Hellzero Posted April 25, 2021 Author Share Posted April 25, 2021 After having read this thread, I now fully understand why the great Pareto's principle is applying about wood and tone : I'm still laughing out loud after having read the names of guys who just can (sometimes hardly) play a pentatonic and just repeat themselves over and over with sometimes changing the key, but considered greatest guitarist(s) of all time. Thanks for giving me the answer to my perpetual questioning about this consensus. Uneducation is the key to the answer. Wow, I'm still amazed by the answers. Anyway, so long, and thanks for all the fish. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 Do basswood Squiers sound like basswood EBMM Bongos? Just asking for a friend, obvs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 1 hour ago, EssentialTension said: Do basswood Squiers sound like basswood EBMM Bongos? Just asking for a friend, obvs. Do Squiers have the same preamp, pickups and pickup placement as Bongos? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nail Soup Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Hellzero said: just repeat themselves over and over Bit rich after 15 pages on tonewood 😀! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted April 25, 2021 Author Share Posted April 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Nail Soup said: Bit rich after 15 pages on tonewood 😀! There's nothing on tonewood in this thread. 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted April 26, 2021 Share Posted April 26, 2021 20 hours ago, Hellzero said: There's nothing on tonewood in this thread. 😉 Agreed, but it's good for a laugh. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted April 26, 2021 Share Posted April 26, 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonewood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 26, 2021 Share Posted April 26, 2021 24 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonewood Quote This article has multiple issues. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted April 26, 2021 Share Posted April 26, 2021 34 minutes ago, BigRedX said: This article has multiple issues. Is this a quote from my NHS patient records? 🤣 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 On 22/04/2021 at 17:00, Hellzero said: Leland Sklar is using mandolin frets because he says he can get a sound quite close to fretless. It's him saying that, not me. I had a few basses with mandolin frets and I never heard anything coming close to a fretless sound... Just shows that your hearing is rubbish. Uneducated hearing, that's your problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted October 1, 2021 Author Share Posted October 1, 2021 Here is the article that summarises all I've ever said about electric instruments for decades. An article by the great Roger Sadowsky : Waiting for the heretics comments... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 yawn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binky_bass Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 12 minutes ago, EBS_freak said: yawn From the man that posted the 'Bill Murray' GIF every day for over a year! 😋 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 24 minutes ago, binky_bass said: From the man that posted the 'Bill Murray' GIF every day for over a year! 😋 I've only posted it today. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 So a man who owes a good deal of his business success to Wood Woo-woo writes an article espousing Wood Woo-woo? Well, that's convincing. Sequere Pecuniam... 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 (edited) Someone who's business is to make expensive instruments with part of their sales pitch for those instruments being what woods are used (with an upcharging 'master grade wood gallery' section to their website) is probably not the most reliable witness to tell you if the type of wood makes a difference. Saying that though, I tried three identical Dingwall Combustions at Bass Direct - all new, 10 year anniversary ones, same Dingwall strings and pickups, same body and neck wood, the only difference being two had Maple fingerboard and one had Pau Ferro, perhaps I was biased by what I've read or by the look of them but it felt to me that perhaps the Maple ones were slightly brighter and the Pau Ferro warmer sounding (the main difference though was that the Pau Ferro was less sticky on the strings when string bending) so I did feel that fingerboard made a difference - but mostly down to the feel of the strings against it and the look. I'm not convinced about neck and body woods making enough of a tone difference for me to care- I would care about how heavy they made it, how robust and stable they are and how it looked though. Edited October 1, 2021 by SumOne 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAYNESWORLD Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 For me the the wood choice is always secondary to what sound it produces in the end. I’m sure a lot of us on the site have experienced the disappointment of laying out far more money than we could really afford on that bass that has all those advertised and recommended special tone woods only to be left unimpressed on a gig.As an uneducated person in the fine art of instrument making I’m sure all things involved in an instruments construction contribute to its final sound output.I personally don’t care what a bass is made from as long as when I play it what I hear puts a smile on my face and moreover leaves me satisfied with my choice and pleases the people that listen to what I do. I do wonder if some of the discussions we have are mostly to back up the choices we have made and post statements in the hope the majority agree with that prospective and therefore give us the satisfaction that our point of view and our purchase was the correct one.As I mentioned in another post marketing is an invention of the devil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drTStingray Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 9 hours ago, Hellzero said: Here is the article that summarises all I've ever said about electric instruments for decades. An article by the great Roger Sadowsky : Waiting for the heretics comments... Very interesting article - very balanced opinion and reasoning. Interestingly quite a lot matches my own experience of electric instruments. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I know who’s opinion I would trust when comparing those of highly respected luthiers and interested amateurs with an opinion on the subject on the internet 😉😁 I suppose when a reasonable proportion of players are happy to play pretty rudimentary instruments designed in the 50s, anyone suggesting there is more to the subject of tone and functionality is almost bound to be shouted down. Thankfully other industries involving engineering do not rely on getting away with such things - I’m really glad my 2019 car doesn’t have 1950s spec wheels and tyres, and my train journey of 150 miles on Sunday is not going to be at low average speed on a ‘heritage’ train, or my dinner will not be cooked on an appliance designed over 60 yrs ago (in fact you can insert virtually any item and have a bit of a chuckle). It’s a funny old industry eh!!! 😁👍 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binky_bass Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 (edited) It's all pointless because we all know that if we rock up to a gig with a £300 or a £12,000 bass 99.5% of the audience won't notice any difference! Grandiose bass purchasing is only to sate the mind of the purchasers, not the average listener. There, I said it. We're all mugs! MUGS I TELL THEE!!! Edited October 1, 2021 by binky_bass 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drTStingray Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 6 minutes ago, binky_bass said: It's all pointless because we all know that if we rock up to a gig with a £300 or a £12,000 bass 99.5% of the audience won't notice any difference! Grandiose bass purchasing is only to sate the mind of the purchasers, not the average listener. There, I said it. We're all mugs! MUGS I TELL THEE!!! I know that’s a viewpoint but I think there’s more understanding than that amongst audiences - who appreciate a good bass sound and contribution - just look at Hozier - the bassist has a Skjold bass and the bass sound live is phenomenal. However that’s not to say a good result can’t be had from a £300 bass - it’s just in the right hands, a better one can be had from a different, and expensive bass. I remember some members on this forum complaining of a growing trend for what they described a few years back I think as a tendency towards background pithering on bass - no doubt if that’s the role of the bass player then people probably won’t notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binky_bass Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 (edited) 8 minutes ago, drTStingray said: I know that’s a viewpoint but I think there’s more understanding than that amongst audiences - who appreciate a good bass sound and contribution - just look at Hozier - the bassist has a Skjold bass and the bass sound live is phenomenal. However that’s not to say a good result can’t be had from a £300 bass - it’s just in the right hands, a better one can be had from a different, and expensive bass. I remember some members on this forum complaining of a growing trend for what they described a few years back I think as a tendency towards background pithering on bass - no doubt if that’s the role of the bass player then people probably won’t notice. There's definitely a number of gig goers that do appreciate a good bass, but if you look at those people against the full population of gig goers I imagine the number would be a very small percentage! I say all of this quite hypocritically as I own a good few rather expensive custom bass, but I also understand that I am the one that gets 99.9% of the pleasure out of them and I'm fine with that! Also, we should all be allowed to kick @Hellzero in the shins for bringing this subject up... again! 😜 Edited October 1, 2021 by binky_bass 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 36 minutes ago, binky_bass said: It's all pointless because we all know that if we rock up to a gig with a £300 or a £12,000 bass 99.5% of the audience won't notice any difference! Grandiose bass purchasing is only to sate the mind of the purchasers, not the average listener. There, I said it. We're all mugs! MUGS I TELL THEE!!! That is probably true, but there is the 'money to make money' thing in that a cheap Bass is probably going to lose it's value pretty quickly whereas a rare and expensive Bass' will probably get more rare and valuable over time. Also, even if the cheap Bass does sound the same to the audience it's the player that has to spend 1000s of hours with it and have it up on their wall at home, so they might as well get something that's more comfortable/enjoyable/easier to play and looks better - and sounds better for them (and the 0.05% audience) and holds it's value better if they can afford it - why make a hobby more mundane and 'it'll do' than it has to be?!.....These are the things I'm telling myself as I look through expensive Bass adverts anyway! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 A good bassist can make a pigs ear of a bass sound decent. The reverse is not true. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunion Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: A good bassist can make a pigs ear of a bass sound decent. The reverse is not true. I don’t think that’s what you meant because a bad bass player can definitely make a great bass sound like a noisy toad, I should know… 😩 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 On 15/04/2021 at 17:57, Hellzero said: These four basses have exact same preamps (passive only for this test), pickups and strings and were set up to the exact same precise adjustments... Same amp (Glockenklang), same settings, same cable, same place, same player, same noodling, same ... everything. A real test, for once. The only differences are the woods used. Use headphones or good speakers. See also here, page 15, for an article by the great Roger Sadowsky confirming that an electric instrument is before all an acoustic instrument and that if it doesn't sound unplugged, it won't sound better amplified whatever mods or tweaks you'll make : Why else would different instruments of the same model sound different? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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