Inexpensive Electric Bass Recommendations

[funkcicle]

One thing I've observed(or maybe imagined, though I seem to notice it consistently) is that with acoustic guitars the top wood seems to have a much larger impact on the end-sound than the body woods. Seagull guitars(where my infatuation with Godin started) have all pretty much the same body design(model "S6"), but can come in virtually infinite wood combinations. Most common is Mahogany body with cedar, maple, or spruce top. The cedar(soft and extremely porous) top has the warmest sound and the most even response throughout the range of the instrument, the maple and spruce tops both have very bright tones definitely favouring the higher register and harmonics, and there are noticeable differences in sound timbre through different registers.

Another S6 I have in my store has a cedar body and a spruce top...making it roughly 65% cedar and spruce. One would(well, I would, at least) expect this guitar to sound more like the cedar tops than the spruce tops, cedar being so much lighter and more porous than mahogony, but the guitar sounds virtually identical to the mahogany/alder S6 with perhaps slightly less volume. This reinforces my theory that the end-sound is influenced more by how the wood interacts with other components(bridge, etc) than the wood's sonic properties alone.

So basically, while pickups and electronics in an ash body and an alder body could sound identical, a string-thru bridge on an ash body and an alder body could create two completely different instruments. Rather than talking about how the body-wood responds to the string vibrations we'd be discussing how the string vibrations react to how the bridge(or any other component) reacts to the body-wood.

Just a theory of course, but my observations so far seem to support it.

[Chuck(G)]

Okay, I can rationalize how a veneer might make a difference in sound, but I'd also suspect that if you restricted the veneer to the area immediately under the bridge, you'd probably get the same effect.

? maybe ?

All of this "reproducible results" stuff on electric basses really has me fascinated. The luthier who owrks on my (upright) bass can make miniscule adjustments in the locations of the soundpost and bridge with substantial resulting changes in sound.

[funkcicle]

Okay, I can rationalize how a veneer might make a difference in sound, but I'd also suspect that if you restricted the veneer to the area immediately under the bridge, you'd probably get the same effect.

? maybe ?

All of this "reproducible results" stuff on electric basses really has me fascinated. The luthier who owrks on my (upright) bass can make miniscule adjustments in the locations of the soundpost and bridge with substantial resulting changes in sound.

is veneer the same as laminate? (non native english speaker, though pretty fluent).A choice piece of wood on top of cheaper woods? For the sake of this thread, all acoustic instruments I mentioned were solid topped, and electric instruments solid bodied. Laminate topped guitars are easily distinguished in sound and playability from solid topped guitars, playing an Alvarez RD8 alongside a Taylor 310 can illustrate this nicely.

I could be sheltered but I've never heard anybody suggest a laminate in terms of sound improvement, they're generally not favourable(I don't even like a finish that isn't hand-rubbed on acoustic instruments..even a thin baked on lacquer dampens the instrument SIGNIFICANTLY, another variably I forgot to mention when discussing the Seagull guitars above). A lot of "boutique" electric instruments have laminate tops that I've always considered purely cosmetic..often woods that are too expensive to practically make a solid body, or are not particularly known for their acoustic properties. Here are some links you might find interesting:

http://www.warmoth.com/bass/options/opt ... ywoods.cfm (a "laymen's overview" of wood properties, relating directly to bass bodies)

http://www.warmoth.com/bass/necks/necks ... _neckwoods (a listing of various woods and their characteristics for use in necks and fingerboards)

The people at Warmoth are very friendly and willing to entertain curiosities(I've got Karl on speed dial! ) too.

[Kevin Hendrick]

I suspect that other soft-hardwoods like poplar/sycamore or bigleaf maple might be equally adapted to use in e-basses.

Solid-bodies are e-flat-basses

Owwww ...

[Charlie Goodman]

...so that's why many (not all) bass players change instruments frequently, as many people go through the "flavor of the month"

Well. I'm glad tuba players are smarter than that.

Rick "who has an American-made Fender Precision Plus, and who can't play it" Denney

I'm sitting here with a 1291, with buttons bigger around than some of the smaller dogs out there....

[Chuck(G)]

I apologize for even taking Doc's bait. Any response to his post merely provokes other inappropriate posts.

[tubatooter1940]

There are so many awesome bass guitarists here in the South East. Those who play often seem to be hooked on the Fender Precision Bass and most of them swear by the Fender Jazz Bass as the "ultimate" bass guitar.

[TubaTodd]

the best playing bass in world can be found right here...
And they start at around $1500 and go up from there.
http://www.dingwallguitars.com/html/main.html

The basses are beautiful. I have never seen a fret system quite like that. Something tells me that it would mess with my mind.

[Chuck(G)]

[funkcicle]

seen alembics, played alembics, but I never saw anything in them that warranted the $$$

Same here. Before I bought the instrument on which I'm now playing I took a few trips to try out as many axes as I could. Between Steve's in Toronto and Steve's in Montreal I probably played about 25 Alembic basses, out of which only one completely floored me, but it was a fretless(and RIDICULOUSLY well-discounted), which I was not in the market for. I had the good fortune of playing Stanley Clarke's bass about 3 weeks ago though, and it was in an entirely different league with the $1-$3k basses they have in their retail outlets.

[MartyNeilan]

Got the bass today. Funkcicle did a good job setting it up. It is honestly much better than I expected. Yeah, the pickups definitely aren't perfect but they are great when set even (and easily replaceable); and there is a little fret noise, especially on the G string 5th fret (but I am sure much of it is caused by the player, and I raised that string slightly to help) but the axe feels like it should, and the sound is just fine for my current needs.
It walks, slaps, and plays Mozart - so what more could you ask for?
Overall I am very pleased.
Thanks to my friends (and enemies ) on TubeNet for all the help!

[adam0408]

Your comment about alder as a core for sonic reasons would seem to go toward reinforcing my theory of absorption of higher frequencies rather than resonance. Alder's a very soft "hardwood"--in fact, it's softer than fir. It used to be a junk wood out here, usually going only for pulp and charcoal. In the last dozen years or so, I've seen a lot of budget furniture built of it. I can't even think of alder as having any sort of resonance.

I suspect that other soft-hardwoods like poplar/sycamore or bigleaf maple might be equally adapted to use in e-basses.

Yep, I think you're right. Not to drag up a dead point or anything.... but I think that its very valid. I should have driven at the point of absorbtion VS. resonance in that post too probably. Maple, as I said, usually sounds like crap because it is too hard and it makes the instrument sound tinny and gross, probably because of some high frequency response or something (god I wish I knew physics, that would make this so much easier) It does sound good when used on hollow body electrics such as a gibson ES 335 or 175.

I think also that mostly the reasons alder is so widely used are twofold: It is relatively inexpensive and widely available, and it finishes well. On the point of being soft, I imagine that makes it really easy to work as well, although I have never personally used the wood for anything. If you have ever worked with oak, a wood sometimes used for bodies of guitars, you will know that it is very difficult to get a perfectly smooth finish on it because of the grain of the wood. Ash is somewhat similar, but not nearly as bad. That is what I built my guitar out of. On a side note, it is very difficult to find a piece of wood that is straight, clear, and thick enough to build a guitar.

However, I think that alder DOES have some sort of response and resonance because of the point I mentioned about my alder bodied bass vibrating like mad on the low E. Other notes just don't get the same vibration that that one does. (this may however have more to do with length of the string at certain frets.) I love this discussion. It makes me think.

And to answer the thing about poplar, I have seen guitars made out of poplar, just havent played any. Basswood is also used fairly widely and that is a really soft wood, as you probably know, typically used for carving.

Guitars have been made out of all sorts of materials: plastic, foam, metal, wood, acrylic, composites.... the list goes on. However, if you are looking for a classic sound, nothin beats an alder body on a bass or single coil guitar. As far as guitars with humbuckers go, I much prefer the mahogony topped with maple characteristic of the les paul.

[funkcicle]

glad it got there in one piece, hope it brings many hours of happy playing!

[MartyNeilan]

The more I play it, the less fret buzz I am getting. Coincidence ?
However, I think the pickups will definitely have to be replaced if I ever decide to take this thing out of the house. Still not a bad deal even with the extra cost factored in.