bloke wrote:
I'll piss off friends, the bass experts, and all of the tuba princesses, but just like lacquer/silver/unlacquered & heavy/medium/light mouthpieces, I have found that the material from which a bass is constructed to be of negligible difference as far as resonance is concerned.
- It's somewhat difficult to measure true "resonance" as we're dealing with a nearly non-acoustic instrument.
- How many people move the same exact set of pick-ups to three identically-constructed electric basses - except for one selected and controlled variable - to test any theories?
- "Sustain" is what many electric bassists seem to seek. It can be optimized (99.99%) though the shape and material of the nut, the shape, construction, and material of the bridge, the shape of the frets, the technique of the player, and the shape, construction, size, and material (along with age) of the strings.
As mentioned by others, woods DO make a difference. The difference IS noticeable to most people, and manufacturers DO know what affect individual types of wood have on their instruments.
This is the reason we see Alder, Ash, and Mahogany as standard body woods. You can top the body with just about anything (maple,walnut,koa....etc) and it won't affect the sound too much, dependent of course on the thickness of the top.
Generally speaking, a harder wood will produce a brighter tone. You don't see many (are there any?) solid body guitars made out of maple exclusively because it gives the guitar a strident, displeasing tone. I think ChuckG mentioned that a bass could be made out of polystyrene or granite. Well technically it could, but the probability of it sounding decent would be very low.
The reason for wood having such an affect on sound is thus: Electric instruments produce notes by a vibrating string over a magnetic pickup producing a small electrical current. On first analysis, this would seem to indicate that body woods have little affect on the production of tone. However, if you have ever played a bass, you know that when you flop the low E, you can feel the whole bass vibrate. The transmission of these vibrations and the interaction between the body vibrating and the string is vitally important. I don't know the specifics of the physics, but that is the quick and dirty version.
This is not just my opinion by the way.... If woods made no difference in the sound, guitar makers would be hammering guitars out of cheap plywood or recycled tires.
While your points on sustain are valid, you would have nothing without a 2" thick slab of alder to slap that new bridge or set of strings on. A good tone wood is an essential starting point to building a decently sustaining bass.
There were numerous articles and ruminations on this subject in Guitar Player over the course of my subscription to the publication. It is an issue, and while it may be difficult for the average consumer to tell differences (due to variations in amps, quality and number of samples, etc) woods DO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!!
This discussion is pretty much pointless because you probably aren't going to be able to readily purchase a bass that is made out of a material that doesnt work, simply because they aren't made because it makes no sense at all.
