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Where the sound come from?

#81
rudy4444 said:
"Where does "The Sound" come from?"

There's really only one correct answer...

Ampeg SVT.
Click to expand...
No, it's the excitation of surrounding air molecules, creating pressure waves at multiple frequencies. These are sensed by the tympanic membrane, transferring the energy to the fluid in the Cochlea, where the cyllia transmit this to nerve signals to the brain.

Silly rabbit

Sound is not real, it's processed vibrations in your brain.

It's all imaginary.
 
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#82
I've always been of the opinion that I'm initially attracted to an instrument because of the way it looks, and once I pick it up I decide whether I like the way it sounds and plays. If it sounds good and feels good, it is good. I don't much care what an instrument is made of as long as it feels solid and durable, looks good in my eyes, plays nice, and sounds good. I have at least 2 basses that I don't know what the body wood is, and I don't care because they rule.
 
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#83
chriscarcinogen said:
I have heard the main reason Leo Fender started to use rosewood fingerboards is because he saw a worn maple fingerboard on TV and hated the way it looked...
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This sounds way more realistic and likely than- he was experimenting to find a particular tone.
I'm pretty sure he used Ash or alder or whatever first and foremost because it was abundant and available in that time and place.
 
#88
/\/\3phist0 said:
Silly rabbit

Sound is not real, it's processed vibrations in your brain.

It's all imaginary.
Click to expand...
That said...
Just as the light receptors within the retina transmit messages to the brain, which produces the familiar sensations we perceive and process as colors... or not... (color blind).
Is it possible to be sonically blind?... to the subtle yet influential nuances.... of a particular....
...
..Tonewood? :jawdrop::p
 
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#89
For me, I'd agree with two things:

The pickups and electronics, first and foremost.

The player.

The 'tune the tone by the wood' debate will go on and on, but I'd observe three things:

Wood can vary quite a bit, depending on how old, where it came from, how it was milled, did it age/come to the desired moisture content before milling to bass parts for assembly, etc. From log to log, from board to board, from neck to neck, and on and on. And SO very much of this depends on your ears.

I'll admit if you built a neckthru Warwick Thumb in their usual all-African wood recipe, then duplicate it with alder and poplar, both built by the same guy with identical electronics, sure 'nuff, you'd hear difference. But once you start mixing and matching woods (particularly in designer basses with complex wood recipes/laminations), all bets are off. You'd see this with the typical Fender vs. their forays into all-rosewood or walnut axes. On the other hand, though, I've got to admit there certainly is something to it: Fenders are that tone because of alder, ash, and maple, and a Les Paul tone is the maple cap on a mahogany body.

After these years, I think the LESS a body absorbs, the better. In my experience, a workable five-string needs as stiff and hard a neck as is practical to coax out bell-clear low C's and D's, and for clarity up the neck as well. A hard body helps this as well.

My two cents.
 
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#91
I own a bass made of clear lucite with 2 cheap-ass jazz pickups. I have yet to hear anyone suggest that I sound "cold" or "plastic" with it. Groove is in the heart:
giphy.gif
 
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