RKass Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Hi guys, New member here. I'm a pro drummer who's recently begun playing bass - i'm totally hooked! I picked up a s/h Mexican jazz bass off a friend of mine as my first bass. Really love the guitar - I think it's about 4 years old and is white. However, I recently tried out another mexican Jazz bass belonging to a friend of mine which feels much heavier in terms of the weight og the body. His is a little older (8-10 years I think) and is also in sunburst finish. I just wondered if my Jazz bass body is made of a different wood and how you think this might affect the sound (I intend to A/B it with the older model some time soon anyway, but i'm just curious). Someone mentioned that the sunburst jazz basses might be made of alder as it has a nicer grain for the finish - is that the case? Thanks in advance for your knowledge! Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Hi Rich and welcome. Most of what you want to find out about this is readily available if you take advantage of the search button. In fact there are a couple of very relevant threads running right now. You may soon realise though, that asking if different types of wood produce different sound characteristics is opening up a big ol' can of worms around here and you will hear passionate arguments from both side of the argument and from people who are talking from experience and those talking from their arse and then a lot from those regurgitating other peoples facts or hokum they have read somewhere. Wood is a natural material therefore exact consistency is not always present - similar woods may have different densities of grain, knots etc. For me a nice piece of wood for a musical instrument resonates clearly if you knock it with your knuckles (I've read somewhere that a really nice bit of wood sounds the same painted as it does unpainted - which makes sense to me too) so that should be up there with choice of wood. Hold the phone though, a solid chunk of well made ply can also resonate successfully too... try and get a guy who has invested a lot of money in a bass to admit that a ply bass can sound almost as good as his exotic wood bass... and then try and scientifically prove it either way. At the end of the day body wood can only reasonably be accountable for at best only a tiny % of the tone you hear from the speaker cab so don't sweat it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 But what type of wood should the cabinet be made of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 [quote name='Ou7shined' post='1090449' date='Jan 15 2011, 02:24 PM']Hi Rich and welcome. Most of what you want to find out about this is readily available if you take advantage of the search button. In fact there are a couple of very relevant threads running right now. You may soon realise though, that asking if different types of wood produce different sound characteristics is opening up a big ol' can of worms around here and you will hear passionate arguments from both side of the argument and from people who are talking from experience and those talking from their arse and then a lot from those regurgitating other peoples facts or hokum they have read somewhere. Wood is a natural material therefore exact consistency is not always present - similar woods may have different densities of grain, knots etc. For me a nice piece of wood for a musical instrument resonates clearly if you knock it with your knuckles (I've read somewhere that a really nice bit of wood sounds the same painted as it does unpainted - which makes sense to me too) so that should be up there with choice of wood. Hold the phone though, a solid chunk of well made ply can also resonate successfully too... try and get a guy who has invested a lot of money in a bass to admit that a ply bass can sound almost as good as his exotic wood bass... and then try and scientifically prove it either way. At the end of the day body wood can only reasonably be accountable for at best only a tiny % of the tone you hear from the speaker cab so don't sweat it.[/quote] Hi Rich and welcome to BC.. What Ou7shined failed to mention is that some of us are very shallow and buy basses with exotic woods because they also look good!! As proof look at the "Gear Porn" thread.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xilddx Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 [quote name='RKass' post='1090414' date='Jan 15 2011, 01:52 PM']Hi guys, New member here. I'm a pro drummer who's recently begun playing bass - i'm totally hooked! I picked up a s/h Mexican jazz bass off a friend of mine as my first bass. Really love the guitar - I think it's about 4 years old and is white. However, I recently tried out another mexican Jazz bass belonging to a friend of mine which feels much heavier in terms of the weight og the body. His is a little older (8-10 years I think) and is also in sunburst finish. I just wondered if my Jazz bass body is made of a different wood and how you think this might affect the sound (I intend to A/B it with the older model some time soon anyway, but i'm just curious). Someone mentioned that the sunburst jazz basses might be made of alder as it has a nicer grain for the finish - is that the case? Thanks in advance for your knowledge! Rich[/quote] Hello mate, good to have you on the flight. Probably ash or alder, but it depends on the piece of wood how dense, which tree, which part of the tree, etc. Some pros say lightweight basses sound better, I've heard other pros say heavier basses sound better. To me, it is all bullshit. All that matters is whether or not the instrument pleases you. And bear in mind it's electric so arguably the biggest influences on the sound are how you play, what strings you are using, how far away the strings are from the pickups, what the pickups are, where they are, what the electronics are doing, and what the amplifier is doing. It's very different to acoustic drums where there is an enormous range of material, construction and tuning variables that make up the sounds. All the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 [quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1090501' date='Jan 15 2011, 03:07 PM']But what type of wood should the cabinet be made of? [/quote] Basswood. OLP basses use basswood and sound great, so it makes sense to make cabs with basswood too (ok, I'll get my coat ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I was around a friend's house earlier with my new Fender Zone - sorry...I can't stop talking about it - it sounded completely different when he played it to when I played it..so are we know also going to take into consideration the size of your fingers, the toughness of your skin and how hard you hit/pluck the strings? It seems to me that there are many variables..some more obvious than others!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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