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Wood question

#21
I briefly owned a very early custom Fodera with a solid rosewood body. It was a long time ago and I was very young and ignorant, but I wouldn't do that again. It had been made for my teacher, who sold it to me for the other student he had sold it to. It was too heavy for him to take on gigs, and it was so dense sounding that it was not practical in the mix of any band either. The preamp was total overkill, because the bass would sustain forever in passive mode.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll add to the chorus recommending stained walnut.
 
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#22
Rickenbacker has been making solid body basses out of hard maple for as long as Fender has made them from ash and Gibson from mahogany and they are far from lifeless and without character.
There are plenty of hardwoods that are suitable for solid body electrics that aren't too heavy.
Personally, I think alder is too soft and I don't like the grain patterns of most mahogany and ash for a full body.
So, those aren't the money woods for me. Hopefully none of the basses I build end up lifeless.
 
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#23
A9X said:
I knew about the guitars, but I saw something recently that the 'rosewood' basses were some other wood and stained rosewood coloured.

I couldn't do that. As soon as I mentioned butternut I'd cop no end of grief over it.
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Butternut is white walnut i believe. But there is also a blight killing off a lot of them. I don't think it looks anything like rosewood though.
 
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#24
Beej said:
Roasted walnut has a lot of the depth and chatoyance of rosewood, and is just as dark or darker. It might be easier to get a hold of for your luthier.

I don't mean this to sound critical, but rosewood in those sizes is definitely available, so I'm not sure what kinds of problems your luthier is running into. Custom boat building suppliers often have 4/4 wide boards in stock. It's controlled via CITES but not impossible to locate, at least in north america, perhaps it's more tightly controlled in europe? That said, I'd also think about it carefully for all the reasons @dwizum mentioned. It would make a heavy solid body.

Edit: it's also very expensive in those sizes, I just looked it up and my local boat supplier charges $65/bdft for 4/4 rosewood shorts. I pay $5.50 bdft for walnut and $8 bdft for roasted walnut.
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Off topic here, but does your walnut supplier ship to Quebec? Here it's around 15$ per bf...
 
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#25
James Collins said:
Butternut is white walnut i believe. But there is also a blight killing off a lot of them. I don't think it looks anything like rosewood though.
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yup that’s the stuff, but I recommended tempered/roasted butternut which in turn looks similar to regular walnut, just with lighter weight. Again I have a stash of it but I haven’t used it yet.
 
#26
On Reverb I've seen these all-Rosewood SCPB's by a builder called Cohnway:

Cohnway All Rosewood Tele Bass / Fender Hard Case https://reverb.com/item/27413138-co...are&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=27413138

I think the Rosewood looks spectacular, but I have no personal experience and don't know what the weight or sound is like. At that price point, looking is all I'm gonna be doing.

Edit: note that the body is a glue-up of two thinner pieces of wood. That's a way around the OP's problem of not being able to source a thick enough board.
 
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#27
walnut with a maple fretboard

DSCF1197.JPG
 
#30
Why not use a tonewood like mahogany, alder, ash, or basswood and use a veneer. Les Pauls have been built out of mahogany with a maple cap for decades and they have a great tone. Also bubinga can look very much like rosewood. Since rosewood imports were banned in the US, I went with bubinga for a 12-string I had built. Tonally it sounds very much like rosewood.
 
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#31
Without climbing into the whole "tone wood" rabbit hole, (After all the range of wood species used successfully in acoustic and solid body instruments has grown substantially over the years compared to the old tried and true types, that made up a limited available range.) there are plenty of choices beyond Ash, Alder and Mahogany, without going into super heavy types. Though Ash that hasn't grown in the southern swamp areas, certainly isn't light weight wood, though it's the same species.

Mahogany averages out at around 37lb per cubic foot, Black Walnut averages 38lb, English Walnut 40lb. Koa and Tasmanian Blackwood, (very closely related) average 40lb and have been used successfully by numerous builders.

Sure, Pau Ferro 54lb, Cocobolo 69lb, Bocote 53lb, Wenge 54lb and Rosewood 52lb among others, are getting a bit weighty for solid bodies, but I don't think anyone would call them dull or lifeless.

I prefer lighter woods for solid bodies, as long as they have a good "tap tone" and are structurally suitable for the job ( Will hold screws, not prone to warping twisting, spliting etc.) and am happy to get any wood that fits the bill and comes in under the high 30's to 40lb mark. Though I've used a lot of Mahogany and Tasmanian Blackwood (and I'd use more Walnut if it was readily available down here in Australia) over the years and they are both favorites as long as it's quality stuff. No wood is of much use regardless of name or price, if it's sub standard for the species.
 
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#34
RichterScale said:
Rickenbacker has been making solid body basses out of hard maple for as long as Fender has made them from ash and Gibson from mahogany and they are far from lifeless and without character.
There are plenty of hardwoods that are suitable for solid body electrics that aren't too heavy.
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One note about Rics: Yes, they use wood that's more dense, but....they make the bodies of their instruments thinner than Fenderish (meaning most everyone else) designs. Use the same wood with a J or P bass geometry, and it'll be a bunch heavier than a Ric.
 
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#36
The all-maple Rics are noticeably (but not hugely, maybe 1/2 lb) heavier than the walnut models. Nothing remotely dead and lifeless about either version, more like “piano bass” sustain, but in both cases I think that has more to do with laminated all maple through neck than what the body wings are made of. A rosewood laminated top, maybe with some chambering, seems like the obvious solution. The next trick would be actually finding rosewood veneer in thick enough stock to be able to carve it….
 
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#39
Large thick rosewood boards are out there, you just have to be willing to pay $50 -75 a board foot. Which is a lot more than the $2-3/bf I pay for typical body choices in green rough form, or maybe $10-15/bf for a prepared body blank in a typical wood choice. I've bought several small 8/4 indian rosewood boards to make wood pickup covers from, it's eye wateringly expensive but you can get a lot of pickup covers out of 2 or 3 board feet.

I'm in a bunch of guitar building facebook groups that include worldwide populations. There are a couple guys in tropical regions who are just absolutely pumping out solid rosewood bodies, so there's definitely a market for it, even if it is pretty niche. I can understand how a body factory or luthier in a location with less direct access would say no though, since it's legitimately a bad idea (weight, cost, etc) unless someone simply reaallly, reaallllllly really reallllyyyy wants a real rosewood solid body "just because."
 
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#40
arbiterusa said:
Fender made a few rosewood Teles back in the day, Harrison used his for the famous "rooftop" concert. I've played one. They are ungodly heavy and I would never, ever want a rosewood bodied bass.
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I just saw something about this tele... the body was two pieces with a very thin piece of maple sandwiched in the middle of the body.
They just did a re-isue, and now the body is chambered to help with the weight.
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I'm kind of with the group that says go with a rosewood veneer... if you are doing a true custom build, then you could make it a little thicker for tone.
Or, go with a more standard wood, and try to achieve your look with the finish.

I also think that solid rosewood body and rosewood neck might be too much of a good thing. The bass would be very heavy and maybe the tone might be too dark. Rosewood (IME) adds a big punch in the lower mids and a nice high end roll off - based on my experience with acoustic guitars that have rosewood backs and sides, as well as my experience with a bass that has a solid rosewood neck.

Rosewood can have a lot of variation in look - that piece your builder has is very nice looking. It would make a great top.

I played a bass once with a solid wenge neck, and it was very cool. Has a similar rosewood look, felt great to play, and sounded great... but the grain is much more open. Not sure about it as a body wood.
Walnut is a great looking wood as well. I once considered building a jazz bass with a walnut body.
 
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