• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Will adding a maple laminate help my highs?

B

BarkerBass

Sep 14, 2007
679
22
37
York/Newcastle, England
#1
Hi guys, sorry for a simple and noobish question but I'm a simple and noobish builder.

I have built (or rebuilt I should say) a 4 string headless bass for myself. The body core is mahogany and it has wings made from Poplar, the neck is maple with quite a thick rosewood fingerboard. Te over all tone of the bass is very dark and somewhat dull. I experienced this problem with the bass before I rebuilt it, it had a much larger mahogany body and was a very deep and thick sounding bass but still managed to have plenty of growl however this version of it seems to lack that mid and high end aggression.

I was wondering if planing approximately 10mm of wood from the top of the body and laminating a piece of maple over the top (and of course reshaping the top to match it's current profiles) would significantly alter the tone of the bass?

I owned an ibanez btb 6 string which had maple front and back and a mahogany core and that thing had a lot of punch and a lot of growl and attack too, I'm hoping for a similar tone (I know pickups play a big part in this too)

Anyone got any input that could help me out?

Cheers and thanks for reading. BB
 
#3
BarkerBass said:
Hi guys, sorry for a simple and noobish question but I'm a simple and noobish builder.

I have built (or rebuilt I should say) a 4 string headless bass for myself. The body core is mahogany and it has wings made from Poplar, the neck is maple with quite a thick rosewood fingerboard. Te over all tone of the bass is very dark and somewhat dull. I experienced this problem with the bass before I rebuilt it, it had a much larger mahogany body and was a very deep and thick sounding bass but still managed to have plenty of growl however this version of it seems to lack that mid and high end aggression.

I was wondering if planing approximately 10mm of wood from the top of the body and laminating a piece of maple over the top (and of course reshaping the top to match it's current profiles) would significantly alter the tone of the bass?

I owned an ibanez btb 6 string which had maple front and back and a mahogany core and that thing had a lot of punch and a lot of growl and attack too, I'm hoping for a similar tone (I know pickups play a big part in this too)

Anyone got any input that could help me out?

Cheers and thanks for reading. BB
Click to expand...

If you want to change the tone... I would definitely address the pickups and electronics first before working on the wood.
 
#4
I have a pair of bartolini MMC musicman style humbuckers in it, they are shifted closer to the bridge than traditional musicman pickup placement, the outer coils are pretty much in 70's jazz pickup placement but neither pickup seems to offer much high end at all without maxing my amps eq.

they are run passive and have a pushpull pot for single coils mode which releases slightly more top end but only marginally.

The strings were new on this week and I'm in the precess of boiling them now to see if that helps, they're Dunlop nickel coated lights IIRC.

When this bass had a P bass pickup in I could coax some growl from it but the humbuckers seem to lack any aggression other than a thick punchy tone.
 
#5
Don't boil the strings...

My first guess is that there's something wrong with the wiring. Tone pot maybe?
Stainless Steel strings could help a bit. Fodera makes wonderful strings that ring like a piano.
I would change the Barts for some kind of Nordstrand or Delano...
 
#6
The wiring is fine, I've check it several times and like I said with the treble on the amp boosted the bass has some top end which the tone pot can work with but otherwise it's "flat" tone is very deep and punchy but with no noticeable top end.

I've been considering swapping pickups for a jazz style single coil or humbucker to see if this will bring some top end to the tone as those pickups are naturally more aggressive than humbuckers, any thoughts?

I can't shake the feeling that this bass could be amazing it just needs something to bring the top end out from the mud.
 
#8
"The body core is mahogany and it has wings made from Poplar, the neck is maple with quite a thick rosewood fingerboard"

Mahogany and rosewood are notorious for being warm and dark. That's why I like them for guitars.

But I'd start with your electronics first. Get some solid pickups and maybe a preamp. I've never been a fan of Bartolini pickups but a preamp of theirs I tried was impressive.
 
#11
dogofgod said:
no. wood makes very little difference overall.
Click to expand...


It's not so much about the wood that does or does not affect tone, it's the rigidity of the instrument in-between the anchor points of the strings.

Yes, maple is a stiffer wood and thus should contribute to brightness, however, the body is not the structural weak link. The weakest cross sectional area of an instrument is the neck (unless we are talking hollow bodies)

Now, if you replace the rosewood fretboard with maple and make sure you have graphite or steel stiffening rods in your neck, I would almost guarantee an improvement in tone.
 
#12
well I think a finger board replacement and adding in stiffening rods is far beyond my abilities for making and outside my budget too I'm afraid, oh well.

Looks like I'll be looking into new pickups, I have an EMG MM pickup in my parts box, I think I'll try that when I get some time.

I don't mind darker sounding basses but being a maple and alder jazz bass type of a guy in general this project has gone too far down the dark tones for my liking.

thanks for all the input, I won't be hacking the body up anytime soon :)

Keep the advice coming
 
#13
ehque said:
If you want to change the tone... I would definitely address the pickups and electronics first before working on the wood.
Click to expand...

Yes.

dogofgod said:
no. wood makes very little difference overall.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Robotsatemygma said:
Mahogany and rosewood are notorious for being warm and dark. That's why I like them for guitars....
Click to expand...

...noooooo :eyebrow:

Robotsatemygma said:
...But I'd start with your electronics first. Get some solid pickups and maybe a preamp. I've never been a fan of Bartolini pickups but a preamp of theirs I tried was impressive.
Click to expand...

Yes! :D

dvh said:
Adding 10 mm of maple would make no appreciable difference.
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
#15
Drop in an Aguilar OBP-1 (bass/treble boost-only preamp, and as mentioned above, different pickups. I'd recommend the Nordstrand MM style pickups. Their response is fat, round and smooth and that preamplifier has a very useful treble frequency that is slightly lower than most others. Seems more "musical" to me, and is well-suited to the Mm pickups. The combination of those two things should do wonders for your tone.
 
#16
Thanks for all the advice guys, I have considered an OB preamp and will probably go down that route in the future, when I made the bass I wanted it to be completely passive, no fuxssplug and play kinda bass and so it has a minuscule control cavity to fit just 2 pots (blend and tone, no volume) but it wouldn't be hard for me to extend this into a full size cavity and to install one of the eqs I have lying around or to scrimp and save and buy a decent one.

As for pickup options does anyone know which MM replacement pickup has the most high end response and midrange attack, the woods in this bass already create a very smooth tone and so I think a pickup with a more aggressive edge will compliment this better than a smooth one.

I better get looking at my diary for free time to enlarge this control cavity and start looking into better, or more appropriate electronics.

Cheers again.

P.s Miziomix your UJ threads are a slight inspiration for this build, shame I have none of your building prowess :crying:
 
#19
MMC are the "Deep tone" Barts. If the bass is acoustically a bit dark the pickups won't help. You should definitely put on brighter pickup IMHO. In the Barts family the CB series isn't bad. Look at Bestbassgear for the Barts line, there are a couple of pretty bright models with that shape.
 
#20
haha the Über 3rd person message confused me for a second but now I understand.

My Bass built has so far run up a budget of approximately £12... £6 on poplar blanks and the other £6 on satin varnish (which turned out to be rubbish)... so understandably it's far less of a bass than the Über by a mile.

Photo are being uploaded now will post them asap
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back