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Wood Matters Club!!!

#44
There shouldn't even need to be a club, everybody should KNOW that MATERIALS MATTER. It just astounds me that some people on here seem to think that woodtype makes no difference whatsoever. We need to commission a pair of identical instruments for the doubters, one made COMPLETELY from Ebony, and one made completely from Basswood or something.

Yeah, they'll both sound "identical", and if they don't it must be the strings / pickup height / insert Occums Razor noncompliant theory here.
 
#45
these two basses have the same tuners, pickup, pots, preamp, bridge, pickup location, strings, etc., but have different body woods (swamp ash and alder) and different neck woods (one-piece maple vs maple/rosewood), and they DO NOT sound the same.
and since i personally built both of them, the have the same quality of construction too.

2-jazzmasterbasses-01.jpg
 
#46
johnk_10 said:
these two basses have the same tuners, pickup, pots, preamp, bridge, pickup location, strings, etc., but have different body woods (swamp ash and alder) and different neck woods (one-piece maple vs maple/rosewood), and they DO NOT sound the same.
and since i personally built both of them, the have the same quality of construction too.

2-jazzmasterbasses-01.jpg
Click to expand...

But there's no scientific proof that wood makes a difference, so you're wrong.
(Sorry, I was just impersonating someone who, for some reason, hasn't shown up yet.) :D
Of course wood matters, and I, too, know that it does, from personal experience.
Number, please!
 
#53
My most edifying experience with wood/construction differences was the overall tone difference of a mahogany body with a maple set-neck compared to an ash/maple bolt-on that both had the same pickups in the same place and similar passive electronics. I ended up selling the mahogany instrument because it was just not bright enough for my palette. Convinced me...
 
#54
I love how "proof" that wood type doesn't make a difference is always based on listening to mp3 files over the internet. Surely recording and compression losses wouldn't have any effect on the tone now would they? To do this correctly you would need several basses of each type of wood, and several players who didn't know what kind of wood each bass had. Collective experience and tally the votes.

Trees are complex organisms, and the wood inside varies wildly from one species to the next. If you think a eucalyptus neck can stand up to a B string as well as wenge.... ok then.
 
#55
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
Please do NOT include me in this club. :cool:

For those who haven't seen it, here's a thread I posted with Ash vs. Alder soundclips:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=738084

Only 14% of people were able to guess correctly. And the funny thing is, on the 2nd set of clips I used the EXACT SAME BASS, and most people claimed to hear a difference.

:hiding:
Click to expand...

Sorry man, I checked out that thread, and there are too many variables to call it a definitive test. First and foremost YOU stated in your OP that you yourself DID think that wood has an effect, but in your opinion, not a large one. That was the first clue that you had a bias towards what you were doing. Now you are in here stating that wood doesn't have an effect on tone. Strange. One test by one person comparing 2 basses in what you claim were the exact same specs with the exception of the wood (and only 2 wood choices at that) is hardly evidence of anything. The test you produced could have had a lot of things affecting tone...just like any bass. For example, one particular type of active pre-amp may have such an over riding effect on the overall tone that it negates the effect create by some other factor (such as the wood). But change that pre-amp to something passive, for example, and suddenly some other seemingly "insignificant" factor (such as the body wood) may now become a bigger part of the overall tone. Body wood, neck wood, fingerboard wood, strings, pickups, pickup placement, bridge, electronics, shape, etc...ALL affect tone. Any of those variables may have a significant effect on the overall tone or a negligible effect for each individual instrument. What it comes down to is the individual instrument you are playing, and how it sounds to the person playing it. I have personally played 2 identical basses electronically, one body made of mahogany and the other of walnut, both with graphite necks, and the tonal characteristics of each were significantly different. Could that tone have been shaped even more so by some other factor, such as the head or speakers it was playing through, or perhaps an effects pedal, that it would negate the difference in tone the woods created? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that the wood affected the tone. The "test" you set up also depended on so many other variables, such as the end listener's ears, speaker set up, and attitudes, not to mention your playing, and the lack of a controlled environment and multiple independently reproduced results, as to make it in no way definitive or reliable evidence of anything.
This is the result of what you did: it was a poll based on very limited data (4 song clips) that got a certain result from a limited number of unknown listeners, on unknown sound set-ups, by an unknown person with unknown control factors, from which you already had an admitted preconceived notion about. This highly dubious and unscientific "experiment" helped you further entrench an opinion you already had. The activity was a nice try, but needs a LOT more control to draw anything other than a personal opinion on.
 
#57
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
Please do NOT include me in this club. :cool:

For those who haven't seen it, here's a thread I posted with Ash vs. Alder soundclips:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=738084

Only 14% of people were able to guess correctly. And the funny thing is, on the 2nd set of clips I used the EXACT SAME BASS, and most people claimed to hear a difference.

:hiding:
Click to expand...

Knuclehead. Stay in ur own thread... or you WILL get a number!!!! :spit:
 

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