who don't have our experiences to benefit from.

 

[bassnote6]

This may sound like a stupid question, but for all the other wenge/wenge guys out there, on the older MTD's does your neck/board get more "slick" over time?
Mine was new, and it feels like, well, wood. My first MTD (that needed that major overhaul, to whomever it was passed to a few times!) felt like it was almost oiled a bit.
And then last week I (attempted) to play a fellow forumite's MTD with wenge/wenge+avadoire/walnut (I think?) and his neck felt the same way, almost "oiled". Is that just buildup over time, or was that an actual finish, etc.?
Did Mike used to do this on his older wenge/wenge models, and now leaves them "dry"?
Sorry if this is vague, it's kind of hard to describe, but I can definitely tell the difference.

Thats a good observation. I too have noticed this. Both of my basses have wenge necks and the older one seems smoother on the back, It seems to wear shinier and smoother as time goes on.

 

[rockstarbassist]

Thats a good observation. I too have noticed this. Both of my basses have wenge necks and the older one seems smoother on the back, It seems to wear shinier and smoother as time goes on.

Ok sweet, then I'm not going crazy then.

I like it both ways, so that's something at least interesting I can look forward to!

 

[Vic]

This may sound like a stupid question, but for all the other wenge/wenge guys out there, on the older MTD's does your neck/board get more "slick" over time?
Mine was new, and it feels like, well, wood. My first MTD (that needed that major overhaul, to whomever it was passed to a few times!) felt like it was almost oiled a bit.
And then last week I (attempted) to play a fellow forumite's MTD with wenge/wenge+avadoire/walnut (I think?) and his neck felt the same way, almost "oiled". Is that just buildup over time, or was that an actual finish, etc.?
Did Mike used to do this on his older wenge/wenge models, and now leaves them "dry"?
Sorry if this is vague, it's kind of hard to describe, but I can definitely tell the difference.

Yep. Definitely. And I'd assume this will continue to be the case unless Mike changes whatever he uses on the neck. I'd have to verify it, but I think he protects the back of the neck on his basses with the same stuff he uses on the body... so it starts out with more of a woody feel and slicks up over time with wear.

 

[DRay521]

Huge +1

I even said I have yet to hear an MTD that couldn't do everything well, but the problem is, that doesn't help the shopper at all. So they get frustrated and confused and either give up or just buy something some dealer tells them to.

While some of us (likely including myself) are posting at a fairly detailed level, that's where you have to go to even TRY to categorize Mikes artful works. And even if you (truthfully!) bring up the fact that even similar wood combos can still be fairly unique... in particular with Mike's stuff, that's even more frustrating to someone trying to make a decision.

Again, we just have to say what we can about how these things differ in as useful a way as possible... and it can be hard sometimes... but we still have to try our best to help folks who don't have our experiences to benefit from.

As one of the guys asking alot of questions, I give a big +1 to this.

Like I said, there aren't a whole lot of MTD's in Alabama, so I like to get my info from you guys and from Mike, which I've done several times. But in that, I realize that everyone's tonal preferences are different, everyone's ear is different, and everybody SOUNDS different when they play. But I like to get a good general idea from everybody and form an idea based on all this great information.

So thanks to everybody. See how MTD's just bring everyone together??