Best Wood for bass guitar

[K_J]

Hi, 

I'm making a bass guitar out of carbon fibre for a project for my apprenticeship, however I need a wood body. I was wondering what is the best wood to use for the body?

K_J

[TheGreek]

 

21 minutes ago, K_J said:

I was wondering what is the best wood to use for the body?

Cue the floodgates...

You almost have as many choices as there are woods. 

What do you want from the wood? Weight? High figuring(prettiness)? Practicality? 

Narrow down your requirements to help with recommendations.

BTW...Welcome to the forum.

 

[6feet7]

Have a look at GUS Guitars. Simon Farmer makes a cedar laminate body and neck with a carbon fibre exo-skeleton. 

If it's good enough for Prince then it should do for the rest of us

[Max Normal]

Alder, swamp ash and mahogany are the most common.  They have different weights, workabilities and argaubly, tone.

 

Mahagany can be heavy with a tight grain and a dark tone. Often used with a maple top for figuring and to add brightness.

Alder has little grain so is best painted. A good balance of bright and dark tone.

Swamp ash has a wide, open grain. Difficult to finish as it needs grain filler for high gloss if that's your sort of thing. but looks good with a clearcoat or oil. Light weight (don't get normal ash as it's heavy). Resonant and used for bright sounding basses.

To tonewood deniers, please don't flame me! I'm just offering the general consensus.

 

[BigRedX]

Plywood is perfectly fine.

[bubinga5]

[bubinga5]

Balsa wood. Super light easy to work with. But Seriously I wonder what MDF would sound like.

[ahpook]

5 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Wormwood ?

[bubinga5]

I think BassWood is good, and its cheap. Music Man Bongo's are made out of them. And they sound awesome. Ive always thought that body wood is the platform, or blank canvas for a bass. Adding pickups change the sound depending on the wind, adding a Carbon neck will definitely change the sound, adding a preamp will change the sound. This I reckon Is why the ToneWood argument is so complex. There are just so many variables involved. Imo

[BassTractor]

Summed up: for your project it really really really doesn't matter other than the aspects of looks and how easy the wood is to work with. IMHO the fit of the neck to the body most probably is of greater importance than the type of body wood used.

Good luck!

[Grangur]

In the "tonewood" discussion, I recon the neck is more likely to resonate more than the body as it's slimmer and more prone to bend, so with a carbon fibre neck, is the type of body wood, maybe imaterial?

Have to agree with @BassTractor, the fit of the neck pocket is probably more important than all of this. I'm sure over the years many an instrument has been built of top-quality materials, to give a very average result through not getting the fit of the neck and other fine details right.

But that's just my opinion. Good luck with the build, and I mean that.

[Guest MoJo]

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

 

Cue the floodgates...

 

33 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

[MacDaddy]

old wooden skateboards

 

[yorks5stringer]

Whatever the wood , make sure the Bass is good for Metal

[discreet]

My Jazz body is Paulownia and I love it because it's light. The bass weighs 7lbs in total. Choose something light, easy to work and easy to finish. Tone considerations don't enter into it, there aren't any.

If you do choose Paulownia be aware it's quite porous and needs grain filling, dependent on the finish you want.

[FinnDave]

2 minutes ago, discreet said:

My Jazz body is Paulownia and I love it because it's light. The bass weighs 7lbs in total. Choose something light, easy to work and easy to finish. Tone considerations don't enter into it, there aren't any.

If you do choose Paulownia be aware it's quite porous and needs grain filling, dependent on the finish you want.

I don't think I could cope with a bass called Paul. Precision, Jazz, or a string of random numbers and letters, fine, but Paul - no.

[phil.c60]

Paulownia, Paulownia, it's what makes my jazz bass so good........

 

I'll get my coat.

[discreet]

1 minute ago, FinnDave said:

I don't think I could cope with a bass called Paul. Precision, Jazz, or a string of random numbers and letters, fine, but Paul - no.

Call it what you like - it can't hear you.

[discreet]

1 minute ago, phil.c60 said:

Paulownia, Paulownia, it's what makes my jazz bass so good...

Shut up!

[FinnDave]

How is it pronounced? I'm inclined towards it sounding like an Irish name - Paul O'Nia

[FinnDave]

1 minute ago, discreet said:

Call it what you like - it can't hear you.

No, but other people can.

"Which bass did you bring tonight?"

"Paul".

weird. But I did take a friend called Paul to my gig last Saturday, but he isn't a bass. Plays bass, but isn't a bass himself.

[HazBeen]

Why does the body need to be wood? Why not graphite or acoustic foam filled polycarbonate? Alder, Ash, Mahogany, Walnut are all viable for graphite necked instruments in my opinion, but this is not an exclusive list.

[Rich]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Plywood is perfectly fine.

Indeed. Here is a piece of particularly expensive plywood.

[HazBeen]

5 minutes ago, Rich said:

Indeed. Here is a piece of particularly expensive plywood.

6 grand is a bargain 

[Teebs]

32 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

I don't think I could cope with a bass called Paul. Precision, Jazz, or a string of random numbers and letters, fine, but Paul - no.

Surely Paul is a name for a guitar - as in 'Les Paul'?

How about 'Presley Precision', 'Jeffrey Jazz'  or 'Barry Bongo' for a bass?