Dolando Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 Hello, I'm looking at building a warmoth Gecko 5 string fretless with a Wenge neck and an ebony fingerboard. Not sure what body wood to go for. I like the idea of mahogony, and I've heard some great fretless basses made from it, I just think it might weigh a lot by the end. Tone wise I'm after a nice solid fretless tone with nice pop and plenty of mwah that everyone is looking for in a fretless. I know a lot of the tone comes from the player, just want to have the right wood to help with achieving the right tone. Let me know your thoughts? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubis Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 Hi Dolando, I built a fretless from walnut, it's a *****ray style but with the construction in the style of a Wal....... a one piece black Walnut core, Cherry veneers then Claro Walnut facings front and rear. I read somewhere on the Wal site that walnut is their preferred wood for a fretless (they ought to know!) and my favourite alltime sound was the fretless custom I had in the 80's so I went for it. Walnut looks lush, it's not too heavy and accepts finish very well, especially gunstock oil ( I think most are made from walnut) which I see you have opted for on your other build, it's also nice to work...........although the dust tastes interesting! I used Maccassar Ebony (the stripey brown variety) for the fingerboard, and some have commented that there's not much contrast in colours, now this doesn't bother me but if you are using Wenge for a neck it could all get a bit too brown! If you take a look at some of the gorgeous basses on the ACG site he quite often uses Ash with Wenge which looks awesome and I should think that as far as the influence of tonewood is concerned will be as good as anything for getting your desired sound. Are you going to be using Warmoth parts or making it all yourself? Either way it sounds a great build, I'm part way through a build with a Wenge neck and top, it's a bugger to work on but very pretty and apparently very effective! Good luck and keep us all posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolando Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Thanks for the reply. I love in depth replies to posts. I'd not thought of walnut for a body. Any particular reason (tone wise) they use walnut for their fretless basses? I'm looking to finish this bass with tru oil like my other build. Well...assuming the other one goes well I suppose. My main worry with mahogany is the weight, but sould I just get and it and deal with it becaus its what I'm drawn to for some reason. I mean, i won't be doing 2 hour gigs with it any time soon. I was mainly looking at mahogany or alder as the last warmoth build is ash and I fancied something different, but I'm open to going with the same combination. I've got a Warwick corvette standard with swamp ash body, Wenge neck and Wenge fingerboard, and I love the sound of that, hence why my deluxe jazz has the same woods. I'll be using warmoth parts and getting hardware from various places. I will build a scratch build one day, I'm slowly building up the tools. And I've just moved to a new house with a garage which I plan to put in a workbench, can't wait for that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubis Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 I wonder if they could do you a chambered mahogany body? ..........I made a tele body from sapele (mahogany) with a maple top and copied their chambering slots from their website. I was just perusing their stock of Geko bodies and they have some nice ones in black Limba [url="http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/ShowcaseItem.aspx?Bass=1&Body=2&Shape=29&Path=Gecko&i=GB32"]http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/ShowcaseItem.aspx?Bass=1&Body=2&Shape=29&Path=Gecko&i=GB32[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolando Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Do you know what...I was literally looking at one of those! I was going to go for mahogany/alder/ash with a Koa top. Wish they had a few more in the gecko model to chose from, and the all Koa body is a little over budget! Ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolando Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Sorry the one I meant is Koa over mahogany, but already has a finish on that I'd like to do myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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