Weight VS sound

[red_rhino]

Is there a relationship between weight and punch?

None whatsoever.

 

[40Hz]

The greater the string excursion over the pickup, the more the perceived punch (i.e. initial attack speed and amplitude) you should get since that’s what most translates to the punchy sound you hear.

Want more punch? Try a light set of flats.

 

[brianrost]

Could a modern and lightweight bass sound like a vintage Bass with the right electronics? In terms of low end punch, sustain and growl

Yes. Peavey Palaediums are ridiculously light and as punchy and growly as you could want. Passive electronics let you dial in old school tones easily. Actually my two vintage Precisions (one very lightweight ash, one alder) are much lighter in weight than modern Fenders.

As far as sustain, in my experience graphite necked Steinbergers are the champions. You'd almost think there was a compressor built in the way they keep ringing.

Is there a relationship between weight and punch?

I've played boat anchor ash bodied basses that sounded as dead as a doorknob, others that were very lively. Same with lightweight basses. So my personal opinion is: zero correlation.

 

[Newbilong]

Weight is related to the low end. A very light instrument, imagine a sheet of paper with strings, would just be fluttering back an forth, absorbing energy from the strings. The higher the frequencies, the less they would be absorbed so the overall sound would be tinny, the low end being sucked into feeding the fluttering. Make the sheet of paper thicker, turn it to cardboard or to solid wood and more of that low end would remain in the strings. The heavier the body, the less it would vibrate and the sound would remain fuller. At some point, the difference would no longer be noticeable and more weight would no longer matter. Most basses are built beyond that point.

The same principle applies to amplifiers. I suppose this is why bass amplifiers are built heavier than those for guitar.

Speaker cabinets need to be stiff, not heavy. Unfortunately to make the panels stiff it usually means adding weight in the form of bracing . One of the most amazing speaker cabinets made was a horn 16 feet long with a mouth opening 11 feet by 11 feet. It was made of concrete. Perfect for a bar gig!

Yes, stiffness is a big factor in how a bass sounds, not just mass. Stiffness relates to how energy is transferred and how quickly it is dissipated.

Mass is important too, because mass has energy absorbing properties.

Weight might be almost irrelevant as a factor, except that it is important for player comfort and is good shorthand for overall mass.

Think of a tonearm on a turntable - two of the things that really matter for transfer of energy are how stiff it is and how low its mass is. you can tell very little about a tonearm by weighing it.

 

[MVE]

"Better" doesn't mean anything.

It does to me.

 

[mongo2]

I recently tried two basses at home and weighed them both. I was surprised to find they weighed and balanced exactly the same but one sounded much better so that's the one I kept.

 

[Engle]

Weight is related to the low end. A very light instrument, imagine a sheet of paper with strings, would just be fluttering back an forth, absorbing energy from the strings. The higher the frequencies, the less they would be absorbed so the overall sound would be tinny, the low end being sucked into feeding the fluttering. Make the sheet of paper thicker, turn it to cardboard or to solid wood and more of that low end would remain in the strings. The heavier the body, the less it would vibrate and the sound would remain fuller. At some point, the difference would no longer be noticeable and more weight would no longer matter. Most basses are built beyond that point.

The same principle applies to amplifiers. I suppose this is why bass amplifiers are built heavier than those for guitar.

I get your theory, but I don’t think the body weight makes a significant difference to the low end.
I’ve got a J with a paulownia body. It’s not tinny at all and is actually my favourite reggae bass.
Have you ever played a 60’s EBO? That’s a very light bass and it’s got plenty of low end.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Is there a relationship between weight and punch?
Could a modern and lightweight bass sound like a vintage Bass with the right electronics? In terms of low end punch, sustain and growl
Thank you!
PD. Don't know where to post right.

Heavy basses tend to sound more compressed to my ears. It’s actually kind of funny because I tend to not use a compressor with basses that are over 10 pounds but normally do for all basses under 10 pounds. 8-9 lbs seems to be the sweet spot imo for your typical ash or alder body with maple neck basses.

 

[MVE]

This is not directed specifically at MVE. His quote just seemed appropriate for this! The one thing they don't tell you on the Gittler webpage is how much they weigh. They're made out of titanium, so they may be heavier than they look. Personally, I'm with the mass equals sustain crowd and I like a good looking, well finished chunk of wood.

It looks like in the video he is just using it as a midi controller; tge 1/4” isn’t plugged in.

 

[Magthegrate]

Usingg the same scientific proof that all major internet sites use, the sound of a bass (not factoring in amplifier) is made up of the following:

83.34% - Style of playing (where and how you play)
8.21% - Strings
7.98% - Pickups
0.23% - Body and neck woods
0.09% - Fingerboard wood
0.15% - Magic

I'm actually a little disappointed that your numbers added up to 100%.

 

[Destroyer661]

Tone has much less to do with weight/mass of the bass and more to do with how many carrots you can fit into your gig bag or hard case. Full size ones for more low end and baby carrots for more punch. YMMV

 

[Tigerpig]

Heavy, high-mass materials don't seem to make for open, full sounds in my experience, and that goes for body, bridge, strings, picks (yes, picks)...

 

[jmon]

I played a Warwick Corvette 5 back in the day that was a tank. Made of Bubinga. Sounded great. But it wasn’t any punchier than my 8.5 lbs PBass.

You can change the tone by just playing it differently. Hand position, touch, attack. Unless the gear and/or instrument is vastly substandard, 85% (maybe more) of tone is the player. Sorry gear heads (and I’m one myself), stop buying new stuff and practice more.

Let me find my asbestos jump suit real quick.

 

[pappabass]

Usingg the same scientific proof that all major internet sites use, the sound of a bass (not factoring in amplifier) is made up of the following:

83.34% - Style of playing (where and how you play)
8.21% - Strings
7.98% - Pickups
0.23% - Body and neck woods
0.09% - Fingerboard wood
0.15% - Magic

0.23% wood?? Man you better delete that one! They will come out of the closet over that !!

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I think I hear a difference in the lower part of the spectrum as this guitar is being cut down. It is subtle and requires good headphones:

Disagree. Just playing this on my iPad, there is a distinct difference. When you run this through an amplifier, that difference will exponentially expand.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I played a Warwick Corvette 5 back in the day that was a tank. Made of Bubinga. Sounded great. But it wasn’t any punchier than my 8.5 lbs PBass.

You can change the tone by just playing it differently. Hand position, touch, attack. Unless the gear and/or instrument is vastly substandard, 85% (maybe more) of tone is the player. Sorry gear heads (and I’m one myself), stop buying new stuff and practice more.

Let me find my asbestos jump suit real quick.

LOL. yeah, I’ve been getting flamed a lot lately as well.

I have exact same bass. Punch comes from your amp EQ setting.

To your point, it’s not so much the bass, it’s the EQ.

 

[JIO]

Here is a demo of a lightweight bass:

Big + for lightweight basses - with the high quality of amps now any low-end bass responce shortfall (as was pointed out in his assessment) can easily be compensated resulting in great tone comparable or better than any heavy (weight) bass out there vintage or new. Like many past myths about what delivers great tone - a quality bass like the 6lb/6oz Sanderg puts them to rest.

 

[HolmeBass]

Speaker cabinets need to be stiff, not heavy. Unfortunately to make the panels stiff it usually means adding weight in the form of bracing . One of the most amazing speaker cabinets made was a horn 16 feet long with a mouth opening 11 feet by 11 feet. It was made of concrete. Perfect for a bar gig!

Stiffness, thank you. I think it is the same for the bass absorbing acoustic energy from vibrating strings: stiffness is the factor, not mass.

 

[Turbo Sparky]

IMO Fretboard material, fret material, pups, pup configuration(s), bridge material, and pre-amp or lack thereof is/are the differences.
IMO wood/weight/density only matter in all acoustic instruments.
Except with EBMM Stingrays; they are all nearly perfect!

 

[lz4005]

Stiffness, thank you. I think it is the same for the bass absorbing acoustic energy from vibrating strings: stiffness is the factor, not mass.

Exactly.

You could have a bass made entirely of lead, for example. It would have an incredible amount of weight and density but terrible sustain because it lacks stiffness. In fact it probably would bend in half from string tension.

Compare that to a bass carved from a piece of titanium. Low weight and mass, very high stiffness. Lots of sustain because it will reflect vibration rather than absorb it. You could jump up and down on it without bending it.

Weight only matters in terms of ergonomics. Stiffness of the whole instrument gives sustain. That's the design principle behind modern single cut basses. A shorter lever free of the body is less bendy than a longer lever of the same material.

Of course the hardness and mass of the pieces of metal the string is stopped against matter too.

Stiffness was one of the reasons carbon fiber necks and instruments exist. Besides the increased cost, though, they haven't replaced wood because they end up too stiff and people think they sound "sterile".