Swamp ash is every bit as soft as basswood.
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Why basswood???
- Thread starter stringthrough
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Basswood has been common since the 80s.
Other wood species are becoming lower quality and scarcer, and more expensive.
Okoume and Butternut are good alternates.
Many of the good properties of Swamp ash.
Empress is Paulownia aka kiri and has been a traditional cabinetry wood in Japan for centuries.
I built a 5string jazz that weighs 7lbs and change, with a Paulownia body.
Basswood under black poly looks and feels the same as any other wood to me.
High up the list of the most amazing things I've ever read anywhere online.
Takes me maybe 15 minutes.
ROCK!
Right! I have dinged every headstock (maple, ovangkol, who knows) that dared to top my bass guitars and I continue to do so. I play. Being a mere mortal, I sometimes underestimate distances and hit, say, the ceiling while spaced out during a nice zoned out jam. So what?!
Look at yourself, come on, do it. Do you have any scars? How did you acquire them? By living, mostly. Life is infinitely more valuable than your bass yet you get injured sometimes. It's inevitable, part of the human tragi-comedy. You don't stay safe by hiding in a rubber room. I hope not.
I wish I'd acquired my scars from hitting a ceiling as a piece of inanimate wood rather than by being hit by a hail of bullets as a thankfully still-living human. I'll tell you, that was unfortunate. I didn't ask for that.
My Rx: Play bass. You won't have a good time if you obsess over cosmetics. Hope that your bass guitar rather than you gets beat up here and there. Worst case scenario, you can go online and replace that instrument.
I don't think having dings is a bad thing, and Yea you right it's no fun if you're obsessed with cosmetics. I don't care either.. maybe I'm just lucky since I play hard and not babying them. I'm far from that. My point is that having dings it's not about the wood type. Like you said, maple etc.. accidents can happen. If you ding a basswood you can ding maple too..
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Totally right, you are! Or at least we're of the same mind on this to-some earthshaking issue. Rock on.
Yea, that's why I don't think the thread makes no sense: He's wondering why basswood? He wants harder wood because if he plays hard he dings it and he don't like it.
1st. there are several kinds of woods to chose from, problem solved
2nd. If you play something made from softer wood and concerned about nicks then don't rock that hard or If you can't, just start getting use to the dings and try to live with it
Plus basswood's usually what the body's made of. My sweet old Ibanez had a maple neck. And you bet it got the tar beat out of it too. I played clubs, bars, opened for some rowdy national acts. I had a blast and so did my bass.
Use a pick, it cuts down on the paper cuts that's more prevalent with finger styleI've never gigged or jammed with paper, but I'll give it a try.
Why basswood? Perhaps so they don't have to deal with people who whine about its use.
Unfortunately, they didn't much consider that we would.
Unfortunately, they didn't much consider that we would.
Most timber is cheap.
The difference between an ash body and basswood is around $5 or $6.
Harder woods dull the cutting tools. Dull tools leads to more tear-out. Means more instruments that won´t pass QC. If you need to make LOTS of instruments cheaply, that´s the overriding factor.
Peace,
SoundSupport
