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The truth Wood resonance Build Ect.
- Thread starter oldprussians
- Start date
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"that sound isn't used for anything"?
Ken, you stated that a while back and it's still wrong. It may be right for you but I can show you plenty of people who play and listen to electric basses unplugged. I often practice that way. Impossible? Heck, I'm doing it right now.
I'm not sure why that's so hard to imagine. All it takes is an environment quiet enough to do that. I even play along with recorded music... I just don't turn it up loud enough to mask the bass.
Electric basses can be played in other situations than recording or live performance. Right?
And wasting time. OMG. Do you really think I'm trying to convince him of anything? I'm just goofing around between doing other stuff. Multitasking if you will.
I love this game. How fast do I type?
Hypothetically speaking, if I make a post at 10:00am, go make a phone call, check my IRL physical mailbox, play with the cat, come back and see something I want to add or correct in that post at 11:53, did I spend 53 minutes on that post? If I see a spelling mistake and correct it tomorrow, did I spend a day?
That's what your logic is saying.
Like I said way too much time on your hands....swish. Inevitable "what are you doing here then" coming back at me....
Nice imagination. You're probably already asking yourself that question, I have no need to. I don't care what another person does with their time... that's your thing. I actually have someone who wants to debate how I spend my time.
BTW that was around 42 seconds... for those keeping track.
So are you saying electronics don't matter?
juststayinginthespiritofthethread
GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
(...starts pulling my hair out...big clumps...why do you torture me so, Brad, WHY???
)
"that sound isn't used for anything"?
Ken, you stated that a while back and it's still wrong. It may be right for you but I can show you plenty of people who play and listen to electric basses unplugged. I often practice that way. Impossible? Heck, I'm doing it right now.
I'm not sure why that's so hard to imagine. All it takes is an environment quiet enough to do that. I even play along with recorded music... I just don't turn it up loud enough to mask the bass.
Electric basses can be played in other situations than recording or live performance. Right?
Well, okay... sure, you can rehearse in a quiet environment with an unplugged guitar or bass. But that doesn't make it an "acoustic instrument".
Let me put it this way: why don't you get Kevin Brubaker to build you one of his usual basses but with NO ELECTRONICS? Then tell me how much money you make with it, live or studio gigs. Naturally, you are allowed to put a microphone up to it... you could maybe make that work at a solo bass performance, as long as you weren't singing... or in the studio, as long as you were in an iso booth. But good luck getting ROI using an "acoustic solidbody bass".
To remind everyone, I was referring to sound, and you are referring to my statement.... and that makes yours wrong. SOUND is not used by the pickups on electric basses or guitars. Pickups that transmit sound are referred to as "microphonic" (the technical term), or "crappy" (the colloquial one). A few techniques, such as potting, are used to prevent pickups from transmitting sound. Why? Because microphonic pickups cause nasty squealy feedback, that's why.
Reality check: if an electric bass pickup is a microphone, which is more likely to be transmitted by it at a gig: the bass, or the drums? Or perhaps the 100 watt Marshall 4x12? Damn guitards...
You are correct that wood affects the way the string vibrates (which is what this thread is about), and yeah, a vibrating string emits a small amount of sound. But what matters to the magnetic pickup is the VIBRATION of that string in its magnetic field: you'll essentially get the same tonal result in a vacuum, where no sound can be transmitted to a microphone or the ear.
Nice imagination. You're probably already asking yourself that question, I have no need to. I don't care what another person does with their time... that's your thing. I actually have someone who wants to debate how I spend my time.
BTW that was around 42 seconds... for those keeping track.
Actually it was never intended to start a debate, its not my thing, just an observation/joke. After seeing an enormous post I thought to my self "who has the time/could be bothered to do that?", even if your right. Unfortunately it wasnt well received as it seems like your sense of humour escaped years ago, never to be seen again...
.
To remind everyone, I was referring to sound, and you are referring to my statement.... and that makes yours wrong. SOUND is not used by the pickups on electric basses or guitars. Pickups that transmit sound are referred to as "microphonic" (the technical term), or "crappy" (the colloquial one). A few techniques, such as potting, are used to prevent pickups from transmitting sound. Why? Because microphonic pickups cause nasty squealy feedback, that's why.
Reality check: if an electric bass pickup is a microphone, which is more likely to be transmitted by it at a gig: the bass, or the drums? Or perhaps the 100 watt Marshall 4x12? Damn guitards...
You are correct that wood affects the way the string vibrates (which is what this thread is about), and yeah, a vibrating string emits a small amount of sound. But what matters to the magnetic pickup is the VIBRATION of that string in its magnetic field: you'll essentially get the same tonal result in a vacuum, where no sound can be transmitted to a microphone or the ear.
You're missing an important element here. The fact that the wood affects the vibration of the string, thus changing how the string is vibrating, AFFECTS WHAT THE PICKUP SEES! So, even in a vacuum, the wood in the body and neck will affect the tone!
IF we are working with a "perfect vibrating string" (which NO bass guitar can have!), then there will be no affect based on wood choices. That is impossible with wood instruments however, and the woods themselves will affect the vibration of the string - dampening certain harmonic structures, reinforcing and amplifying others. These variations in which harmonics are being damped and amped are imposed ON THE VIBRATING STRING. The overall vibration of the string is what the pickup sees and turns from a mechanical energy to an electrical energy.
The wood affects the tone of an electric instrument, this is FACT. You may wish it away, you may ignore the obvious, but it is FACT.
I had a similar experience with a Tokai strat whose neck I replaced with a Warmoth. It radically changed the sound, and not for the better. The guitar became much deader acoustically, and darker and less sustainy through an amp. I wound up switching it back a few months later.
The neck bears a lot of stress with a relatively small amount of wood, so it seems to makes sense that its properties would have a distinct effect on tone.
RE wood vs electronics -- the thing about wood is that it can be hard to predict what its effect will be. There are some general rules but also lots of exceptional cases and variability. I've had two Fenders with ash bodies and maple boards that were very dark sounding, but also one that sounded bright with that combo, and my current one is fairly bright with a rosewood board. I once had two Ibanez Artists with the same woods and identical construction that sounded very -- so different that when I got the second one I couldn't stand to play the first one anymore and sold it.
So wood seems to be kind of a crapshoot with big variation even within the same species. On the other hand, electronics are very predictable. Likewise the effect of pickup placement is predictable. And of course both have a big effect on tone. (By the way, an earlier poster contrasted SGs and Les Pauls but I'd like to point out that their pickup spacing is not the same. An SG's neck pickup is further from the neck.)
I'm agnostic on neck joints but suspect there's probably not much difference. They both seem to provide a rigid joint.
I guess my overall take is that an instrument's basic character is determined by its geometry and its electronics -- i.e. by its scale length and pickup placement and type of pickups. Then the wood determines in a fairly capricious way whether it's a "good one". For instance, a Lucite strat will sound like a strat, but a strat with nice resonant woods will probably sound better.
You have badly misread my posts. I have acknowledged this all along. Instruments made of the same woods can still have different tone because of the variable nature of wood.
My point, somewhat off-topic, is that an electric bass is not an ACOUSTIC instrument, as some like to say. The relatively tiny bit of sound created by the slab is NOT the function of the instrument, it is a by-product. A chamber quartet can provide musical entertainment out in the real world without amplification. Three dudes with Les Pauls and one dude with a P-bass can't. It ain't easy even with hollowbody electrics.
As Brad said you can rehearse with an unplugged electric in a quiet environment. You can listen to the tone of an unplugged instrument to gauge how well it vibrates, which may or may not indicate how well it performs when amplified. But the function of the instrument is to perform amplified, therefore, the SOUND it makes is largely useless when it comes to musical entertainment. Maybe you can find an oddball recording that features an unplugged electric bass, but seriously, how many exist?
I think the Op has achieved what he set out to do - start a pointless argument and sit back and giggle from the safety of his padded cell - trust me I've checked out his MySpace page 
Actually, not intended as a poke at oldprussians but at thenosebleedkid
Actually, not intended as a poke at oldprussians but at thenosebleedkid
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