Maple Fretboard vs Pau Ferro

[White Cloud]

Maple is definitely brighter. The inherent tone of any bass is attributable to neck/fingerboard material. 

[horrorshowbass]

On 05/05/2023 at 17:04, fleabag said:

It's all cow manure till a blind test is done.

 

Line up ten of the same bass, same pickups, same everything, maple board, except one of the ten has a different board. Choose which wood out of 1000's

 

You play each bass behind a curtain, then ask the question.

 

If anyone can pick out the odd one, i'll eat my pet goat

So you're saying I should buy ten basses?

How's the 🐐?

😆 

[BigRedX]

On 07/05/2023 at 17:02, ped said:

So the wood does make a difference 🫣

 

I realise that this statement has some humorous icon after it (which my computer has rendered invisible), but what I am saying is that nobody can pin-point the difference in sound between two solid electric instruments to a single piece of wood. You have absolutely no way of knowing how identical or different all the other components of two supposedly identical instruments are. It's the easiest thing in the world to make two different sounding instruments. You just build them and there they are. If the woods used made a quantifiable difference to the sound of an instrument it should be equally easy to mass produce instruments that all sound exactly the same, and there would be no need to go a try every P- or J- bass in the shop looking for "the one". 

[ped]

18 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

I realise that this statement has some humorous icon after it (which my computer has rendered invisible), but what I am saying is that nobody can pin-point the difference in sound between two solid electric instruments to a single piece of wood. You have absolutely no way of knowing how identical or different all the other components of two supposedly identical instruments are. It's the easiest thing in the world to make two different sounding instruments. You just build them and there they are. If the woods used made a quantifiable difference to the sound of an instrument it should be equally easy to mass produce instruments that all sound exactly the same, and there would be no need to go a try every P- or J- bass in the shop looking for "the one". 

Sure, and I was trying to inject a little humour which has clearly been a fail. But I’m saying that if I had personally built thousands of basses I’d probably be able to say that within certain tolerances, basses with one sort of neck sound roughly like A and another type of neck is more like B.

[Killerfridge]

Humans are rubbish at understanding their own biases, and I expect nothing less of expert craftsmen either. It's like how violinists are adamant that Stradivarius violins are somehow of a different breed of instrument, worth millions; yet we're unable to reliably differentiate them from their modern equivalents in a blind test. 

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, ped said:

But I’m saying that if I had personally built thousands of basses I’d probably be able to say that within certain tolerances, basses with one sort of neck sound roughly like A and another type of neck is more like B.

 

But on the other hand consider this bass:

 

 

Which I have taken to a couple of bass-bashes in the past. Pretty much everyone who has had a go on this says that it sounds just like a P-Bass (ignoring the fact most people who have played it also make it sound slightly different). Maybe that's because it has a P-Bass pickup in exactly the right spot rather than the wood it is made out of.

[LukeFRC]

15 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

But on the other hand consider this bass:

 

 

Which I have taken to a couple of bass-bashes in the past. Pretty much everyone who has had a go on this says that it sounds just like a P-Bass (ignoring the fact most people who have played it also make it sound slightly different). Maybe that's because it has a P-Bass pickup in exactly the right spot rather than the wood it is made out of.

you're focusing on the wrong thing. It's clearly the tortoiseshell pick guard where most the tone comes from. I bet if you added one it would do the Jameson thing better!

[Lozz196]

Tort-Tone!

[ezbass]

8 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

you're focusing on the wrong thing. It's clearly the tortoiseshell pick guard where most the tone comes from. I bet if you added one it would do the Jameson thing better!

Only if it's a celluloid one, with the metal shielding underneath.

[LukeFRC]

11 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Only if it's a celluloid one, with the metal shielding underneath.

well that goes without saying. 

 

[horrorshowbass]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

But on the other hand consider this bass:

 

 

Which I have taken to a couple of bass-bashes in the past. Pretty much everyone who has had a go on this says that it sounds just like a P-Bass (ignoring the fact most people who have played it also make it sound slightly different). Maybe that's because it has a P-Bass pickup in exactly the right spot rather than the wood it is made out of.

Theres no way anyone on basschat would play that. It weighs more than 4kg.......

[BigRedX]

57 minutes ago, horrorshowbass said:

Theres no way anyone on basschat would play that. It weighs more than 4kg.......

 

Since it's mostly hollow aluminium tube it weighs very little.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, horrorshowbass said:

Theres no way anyone on basschat would play that. It weighs more than 4kg.......

But it is spot on for metal.

[Ralf1e]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Since it's mostly hollow aluminium tube it weighs very little.

I like it.

[LukeFRC]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Since it's mostly hollow aluminium tube it weighs very little.

It looks amazing. 
there is a little be of me that is sad that it just sounds like a P bass when it looks like that. I want it to sound like the future

[horrorshowbass]

24 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

It looks amazing. 
there is a little be of me that is sad that it just sounds like a P bass when it looks like that. I want it to sound like the future

Garlic bread?

[Ralf1e]

Is that neck hollow or solid ally?

[miles'tone]

16 hours ago, horrorshowbass said:

Theres no way anyone on basschat would play that. It doesn't hide the belly.......

Fixed.

 

(Speaking for myself there btw)

[horrorshowbass]

2 hours ago, miles'tone said:

Fixed.

 

(Speaking for myself there btw)

Lol

[White Cloud]

On 12/05/2023 at 14:32, BigRedX said:

 

But on the other hand consider this bass:

 

 

Which I have taken to a couple of bass-bashes in the past. Pretty much everyone who has had a go on this says that it sounds just like a P-Bass (ignoring the fact most people who have played it also make it sound slightly different). Maybe that's because it has a P-Bass pickup in exactly the right spot rather than the wood it is made out of.

Is it good for metal? 

[Misdee]

Proper Pau Ferro is reckoned by some to sound brighter than rosewood but a bit less bright than maple. You would need pretty good ears to be sure of that, though.

 

In my experience maple is  noticeably much brighter with a lacquer finish. Unfinished I don't hear that much of a difference from rosewood ect, but there's so many variables it's hard to say definitively. Just buy a bass that sounds good to you !😄

[soulstar89]

2 hours ago, Misdee said:

Proper Pau Ferro is reckoned by some to sound brighter than rosewood but a bit less bright than maple. You would need pretty good ears to be sure of that, though.

 

In my experience maple is  noticeably much brighter with a lacquer finish. Unfinished I don't hear that much of a difference from rosewood ect, but there's so many variables it's hard to say definitively. Just buy a bass that sounds good to you !😄

I've a question for you. When did fender start putting lacquer on maple fretboards? I ask as if it was during the 70's, then this could be a factor among other's how the sound of P basses got brighter. 

 

I presume all 57 and 70 reissue maple models are lacquered. 

[msb]

Yes , they lacquered the maple necks right from the start.

[Misdee]

19 minutes ago, soulstar89 said:

I've a question for you. When did fender start putting lacquer on maple fretboards? I ask as if it was during the 70's, then this could be a factor among other's how the sound of P basses got brighter. 

 

I presume all 57 and 70 reissue maple models are lacquered. 

I wish maple necks were lacquered nowadays as standard, but it suits most manufacturers to put an oil and wax finish on because it's much less work and therefore less cost for them. 

 

By the 1970s Fender were using pretty thick laquer on their necks, and I'm sure it had a very significant effect on the tone. That combined with the fact that they were using ad-hoc variations on how they were winding their pickups from batch to batch might well explain why you come across some very raunchy P Basses from that era.

[iconic]

On 14/05/2023 at 12:19, soulstar89 said:

I've a question for you. When did fender start putting lacquer on maple fretboards? I ask as if it was during the 70's, then this could be a factor among other's how the sound of P basses got brighter. 

 

I presume all 57 and 70 reissue maple models are lacquered. 

Or that the pups were brighter due to less windings....?