Bass Guitar Woods input

[Lake Placid Blues]

What tone woods do you like bass guitars to be constructed from and why?

I'm kinda thinking about building a bass but don't know that much about what works best for bass guitars. I do know the best sounding bass guitar I have heard was an old bandmate's Warwick with a wenge neck.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Do you have a specific tone in mind? Certain timber combinations and construction methods are going to bias things towards a Fender sound. Others will come out closer to the Warwick that you admire. There is only so much that active EQ can correct.

 

[youngthrasher9]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

What funk said. Theoretically speaking (stressing the fact that I'm not speaking out of first hand experience), mid range heavy woods would be best for a bass, because the bass needs the extra mids in mix. If I were building a bass I would do some strange combonation of woods like walnut through neck with wenge laminates, and maple body wings. But if you liked the tone of the wenge neck that would be your best bet. A huge influence on the sound of a bass IMO is the bridge.

Tl;DR: I'm no help at all.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Was the Warwick neck-through?

If not you can just get such a neck from USACG or Warmoth or whatever.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Oak

 

[Bludave]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

I've always been partial to the tone of a Fender P bass. So I believe they are mad of Swamp ash. I also like the feel of Rosewood fingerboards. The Rosewood tends to give a bass a little more low end.

 

[JohnJohn]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

+1 to what's been said so far.

Oak

Oak does have a rich dark tone for bass, but is a bugger to finish if you don't pore fill it; unless you're planning on using a fairly dense finish.

The harder the wood the brighter the tone, so a lot of higher end companies use dense woods for a deep tone that isn't too brittle sounding.
The offset is the weight.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Until we hear more from LPB about what he`S trying to achieve, I have nothing much to add. Bass is not = bass

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Actually I don't know (remember) if Rick's Warwick was neck through or not. Nonetheless, I think I will go with a wenge neck, probably bolt on. I have no idea what body wood should match up with that.

I'm kinda thinking of building a bass for my old bass playing buddy from college. He had an Ibanez back in the day that weighed like nothing, but it was stolen right out of his drive way a few years later after coming home from a jam session. At the time I was in a new band project and the bass player in that band bought this lite weight bass from a local 2nd hand shop to gig with all night. I only found out later that my buddy's wife had been saving up to buy that exact bass as a replacement for my buddy's stolen bass. My buddy has a bad back. She was kind a pissed that we bought that bass out from under her. (actually it wasn't a great sounding bass guitar at all, and I'm not sure extra lite weight is really a good thing in a bass guitar) Iv'e always thought about building a bass for them since then.

What I remember liking about the Warwick was the depth of the tone. It was like deep blue lake of warm clean water to try and describe the tone in visual terms. It also had some punch to the tone. You could feel the notes. The fundamental resonated right through your bones.

 

[JohnJohn]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

Sounds like the Soundgear series.
They looked cool and were lightweight but not the greatest sounding to me.
Some were basswood and some were ash, (the ash ones had an A after the model number).

I bought one and hated the sound, really lightweight and comfortable but it wasn't enough to get past the tone. I got lucky and had a chance to dump that and pick up an Alembic, sounded and played amazing but the weight was crazy.
The Alembic was the only bass I've owned that sounded and played great, but was also extremely handy for combat.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Bass Guitar Woods input

I'm not sure what warwick uses, but I'm a fan of a mahogany body with a wenge neck. For fingerboard, I've played and liked wenge, rosewood, and ebony with those body / neck woods. Maybe getting a bit ahead here, but for electronics I'd go with Bartolini Soapbars and a 2 or 3 band EQ.