What wood for a bass body?

[Angel]

So, I'm having a go at making a bass. I'm looking for recommendation for type of wood for the body. Not too heavy, not too light, and it's going to have a painted finish so doesn't need to look fancy. 

Any thoughts?

[ezbass]

Alder. Warmer sounding than ash, lighter than mahogany (if you subscribe to tonewoods of course). Standard, vintage Fender fare.

[akabane]

Agreed with ezbass, Alder would be a great first choice. You can keep a nice slab of slightly heavier mahogany for your second build! (Then make it a 6 string and sell it to me! )

[paul_5]

I’m a sucker for ash, but yeah, it can be heavy. 

[kodiakblair]

Grab some tulipwood (poplar).  Similar properties as alder  when it comes to weight/density/hardness etc.

Damn sight cheaper.

[Cuzzie]

Poplar as said above is a good choice.

Ash - can be heavy, but depends on the piece, depends on how much contouring and routing for cavities you will do for weight get reduction.

Swamp ash - if you can get it will be good and has a more interesting grain.

Paulownia (empress) - eco friendly, lighweight, punchy sound.

Pine - under used tonewood but will do the job.

Basswood - again will get the job done.
 

White or Black Limba you can find Male good basses

To save some pennnies nowt wrong with getting 2 blocks and gluing them together then carving.

Shop around, there some very decent prices

[Angel]

Thanks for the info all! 

[kodiakblair]

@Cuzzie

Asking for basswood might get you funny looks. Closest we have is lime which is heavier and harder 🙂

 

Pine is great but depends on the variety. Fella up the road from me, Bonnywood Guitars, just uses white pine from the builder's merchants.

I got a bit of Longleaf for the slab P-bass. Weighs a ton and bloody hard 🙂

[Cuzzie]

18 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

@Cuzzie

Asking for basswood might get you funny looks. Closest we have is lime which is heavier and harder 🙂

 

Pine is great but depends on the variety. Fella up the road from me, Bonnywood Guitars, just uses white pine from the builder's merchants.

I got a bit of Longleaf for the slab P-bass. Weighs a ton and bloody hard 🙂

Agreed on the above - just depends on the source, I have gotten lucky on eBay a couple times, sometimes people start projects and sell off as they run out of time - best deal I found was some guy who felled an ash on his property and sold bits off reasonably at about the right thickness

[miles'tone]

Hit the reclaimation yards for some Victorian pine. It will be well seasoned by now 😉. I really fancy making a new bass that is over a century old!

[kodiakblair]

@Angel

 

Whatever you decide on ; get decent cutters. You want things to cut smoothly, that's not going to happen if the blade gets blunt halfway round.

 

Oh, and keep a swear box handy . If you're like me you'll be in profit by the time the build's over 😀  

[Cuzzie]

I would love to get all kinds of old wood and make some guitars up-just like this chap - I need to try to see the full film

 

[Dan Dare]

"Tonewood" alert... There is a school of thought that says wood species doesn't matter when it comes to solid instruments. I tend to think it's correct. A pickup is not a microphone - it doesn't "hear" the strings vibrating, but senses that vibration in a magnetic field and converts it to electrical energy.

So the important qualities are rigidity, weight and appearance. Any half decent piece of timber will do the job. As you plan to paint it, appearance is also irrelevant, although how well it takes finish is a consideration ("oilier" woods are more difficult in this regard). Construction - how well everything fits together, etc, quality of pickup and fittings - matters far more than materials. You could even use mdf, as do Danelectro. Have fun.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Dan Dare

[BigRedX]

11 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

"Tonewood" alert... There is a school of thought that says wood species doesn't matter when it comes to solid instruments. I tend to think it's correct. A pickup is not a microphone - it doesn't "hear" the strings vibrating, but senses that vibration in a magnetic field and converts it to electrical energy.

So the important qualities are rigidity, weight and appearance. Any half decent piece of timber will do the job. As you plan to paint it, appearance is also irrelevant, although how well it takes finish is a consideration. Construction - how well everything fits together, etc, quality of pickup and fittings - matters far more than materials. You could even use mdf, as do Danelectro. Have fun.

Exactly. 

Both Ritter and Baz Extravaganza (as well as a variety of far eastern bass makers in the 60s and 70s) have also used plywood for bass bodies. Ritter's was made of individually selected and coloured thin boards, while the Baz Extravaganza bass was from a sheet bought from his local DIY store. Both turned out to be perfectly good.

Edited July 6, 2020 by BigRedX

[Cuzzie]

First thing about ‘Tonewood’ is more I think about resonance.

If the wood is dead, it doesn’t matter what it’s made of it will sound rubbish.

I firmly believe there will be a difference, and even amongst the same species.

[BigRedX]

2 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

First thing about ‘Tonewood’ is more I think about resonance.

If the wood is dead, it doesn’t matter what it’s made of it will sound rubbish.

I firmly believe there will be a difference, and even amongst the same species.

Are you making bodies out of a single piece of wood?

If so "resonance" might play a small part, although I think if a big lump of wood, like you would use for a solid bodied instrument, sounds dead there is probably something structurally wrong with it.

If you are gluing two (or more) pieces of wood together to make a solid body how do you decide where the joins go. Do you test the body again after glueing? What would you do if once glued to another piece of wood the resonance is no longer right. Throw the whole lot away?

[Hellzero]

Because people like Robert Benedetto who has crafted a excellent sounding acoustic jazz guitar out of pine wood with knots everywhere or Ignacio Fleta who was able to build a terrific sounding classical guitar out of almost anything are highly skilled luthiers is obviously the forgotten key to succeeding in this task.

Remember that an electric instrument is before all an acoustic instrument.

A badly sounding unplugged instrument will be a badly sounding plugged instrument whatever pickups or preamp you put in.

If you can't hear the fundamental of a note and its harmonics when playing unplugged, put the instrument to the bin...

Robert Benedetto knotty pine wood jazz guitar :

Check also his fantastic book about modern lutherie : https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/resources/books/guitar-building-and-repair-and-setup/archtop-guitar-design-and-construction.html

[Dan Dare]

 

22 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Remember that an electric instrument is before all an acoustic instrument.

A badly sounding unplugged instrument will be a badly sounding plugged instrument whatever pickups or preamp you put in.

Given that a magnetic pickup is not a microphone, how can that possibly be the case? The "sound" of the instrument unplugged (unless you play it into a microphone) has nothing to do with how well it will work when plugged into an amp. Try singing or shouting at the pickup on your instrument. Unless the pickup has gone microphonic with age, you won't hear anything, because it doesn't work by sensing vibrations in the air.

It's actually the case that the better an instrument is acoustically, the worse it can be when fitted with a pickup and plugged in. My acoustic guitar - a 1975 Brazilian rosewood Martin D35 - is an absolute grand piano when played acoustically.  Fabulous guitar. I have a Martin thinline bridge pickup fitted to it. However, when I plug it in (via a high quality preamp), it can be a nightmare. There are so many overtones and harmonic richness/complexity that you need to control or eq out that you'd be better off using a Takamine or similar electro acoustic (that isn't a patch on the Martin acoustically). Horses for courses.

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Dan Dare

[Hellzero]

Simple and effective answer : the way a string vibrates, and therefore is sensed by the pickup(s), is directly linked to the construction of the instrument.

No need to argue more.

[Cuzzie]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Are you making bodies out of a single piece of wood?

If so "resonance" might play a small part, although I think if a big lump of wood, like you would use for a solid bodied instrument, sounds dead there is probably something structurally wrong with it.

If you are gluing two (or more) pieces of wood together to make a solid body how do you decide where the joins go. Do you test the body again after glueing? What would you do if once glued to another piece of wood the resonance is no longer right. Throw the whole lot away?

Are we talking me or a company?

Me I have done both, solid and gluing, and I suppose the true test is once it’s built.

If I didn’t like it at any stage I would not use it but find another use like maybe a swimming pool rout and test pick up placement, or practice something - no wastage

[Maude]

3 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

First thing about ‘Tonewood’ is more I think about resonance.

If the wood is dead, it doesn’t matter what it’s made of it will sound rubbish.

I'd strongly recommend using dead wood, the living type is a struggle to move around due to the roots. 😋

I'm of the opinion that the wood plays a part in the the tone, but such a small part as to be all but irrelevant, compared to differing pickups, strings, electrics, etc. 

I'd go as far as to say that you could get a variety of body styles made from different materials, different woods, ply, masonite (Danelectro), luthite (Cort Curbow) plastic topped wood (Italia Mondial), hollow, semi hollow, solid and any other type you can think off. Then use the same roundwound strings and EQ to sound as similar as possible and I'd challenge folks to hear the differences in a blind test. Certainly not be able to know which bass is made of what. 

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Simple and effective answer : the way a string vibrates, and therefore is sensed by the pickup(s), is directly linked to the construction of the instrument.

No need to argue more.

Construction, yes. Material (within sensible limits), no. How does a string vibrate on, say, a mahogany as opposed to an alder body? What are the differences? Can you demonstrate them?

As you say, no need to argue more.

[itu]

After studying acoustics and music years back, I think I might have a compromise in mind when people try to argue, sorry, talk about tonewoods. Every part vibrates, when they receive energy. Some parts vibrate more, some less, some have several vibrating modes.

One thing is the material. It absorbs (dampens) certain amount of energy from the strings.

Another is the construction. Chladni patterns, anyone? The shapes absorb something, and the placements of the parts have an effect on the absorption. Bridges can be in very different places of the body. That big paddle with tuners is one tuned construction part of the whole instrument. Thicknesses vary, too.

Wood is so uneven, that if the shape is exact, two parts are still not the same. I discussed this with a luthier (ac. guit.) who has built around 1 000 guitars. He said that when he finds a very good example of wood and makes two guitars out of the same log, they sound different, no matter what.

It would be lovely to do some research on (or read about one) where the bridge should be (take a look at the acoustic instruments), and how the headstock (Steinberger...), or body shapes tune the sound. Come on, structural analysis might reveal some interesting details from our dear instruments. What might the "tuned" instrument look like?

[Hellzero]

Yes, it's again easy to explain, a softer wood will have a tendency to absorb the vibration, when a harder one will tend to increase it.

Could you stop non sense, please.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Hellzero
Crossed messages

[Hellzero]

59 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Construction, yes. Material (within sensible limits), no. How does a string vibrate on, say, a mahogany as opposed to an alder body? What are the differences? Can you demonstrate them?

As you say, no need to argue more.

Yes, it's again easy to explain, a softer wood will have a tendency to absorb the vibration, when a harder one will tend to increase it.

Could you stop non sense, please.