Obeche as a body wood?

[project_c]

Rarely hear of Obeche as a choice of body wood, anyone have any experience of it? Any particular sonic characteristics? Would you like it on a P or a J? Or a PJ? Or none of the above?

(Yes I know tone is in the fingers etc but let's pretend for a second that body wood matters). 

(which I think it does.) 

(but I understand why others may not. anyway that's neither here nor there)

 

[alembic1989]

The Shergold range of basses and guitars from the 70's used obeche as the body wood..Shergold marathon bass, and masquerader guitars.

[ahpook]

I've read that obeche is a fairly light wood - some of the Shergolds suffered with balance problems because of it.

 

[KiOgon]

When my Dad chose the woods for my first bass in 1964/5 he brought home Obeche for the body and Sapele for the neck. It made a fabulous sounding Pear shaped/Teardrop fretless. Wish I still had it now

[ead]

Eve use Sapele on the neck and very nice to the touch it is too.  No knowledge on Obeche I'm afraid, but I will endorse your view that tonewoods do have an impact on the tone, maybe not as much as the electronics and strings, but it's there.

[project_c]

Interesting, thanks. I played a Shergold Marathon a while ago, it sounded amazing.

I have to admit I am firmly of the belief that wood makes a significant contribution to the overall tone, based purely on personal experience. My 2 precisions have very different characteristics unplugged, and those characteristics translate to the tone I hear through headphones when going direct. Through an amp, in a mix etc it's a different story, because there's so much other stuff on top, but up close and direct they're not very alike at all.

[Guest]

After having spoken to several guitar and bass builders - wood does make a difference but not so much different species but differences in individual pieces of wood (mass, moisture content, grain etc), often from the same tree - hence something as straightforward as ash - you can have an ash body on a bass weighing 8lbs, or one weighing 12+lbs. Two basses made from these woods are likely to have some differences in tone. Heavier basses generally have a thicker, bigger sound, but only if the wood has been thoroughly dried - otherwise they end up dull-sounding (like some late 70's Fenders).

 

I must confess to never having heard of Obeche - looking it up, it's a very light wood so may not be so suitable as a body wood as you'll likely experience neck dive (unless the neck is similarly light and the tuners super-light). It looks like it might resemble basswood or swamp ash, so potentially similar in tone? Sapele appears to be a mahogany substitute - not in my experience a particularly popular wood for bass necks but used a lot in bodies.