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My amateur understanding is that the denser and more rigid a substance is, the more sound waves are free to vibrate/resonate, more sustain and so on
the sound waves will dampen faster in softer materials. there are other factors too im sure.
...not wanting to get into the never ending tonewood debate
the sound waves will dampen faster in softer materials. there are other factors too im sure.
...not wanting to get into the never ending tonewood debate
A bass is a system of parts that work together in a complex interplay of variability. Change any variable, and you are likely to change the sound it can produce. Some variables will exercise greater influence over the interplay of the system and therefore will effect a "greater" change than others. Like for example, moving the location of the pickups will alter the tone. Then rolling off the tone knob will trump those variables completely. Etcetera... 
Absolutely, my good man. It can and does. The only way to make instruments that sound exactly alike 100% of the time is to not use wood. Hence the popularity of carbon fiber among some builders. It sure isn't because it's easier or safer to work with, because neither is the case.
Exactly, for the same reason I like instruments of wood, each one have your soul & sound different....... For excample.... the oldest Fender Basses have a different sound that are making now.....the wood was better.
I love instruments of wood they are magical!!!!
Best regards
Sadly, this is all too true. Most of the good stuff had finished being cut down over fifty years ago. High-end luthiers are either sitting on stacks for their good customers that they've been hoarding for decades, or are turning to salvage. What big companies like Fender or Gibson are selling as "premium" is merely decent current harvest. I'll never forget one day when I was working at Santa Cruz Guitar, sorting some rosewood in my "spare time", I turned to my boss and said "hey, this is some really nice stuff" and he just looked down sadly and said "I would have thrown it in the seconds pile ten years ago".
Second growth wood is - no other way to say it - inferior, and what little old-growth stuff is left is either now under government protection (which I agree with 100%, btw) or being burned by native populations to make room for crops. The sad thing is most people will never, ever play anything else, because unless you're willing to sit on a patch of forest for 500 years to let EVERYTHING grow back without any human intervention or presence whatsoever, you can't magically bring back old-growth woods.
Yes....you can see in the furnitures.
The wood was using for make the oldest furnitures is much better that today.....
I make bass guitars from 100% trollwood. It is first-growth, organic.
Hopkins
Commercial User
There is some hardcore koolaid drinking going on here. A guitar/bass is not some mystic creation, it's an electro-mechanical device that is subject to the laws of physics like everything else.
