- Mar 8, 2011
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- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
@JIO has the coolest design ideas...he was a blast to work with when he redid my Drake bass too. We will certainly work together again...I hope!
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- club thunderbird
LOL - seems that all hobbies start that way but quickly escalate towards the other end of the financial spectrum.
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I like limba, basswood and poplar for painted bodies and mahogany for stained bodies. There's also a school of thought out there that swears certain neck woods pair well with certain body woods. Have you considered what your neck wood will be?
I went with limba on this bass build, which had a solid rosewood neck, sounds a plays wonderfully...
...sorry, forgot the obligatory Tort content warning.
The neck would be maple/ebony.
Sounds yummy.
My favorite maple/Ebony basses all have mahogany bodies but they are neck through. It's a match made in heaven.
My Alembic Essence sounds awesome but it's no light weight. Something to think about might be your overall weight target. With a maple/Ebony neck you might want to favor a body on the lighter weight side to keep the overall weight down, but don't lose sight of balance as well, you probably don't want a neck diver.
If the plan is to paint the body, and the neck is maple/Ebony I'd be looking for some light weight limba which IIRC is very similar to mahogany in the tonewood charts. It wouldn't be as light as most basswood but you should be able to find some lighter than most mahogany.
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Thanks!!
Person of the future
Person of the future?, or past?
Well she did say it was January 4th when most of us were still on January 3rd. So I’d say future.
Thanks, my Michigan bass brother! I was going to mention that yesterday but decided to give you your day without interference.
I’m not that thrilled with the idea of hitting the half-century mark but I suppose I have a year to get used to the idea.
Happy Birthday to me...
View attachment 2863088
... I want to stay young!
It's really not so bad, just turned 59 last month. Waiting to see if it catches up with me. Nah, I'm not waiting. And really don't care.
And that is why we study statistics (right @Dr_Feelgoood212 ?). The variation between individual samples of each group may be larger than the average difference between the two groups. Which means that although on average, there is a difference, there is a greater difference between individual samples.
From a practical point of view then (since you are buying one sample not the average) you must measure (play) one to know if it is the right one.
What colour matchbooks?
Caught up with you? It passed you while you were in the right-hand lane going 10 under the limit with your left turn signal on...
- Jul 1, 2005
- 4,291
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- CataldoBasses: Designer/Builder ThunderBuckerPickups:Consultant
Yep.
Basswood is similar in strength and density to selected old growth Honduras Mahogany used on vintage 60s TBirds, the lightweight, light color stuff.
They sound about the same to me, I prefer basswood for painted bodies where weight is a consideration.
Caught up with you? It passed you while you were in the right-hand lane going 10 under the limit with your left turn signal on...
I do drive like an old lady.
Short answer, yes.
And that is why we study statistics (right @Dr_Feelgoood212 ?). The variation between individual samples of each group may be larger than the average difference between the two groups. Which means that although on average, there is a difference, there is a greater difference between individual samples.
From a practical point of view then (since you are buying one sample not the average) you must measure (play) one to know if it is the right one.
What colour matchbooks?
Long answer,
Pretty much. But for a quantitative study, the sample would need to be at least 10 basses of each wood, with minimal variation as possible, like @JIO said about neck-thru vs bolt on, still applies, must be same shape, same hardware (not same model, but actually transfer the hardware, strings, pups, electronics over to each bass), same batch of wood (for each type of wood), etc. Then to rule out the individuality of the difference in the batch of wood, you'd have to test another batch of each wood.
Most importantly, you'd need to take quantitative measurements, more so that tone is highly subjective. Meaning you'd need to put each bass on some form of measuring device like an oscilloscope.
But doing all this is overkill and not very feasible, plus tone is subjective, this is why people they try out every bass/guitar in multiple stores, and then pick a specific bass/guitar at a specific store, they found the one that is just right.
EDIT: I missed the part where you said basically the same thing.
Colour of matchbook must match the colour of the bass, I thought that was common knowledge
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dieselman
Supporting Member
hillerup
There are basses, and there are Thunderbirds!
Speaking of mahogany...
This bad boy followed me home this monday:
Seems nice enough - Apart from some buckle rash on the back, it needs a bit of cleaning, new strings and a setup, but otherwise it looks and feels okay. Unfortunately wife didn't approve, and is still pissed off for buying it... Oh well.. :/
This bad boy followed me home this monday:
Seems nice enough - Apart from some buckle rash on the back, it needs a bit of cleaning, new strings and a setup, but otherwise it looks and feels okay. Unfortunately wife didn't approve, and is still pissed off for buying it... Oh well.. :/
hillerup
There are basses, and there are Thunderbirds!
I recently bought a Classic Pro in white to keep my Pro IV company and I have an observation regarding woods. The white one is significantly lighter than the sunburst Pro and far less resonant. Even my wife says they sound different. The Pro feels solid in my hands while the Classic feels, somehow cheaper. Let's face it, the wood used on painted stuff probably isn't of the same quality as what is used on more natural finishes.
I also had a pair of Precisions, one an AM STD in alder the other a VM PJ in basswood. Huge difference in resonance. YUUGE difference. Just my uneducated opinion.
