Gamble Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Right, I do believe that it makes a difference, I'm just not sure how much as I've never got to sit down with an array of identical basses made from different woods to compare them. So, I'm going to ask a shop to get me a bass in to try but I don't know which body wood to have them get in as I don't know what kind of difference it'll make. The choices are: 22mm Maple top, 0.5mm Walnut and 20mm Mahogany back - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2.asp[/url] 7mm Ebony top, 0.5 Walnut and 35 Mahogany back - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2e.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2e.asp[/url] 22mm Walnut top and Mahogany back (I assume that's 35mm too) - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2w.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2w.asp[/url] The Ebony top and Walnut topped ones have an "artificial ebony" (hmmmmm) fingerboard where the maple top has an Indian Rosewood board, so obviously that'll make a difference too, but the rest of the neck is the same on them all. What I'm asking you guys is, what kind of flavour would each of these body woods give the bass? Any real wood-o-philes on here care to enlighten me? Cheers guys! Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdragon Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 There's always Vibracell. not that i'm advocating this in any shape or form. its not for me. despite what they say wood is always going to be around, but what kind of wood i dont know. [url="http://www.switchmusic.com/vibracell_page/about_vibracell.html"]http://www.switchmusic.com/vibracell_page/..._vibracell.html[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I must admit, it takes a big difference for my poor abused ears to notice one wood from the next. For the more educated or younger ears on here, this may help - [url="http://www.warmoth.com/bass/options/options_bodywoods.cfm"]http://www.warmoth.com/bass/options/options_bodywoods.cfm[/url] Hamster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Generally, the denser the wood the greater the sustain and the heavier the guitar. Like my acrylic bass. Very dense material, heavy as a concrete block and you can pluck a note, go make a cup of tea, come back and it'll still be audible - slight exaggeration but you get the point. More subjective is the "warmth" or "brightness" of the sound. Softer wood = warmer tone, harder wood = brighter tone. Or something. Like I said - subjective. Actually, it's all pretty subjective, open to debate and I reserve the right to be right. Or wrong. I'll get my coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakenewmanbass Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Lots of really nice handmade basses seem to have Mahogany cores, Wal, Alembic, Smith etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I think an ash body seems to cut through a mix well - a la Warwick Corvette $$ or my nice 88 Stingray. Lots of low mid punch. Whaddya reckon guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 [quote name='neepheid' post='205339' date='May 24 2008, 12:24 AM']Generally, the denser the wood the greater the sustain and the heavier the guitar. Like my acrylic bass. Very dense material, heavy as a concrete block and you can pluck a note, go make a cup of tea, come back and it'll still be audible - slight exaggeration but you get the point. More subjective is the "warmth" or "brightness" of the sound. Softer wood = warmer tone, harder wood = brighter tone. Or something. Like I said - subjective. Actually, it's all pretty subjective, open to debate and I reserve the right to be right. Or wrong. I'll get my coat.[/quote] Cheers for that. Theres also real wood vs. ply. Everyone is gonna say ply is inferior, but whoever tried putting nice hardware on a ply body? I tried a ply Aria witha nice bridge and a Kent armstrong pickup, sounded fine. Course, I pretty much draw the line before ply when I'm frankensteining something up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 i like a holly wood one with a phoenix feather core Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XB26354 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Steady on Harry.... Well I definitely notice a difference with body woods - I had a Warwick Corvette with an ash body and it was much more open an growly than the same bass with a bubinga body. I would say that darker hardwoods compress the sound - it is deeper but has less dynamic variation. Lighter softwoods vibrate over a larger frequency range. For rock or metal where you need a cutting sound hardwoods work well. For a more open sound (eg for fretless or jazz) maybe softwoods are better. Two of the most detailed, alive sounding basses I have played had maple and swamp ash bodies. I also (briefly) owned a Ken Smith Black Tiger that was much richer and alive than an almost identical Elite G I owned with a mahogany core. I find mahogany to be warm but too muddy by itself for most basses (and I had 3 Wals as well!) My current favourite is straight alder (also with a maple top) - balanced, warm but classic (which is why Fenders sound great!). Then again, I played an Ibanez GWB35 today (basswood, made in Korea) and it has to be the best fretless I have played for donkeys years - wonderful neck, nice tone and a killer B for £450? Amazing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 I think body wood makes a huge difference. Even with different pick-ups and active electronics some bumps and gaps in the frequencies just can't be masked - and some shouldn't be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzz Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 [quote name='LukeFRC' post='205352' date='May 24 2008, 12:54 AM']i like a holly wood one with a phoenix feather core[/quote] It's bad I get that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashgeezer Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Even to my untrained ears, i would say you definately hear the difference in certain woods. I have a precision copy made from ply and it sounds ok but heavy as hell, i also have a mex precision thats alder and it sounds really nice with tons of sustain (rings forever ) another of my basses is a stingray copy thats also alder and sounds different again. so to sum it up i dont think i would care what wood my basses were made out of as long as they made the sound i want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blink Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 If you want to take this further I suggest that you talk to a guitar maker. When I was discussing having a bass built by Mike Walsh my requirement was for a bright cleen sounding general purpose bass. Mike's solution was 50% Mahogany for the brightness. 40% Swamp Ash to add some warmth with a 10% flame maple cap to add interest to the finish. The end result is fantastic and is excatly what I wanted. My previous bass was all swamp ash and has a warm but woolly tone. Choice of wood makes a big difference especially if you don't use effects and just plug in and play. N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 There is a guide to different woods on the status smart bass pages as well. Both my GB's are swamp ash cos I wanted as light as possible and they both sound completely different (and anything but wooly). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 The quality of the wood will make a huge difference and each piece will have its own sound properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamble Posted May 26, 2008 Author Share Posted May 26, 2008 (edited) That list of woods and properties on the Warmoth site is great, I should have though to look there before! The only thing is now, it tells me that mahogany (which is used for the back of all three basses I'm looking at) is quite "warm". Does that mean wooley, or just plenty of depth? Being as the model with the Ebony top only has a 7mm laminate on a 35mm Mahogany back, will it sound a bit dead, or is Ebony so bright that you only need a thin layer to brighten up a bass' sound? I'm not all that fussed about the Walnut top model, apparently Walnut's not as bright as Maple (although I don't know if it's enough difference to worry about) and I think it just looks a bit like furniture. Although, I do quite like it....... aaaaaarggghhhhh!!!!! Third (and looking most likely at the moment) option is the Maple top, but then that has a Rosewood fingerboard which Warmoth say is more "warm" than "bright". Is that likely to deaden the sound much? I think my Ibanez SR300 (only a cheapie, really) has a maple neck with a rosewood board and that's lovely and twangy. Also, I don't really like the idea of "Artificial Ebony", I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it but I'd rather have real wood. Anybody got any experience with the "Ebanol" fretboards that Tanglewood use(d ?)? It seems to me like Spear have made three options that might well sound very similar to each other, or am I missing something? Edited May 26, 2008 by Gamble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 Gamble; of your choices I'd go for the top one, as it seems in harmony with the neck. TBH it will be complete lottery ordering a wood laminate body, as it depends on the density of each individual PIECE of each wood if you want to get completely anal about it.... eg. one piece of Walnut could be less dense than a piece of Ash or Maple cut from different parts of a tree.. Generally the darker the wood the more dense, but this is open to variables..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 I think these guitars are through neck so the different woods could be stringers between the neck and body wings rather than laminates on the front of the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 BF, no there not. I've been on teh Speer webby. The 5 neck laminates are the same for all models. The fret boards differ and the laminates that make up the wings are the options, these are the options that the OP is asking `bout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 No worries. Not looked that closely and not likely to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamble Posted May 27, 2008 Author Share Posted May 27, 2008 [quote name='The Burpster' post='206668' date='May 26 2008, 05:18 PM']Gamble; of your choices I'd go for the top one, as it seems in harmony with the neck. TBH it will be complete lottery ordering a wood laminate body, as it depends on the density of each individual PIECE of each wood if you want to get completely anal about it.... eg. one piece of Walnut could be less dense than a piece of Ash or Maple cut from different parts of a tree.. Generally the darker the wood the more dense, but this is open to variables.....[/quote] Is that the top one in my original post (the Maple top)? That's the way I'm leaning at the moment anyways, just waiting for a reply on the price differences at the mo. Not sure I'm going to get one tho, being as I followed my original email up with one going "Ooh, and prices for some of their other basses too.....". I know what some shops get like if you seem indecisive, they just lose interest in you - I'm hoping that wont be the case here..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexclaber Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Body wood makes more difference on bolt-on/set-neck basses. On thru-neck basses it can be a good move to chamber the body wings to encourage resonance in the system. I would say though that if you have a good luthier who understands the importance of rigidity in the string support system (tuners/headstock/neck/fingerboard/frets,neck to bridge area, bridge) and resonance in all other areas (the tonal filtering of the body wood as the vibrations run from string witness points and back again) and executes these concepts effectively, then you will get a bass whose sound can be tweaked in almost exactly how you want with pickup and electronics choices. You can be totally anal like me and spend years researching and planning a bass (which thanks to Robbie @ RIM Custom turned out even better than I had hoped for) but it's neither necessary nor normal to do so! Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Thats one extreme of the wallet section.... Gamble - Yep the top Maple one! Looks a peach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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