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Are plywood bodies necessarily a bad thing

Guest MoJo

By Guest MoJo,
in General Discussion

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EssentialTension Grand Master

EssentialTension

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, meterman said:

Looking at this yet again... I would rock the heck out of it, might need to add more stickers though 👍

 

27 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

But wouldn't that alter the tone..? :scratch_one-s_head:

...

9_9 :lol:

 

This is what's needed ... a twotone sticker ...

2-Tone_SKA_Man_Dancing_Sticker.jpg

 

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meterman Veteran

meterman

Posted
Posted
54 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

But wouldn't that alter the tone..? :scratch_one-s_head:

...

9_9 :lol:

Once I’d put a set of flats on there, stickers might be negligible tbh. Quite prepared to find out!

Maude Grand Master

Maude

Posted
Posted

This is more like it, some long overdue love for plywood Kay guitars. Once they get the recognition they truly deserve they'll be changing hands for close to £50. 😉

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meterman Veteran

meterman

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Maude said:

This is more like it, some long overdue love for plywood Kay guitars. Once they get the recognition they truly deserve they'll be changing hands for close to £50. 😉

Yeah but yours is a work of art, now!

Plywood is fine for guitars and basses for the most part, I don’t see why people look down on it really, as long as nobody’s charging top dollar for it. A studio I used to use in London has a no-name plywood Strat copy among its collection that always sounded great to record with. And I’ve got a mid-80’s Ibanez copy of a D-18 which is plywood top, back and sides which records well too. I might need to put some stickers on it tho...

Maude Grand Master

Maude

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, meterman said:

Plywood is fine for guitars and basses for the most part, I don’t see why people look down on it really, as long as nobody’s charging top dollar for it. A studio I used to use in London has a no-name plywood Strat copy among its collection that always sounded great to record with.

Oh I totally agree. My Hohner fretless P is plywood and one of my 'never selling' basses, as it's a far better bass than its monetary value. The only downside I've ever found with ply is that it's usually very heavy. Lots of ply basses are bad simply because they are poorly built, not because they're made of ply.

 

19 minutes ago, meterman said:

Yeah but yours is a work of art, now!

Very kind of you to say.

They say you can't polish a turd. Well I did, and I now have a shiny turd! 😄

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Maude Grand Master

Maude

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Or apply stickers.

Well, I guess not anyway...…….

Can you stick stickers to something sticky? 🤔

Stub Mandrel Grand Master

Stub Mandrel

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, meterman said:

Once I’d put a set of flats on there, stickers might be negligible tbh. Quite prepared to find out!

When I bought it, it had flats on. The only 6-string I have ever played that had flats on it.

 

Incidentally, my Maya fretless has a blockboard body. Two layers of blocks with thin layers between and top and bottom.

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Maude Grand Master

Maude

Posted
Posted
Just now, Stub Mandrel said:

When I bought it, it had flats on. The only 6-string I have ever played that had flats on it.

 

Incidentally, my Maya fretless has a blockboard body. Two layers of blocks with thin layers between and top and bottom.

I'm about to get flats for my Melody acoustic guitar. Can you tell I love cheap rubbish........... that isn't actually rubbish, shhh. 😉

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meterman Veteran

meterman

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, Maude said:

I'm about to get flats for my Melody acoustic guitar. Can you tell I love cheap rubbish........... that isn't actually rubbish, shhh. 😉

I just put flats on my Telecaster and I’ve ordered a set of Chromes for my acoustic too. I’d put flats on everything 👍 

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  • 1 year later...
kozmog Newbie

kozmog

Posted
Posted
On 01/03/2021 at 10:03, Nail Soup said:

Depends - are the stickers solid paper or laminate?

 

you have to think in the Tonesticker properties and the glue tension to the strings too

 

Kiwi Grand Master

Kiwi

Posted
Posted

My first two basses had plywood bodies and maple necks.  They had poor sustain and an unmusical, lifeless timbre.  I replaced the second one with a Jaydee MK and it was a world of difference.  I'm sure it's possible to make an acceptable instrument from ply, if the construction and build quality is up to scratch.  But it's also possible to make a bass with too many laminations, whether it's the neck or body, and it kind of sucks the character out of the instrument.  They all start to sound fairly similar.  Someone's opinion of whether a ply bass is decent or not depends very much on what their baseline references are.

Ralf1e Mentor

Ralf1e

Posted
Posted
On 19/02/2021 at 13:18, itu said:

The late Greg Curbow used plywood in necks (rockwood), that strange Aussie has also plywood neck. Many double basses are plywood, wooden aeroplanes are mostly plywood.

Guns... https://cwp.fi/en/

Boats as well. Marine ply isn't cheap either and it doesnt fall apart. Not to forget skateboards made on a mold.

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Ralf1e Mentor

Ralf1e

Posted
Posted
On 21/02/2021 at 15:07, mcnach said:

Sometimes these discussions sound like people arguing about how many grains of sand there are on the beach exactly, while the rest happily play, sunbathe and swim on the sea.

I thought it had all been unusually agreeable so far 🤔

Ralf1e Mentor

Ralf1e

Posted
Posted
On 21/02/2021 at 16:20, BigRedX said:

Are you 100% sure? Have you tried it?

No of course you haven't. Hardly any of us have apart from a few people on YouTube and since their sample sizes are one of each and their scientific methodology is essentially non-existent, their results are irrelevant.

Trying to pin-point a tonal quality onto one aspect of a bass is close to pointless. So is trying to make generalisations about the sound of a particular "tone wood" as every piece is different. The best thing to do is to take each instrument as a whole. Does it look, play and sound how you would like it? Yes? The buy it. No? Then look elsewhere. Job done.

And don't forget if its active it will sound different with different makes of tone batteries in it😂

Ralf1e Mentor

Ralf1e

Posted
Posted
On 21/02/2021 at 18:13, ezbass said:

Does beer batter make fish sound different over just a water/milk mix? Do you have to use bass, or will cod do?

It all depends how much of the beer batter you drank.😉

Kiwi Grand Master

Kiwi

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

Maple top

Maple veneer, they have a rep for the veneer peeling off after a time.

 

1 hour ago, Ralf1e said:

Boats as well. Marine ply isn't cheap either and it doesnt fall apart. Not to forget skateboards made on a mold.

Yeah but marine ply is constructed differently to a maple laminated neck.

BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

Maple top

 

The top is actually printed paper. Which might count as wood since it's made from it?

 

What about the ink though? Tone ink? Tone toner?

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