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Yes on this. I have an inexpensive bass that I got for an open mic host band gig. It has been a good one. I have been wanting to upgrade it but it has been too good. I don’t have the heart to sell it.
Pickups don't pick up body vibrations, unless they're piezo pickups. With piezo pickups you want the pickup to be coupled with the top as tightly as possible because if it's not, that means that you are losing not just "character", but likely also articulation and dynamics.
Before anyone mentions microphonics: Of course they exist and they have a potential effect on overall sound. But body vibrations are orders of magnitude less than magnetic field disturbance being picked up.
Wood has some impact on which frequencies the body absorbs the most. But the effect is fairly broad. With electric guitars and basses, the goal is basically to make a dull-sounding guitar body precisely so that it doesn't affect the sound. If the attenuation was significant and frequencies were selective, every note would sound different because harmonics of some notes would be attenuated and harmonics of other notes would not.
This is very interesting. The one I turned fretless does tend to sound somewhat over sensitive. It picks up everything (even a light tap on the headstock gets amplified!), sometimes I like it, sometimes it just feels like it's not a very clean sound. I've had an engineer say that it sounded distorted.
I have some new pickups I just got but haven't installed yet.
Here's what you can try: mute the strings. Put foam under them. Put enough of that foam to make the strings absolutely dead. Then tap the headstock.
If the tap gets amplified, that might mean that the pickups are not screwed in tight enough and they themselves are vibrating even when strings aren't. So the pickups vibrate against strings which are standing still, so there is a moving magnetic field.
But that would be an instrument fault, not an example of how wood transmits sound.
If that doesn't convince you, remove the strings altogether, or at least loosen them so they don't have any tension, and pull them away from above the pickups. If the headstock tap still gets amplified, your instrument is cursed or haunted. Or it has some ferromagnetic where there shouldn't be any, like underneath the pickups.
So you have never heard a hollow body electric bass?
There's this physical phenomena called resonance, it works both way.
Faulty logic.
Of course it makes a sound, but that doesn't mean that construction or wood doesn't matter,
Also here the body would be the table the bridge is attached to.
Also not a very practical setup to bring to a gig!
Basses are like finger prints. No two basses sound exactly the same.
Probably the first two factors making a bass sound thin or thick are...................
The strings.
The pickups.
An AlNiCo 5 pickup @ 6k ohms is going to sound thinner than one that is 11k ohms.
Most amps have Eq. Use it to beef up your sound.
Probably the first two factors making a bass sound thin or thick are...................
The strings.
The pickups.
An AlNiCo 5 pickup @ 6k ohms is going to sound thinner than one that is 11k ohms.
Most amps have Eq. Use it to beef up your sound.
Solid body instruments
If we take the pickups/electronics and the type of strings out of the equation we have to look at the physics of the whole construction.
The stiffness of the neck has a major impact on the energy conservation of the string vibration. The stiffer the neck the less energy will seep away through the construction and therefore more of the upper harmonics will be preserved and the longer the string will vibrate at it's fundamental frequency (sustain). The body has less of an effect in this deparment because of it's size and thickness.
If we take the pickups/electronics and the type of strings out of the equation we have to look at the physics of the whole construction.
The stiffness of the neck has a major impact on the energy conservation of the string vibration. The stiffer the neck the less energy will seep away through the construction and therefore more of the upper harmonics will be preserved and the longer the string will vibrate at it's fundamental frequency (sustain). The body has less of an effect in this deparment because of it's size and thickness.
fun fact, Hofner started in the 50's making solid tops and back for their hollowbody (not semi-hollow) instruments, but in the mid 60's they stopped using solid woods because, being electric, the characteristics of the woods won't be noticeable.
they've been doing acoustic instruments since the late 1800, and famous for acoustic and classical instruments.
having different Hofners, I can tell you that the differences from a solid body it's only related to the sustain, because an hollow body vibrates in a way that makes strings lose their vibration earlier.
that's why hollow body instruments have short sustain.
the "sound" in terms of frequencies it's not altered much by that construction.
a 500/1 made in Germany hollowbody sounds different from a 500/1 Contremporary Series, which is semi-hollow, but sounds almost identical to a chinese Ignition, which is hollow and with a thinner body.
a Precision and a Jazz bass share the same exact construction, same woods, necks and everything, but they sound totally different plugged in. when unplugged, they are the same instrument.
I like testing a bass out unplugged to make sure its all solidly together and no parts are rattling whether its expensive or cheap. I've fixed rattling pickups, tuners, bridge saddles and even had a loose nut and tuner bushing over the years. It helps "tighten" up my sound. I do love playing the Hoffy on the couch unplugged and have had to tighten the trapeze tailpiece a few times but no biggie, its all good. Jeff Melien, master builder and luthier once told me that pickups are the single largest part of the sound of a bass. Output, placement, adjustment helping to shape that sound. Wiring also has an effect and the wood further down the line.
You’re overthinking this. If you like your 2 basses, regardless of cost, then mod them. If they’re not great, then don’t spend the time and money making them a little more not-that-great.
I don't know, man; I might look for a Stingray that sounds amplified, and a Jazz what sounds like a Jazz, and a Lakland ...
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
I don't know, man; I might look for a Stingray that sounds amplified, and a Jazz what sounds like a Jazz, and a Lakland ...
Per your request.
This study is interesting and worth sharing. It was published in 2021 in the Archives of Acoustics by several researchers in Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Poland. It concludes that that different tonewoods in an electric guitar produces a measurable and audible difference in sound:
Abstract (excerpt):
"The presented study examined how the sound of a simplified electric guitar changes with the use of various wood species. Multiple sounds were recorded using a specially designed test setup and their analysis showed differences in both spectral envelope and the generated signal level."
Conclusion (excerpt):
"The tonewood used in the construction of an electric guitar can have an impact on the sound produced by the instrument. Changes are observed in both spectral envelope and the produced signal levels, and their magnitude exceeds just noticeable differences found in the literature. Most listeners, despite the lack of a professional listening environment, could distinguish between the recordings made with different woods regardless of the played pitch and the pickup used. The conducted test does not allow any conclusions regarding a more holistic outlook on a guitar’s timbre, as the observed relations are complex beyond the scope of the obtained results. Further tests regarding the guitar’s entire frequency response are required. It should also be noted that these tests were conducted based on a simplified guitar model, which might have overemphasized the researched phenomenon.”
The whole article is here: Jasinski et al. Archives of Acoustics 2021, vol. 46 no. 4, pp.
On the Audibility of Electric Guitar Tonewood | Archives of Acoustics
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With CNC machines modern production basses are better than ever these days. Sometimes the wood in each particular bass will vary but with very cheap basses it's electronics that hold them back more than anything. Get a set of fender, Seymour Duncan, MEC, sadowsky, Nordstrand, anything from a good company and you'll be light-years ahead of where you are now. I still have my first bass which is a cheap ass rogue bass that I put an American fender jazz and custom wound precision pickup in it. The sound went from cheap as hell to pretty nice considering it's an extremely cheap bass.
Or is it time we ask instead, which metal is best for wood?
