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Herts Bass Bash 2015 - Maple v Rosewood Blind Test - Results Now In


Lozz196
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Lat years blind Precision test turned out to be a fairly good part of the day (says he who conducted it, rather vainly) so this year we`re doing something along the same lines, namely, on Sunday 14th June 2015:

We`re going to try pairs of basses, one with maple fretboard, one with rosewood, and get people to vote for which they prefer. The test will again be done blind, but to keep things as near as possible, we will do a pair of Precisions, a pair of Jazzes, and then a pair of whatever else we can get (and another as well, if possible). For those who are intending on coming along, please put down what basses you are bringing, and PM both myself and The Greek to let us know if you are happy for your bass to take part.

The reason I ask is, again, to make sure things are equal, we`ll be putting new strings on, courtesy of D`Addario who have very kindly donated some strings for the event, and who will be attending to do a presentation on their products.

So you get a new set of strings, even if only for the test, and we get to find out the general concensus on the age old question, maple or rosewood.

I should add that as we are only looking for one pair of each type of bass, it`s first come first served as we can do a maximum of 8 basses. Precisons are already sorted, so I`m looking for Jazzes, then we`ll look at what everyone else is bringing. PJ basses would be great if the same model as want to keep this as accurate/equal as possible.

Link to the actual bash-thread:
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/257753-herts-bash-2015-sunday-14th-june-12-to-5pm/"]http://basschat.co.u...june-12-to-5pm/[/url]

Edited by Lozz196
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Your modesty is holding you back - nothing but positive feedback from last years P Bass test...D'Addario are happy that those involved in the test can keep the strings, after all what would they do with "secondhand" strings?

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[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1431369354' post='2770620']
Great, so the basses we have so far are:

Maple Precision/Lozz196
Rosewood Precision/Seashell
Rosewood EBMM Stingray/Jazzneck
[/quote]


Lozz, I could bring a G&L along again but only if you promise not to forget it and leave it languishing in its case :lol:
(I'm not bitter really)

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[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1431371029' post='2770657']
Bassface2k10 has a maple board MM Ray so there's another pair...
[/quote]
[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1431369354' post='2770620']
Great, so the basses we have so far are:

Maple Precision/Lozz196
Rosewood Precision/Seashell
Rosewood EBMM Stingray/Jazzneck
Maple EBMM Stingray/Bassface2k10
[/quote]

It`s growing. Gary, if another G&L turns up we will def not leave them in their cases, the G&Ls will rise :D

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[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1431374008' post='2770713']
Fixed it for you, Lozz. ;)
[/quote]

Yeah, should have read it properly, doh. I`m so predisposed to putting the EB before the MM, it just flows across the keyboard without thinking.

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Not wanting to p*ss on the bonfire but wouldn't the different pickups and preamps on each bass make more of a difference? The basses would all need to be the same model with the same pickups but with rosewood or maple necks to be an accurate test.

Edited by Bassman Sam
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Remember that D'Addario are providing 4 pairs of strings - [size=6][b]FREE[/b][/size] - for the basses we use in the test but we still need two more pairs of basses.

We already have a couple of[b] Rays [/b]courtesy of Jazzneck and Bassface2k10
[b]Precisions[/b] courtesy of Lozz and SeaShell

Ideally we'd like a pair of [b]Jazzes[/b] and another pair, possibly [b]Warwick[/b] or [b]Yamaha[/b]??

If you're able to help out post here and get in contact with either Lozz or myself..

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[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1431710031' post='2774250']


(...) Ideally we'd like a pair of [b]Jazzes[/b] (...)
[/quote]

The Marcus Miller jazz I'm bringing is ash body, maple fretboard and it DOES have a passive option with tone control.

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We're still looking for a pair of Jazzes (or a RW boarded one to match Such's) and one other pair. No Yamaha owners coming?? Do they make Warwicks with maple boards?

[b]Nobody want a FREE set of D'Addario's for lending us a bass for half an hour??[/b]

Edited by TheGreek
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back when Warwick's line-up was less confusing (all basses were made in Markneukirchen and all were fully customisable), maple fretboard was a popular option, one of the cheapest ones too. I've played a couple, they do exist. Kind of rare though, I imagine.

As for Yamahas, I've got a couple, but both rosewood (BB415 and BB350 fretless). I don't think there is a model that comes with a choice of fingerboard wood, the only one that springs to mind is an entry level mid-90s Attitude Special (or Plus?); essentionally a P-bass clone with either maple or rosewood depending on the paintjob. But they are rare too, more so to find a pair.
Then again, current top-of-range BB2024 apparently has maple as an option and I recall someone on BC having one like that; and quite a few users owning the standard rosewood ones.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, the results. In the end, as it was being videod I decided to not do this hidden behind a curtain, as that would have looked pretty daft. So I simply presented a pair of basses, played them both, then asked which one people preferred, the one with maple fretboard, or rosewood fretboard.

The basses were a pair of Precisions, a pair of Jazzes, and a pair of Stingrays. For the the Jazzes I selected both pickups on full, and for the Stingrays, all eqs centered. I should also point out that each bass had a brand new set of strings on it, provided for the day by Andrew from D`Addario - many thanks for this, and your own presentation Andrew. The Precisions got Chome flatwounds, the Jazzes got nickel rounds and the Stingrays got steel rounds. The results were quite surprising:

Precisions - Maple 2, Rosewood 15, undecided 1
Jazzes - Maple 7, Rosewood 20, indecided 2
Stingrays - Maple 10, Rosewood 16, undecided 1

So maple was a poor loser to rosewood today. Now I know many say that fretboard material has no bearing on the sound, but to me, in all cases, the maple was brigher, and seemd to coax more gain from the sound, making it less clear/defined, whereas the rosewood sounded more balanced throughout and somewhat clearer. I don`t know if they were the thoughts of those listening/watching, but for the votes to be overwhelmingly in favour of one type has to say something.

Just my luck to have bought two maple fretboard basses last week eh?

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You heard it here first - scientifically proven - so who's going to sell their maple boarded bass and buy one with a Rosewood board??

Thanks Lozz for conducting this and big thanks to Andy and D'Addario for the strings, and his own presentation.

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