[quote name='PauBass' post='1282817' date='Jun 26 2011, 09:57 AM']For those who think that wood has no effect on the bass sound, listen to a Warwick bass and you'll see how it really affects the tone.[/quote]
So an ash bodied, maple necked Warwick Streamer will sound the similar to an ash bodied, maple necked Fender? Personally, I'd say the bell brass frets and active electronics play a more sizable part in shaping the tone than the wood in that example, but it's all personal interpretation. Unless they can prove mojo in a lab, if they can measure it, prove that this wood is more resonant and musical than that wood because of a certain facet, then it's all in the ear of the beholder. Wood isn't the same, two pieces of ash can sound different. Two pieces of old ash can sound different. A new piece of ash and an old piece of ash can sound similar.
There's so much myth and magic bandied around, - better wood in the old days? Fender used pretty cheap standard lumber, they've never been ones for hand selected magic tone wood outside of the recent custom shop. What about all those pieces of crap (Kay, Hofner, Eko, etc etc etc) made from the same era and quality of wood, do they also sound magic now? Of course not. Fender used cheap labour too, it wasn't a team of highly skilled ninja luthiers painstakingly handcrafting the finest musical instruments since Stradivarius, it was cheap labour employed in the production processes of the time who were largely unskilled. Fender had some genius designs which have stood the test of time, that's the strength and, yes, pretty much everything else is an imitation of the original and, in my humble opinion, there's your attraction. You expect an old instrument to sound better, just because. It's a rare artifact of a bygone era, a piece of history in your hands and, quite often, looked at with rose coloured lenses.
Contrast that to modern instrument manufacture, cnc precision bodies and necks may be more consistant but where's the love? Where's the mojo in a perfectly wound pickup? How can it have magic if it's exactly the same as the previous one? The sometimes haphazard manufacture of vintage gear allows us to believe there's something special about this one that the next one doesn't have. There seems to be a 30 year point, which is when an instrument is officially vintage I believe, where it also becomes strangely desirable. See how early 80's basses are now shooting up in price compared to just a couple of years ago. They're not any better, they're just more desirable. Maybe it's a thing where a player is playing an instrument older than they are, there's some kind of lure in that, I don't know. I, too, used to own a 77 Jazz and the build quality was just shocking. Not a Friday afternoon jobbie, the cheap hardware, the standard of routing, just poor. If you came across that in a modern Mexican Fender you'd send it back but because it's so old it's past the point of being crap, now it's called mojo. I recall seeing a late 50's P bass, beautiful looking, but the neck pocket was so wide the neck wasn't mounted straight to the extent that the G string was literally hanging off the side of the neck, utterly unplayable, but lusted after on talkbass by pretty much everyone despite the serious manufacture flaw. Somehow the age was enough for everyone to overlook the quite obvious lack of quality control. I believe it sold for almot 10 grand. Of couse, I'm not saying old is bad, just saying old doesn't mean good by default either. Clearly, they were capable of getting it right too.
Personally, I believe the best instruments ever made will be made this year. Next year, they'll get better again, but of course it depends how you define better. This year, there are already fantastic luthiers adding yet another year of experience to their skillset. These days there are luthiers actively seeking special pieces of wood, rather than just buying in bulk. There are a myriad of specialised parts manufacturers who've dedicated years of their lives to understanding the subtleties of pickups and electronics, they've studied the pioneering work of Gibson and Fender and they're standing on the shoulders of giants so to speak. They're building one-off instruments to be the very best they can be, rather than the embryonic stages of a mass produced item built to a competitive price point. I don't expect humans to get worse at something with experience, but seemingly some believe this can be the case with instruments, that despite all the experience and knowledge now pooled that mankind has somehow forgotten something about building electric guitars and basses. I don't subscribe to that at all.
When you click with an instrument, it's a wonderful thing. My ESP J bass has seen off a number of Fenders, Sadowsky, Lakland and other J designs. It's almost 25 years old now, but the thing is, it was a great instrument back when I got it almost 20 years ago and I think that's the important bit. It hasn't changed that much, other than it's aged a bit and looks a bit battered now. It hasn't gotten better though, that I know of, it just works for me in the same way it did back when I first got it. I remember thinking it was a bit special at the time. I've no doubt the Sadowsky was built to a higher standard with a higher quality of hardware, but the ESP does the J thing the way I want the J thing done. The Fenders, despite being [i]the real thing[/i], never sounded or felt as good no matter how much time I spent setting them up, whether they were newer or older than the ESP. Back then it was just another Japanese import. Being old doesn't make it better than the others or better than it used to be, being my idea of a great bass since I first played it makes it better than the others.
I think I ought to stop now
