what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

[ravendouglas]

my fender strat is made from bass wood.i dont know any thing about basswood or its tonal qualities.the guitar was quite bright sounding befor the pick up change.so if you have any knowledge of this wood please feel free to pass it on.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

It's good enough for Suhr and Anderson. Widely regarded by cork-sniffers as inferior but it gives a good balanced sound. Perhaps a little neutral for some players, but fantastic for high gain applications and certainly not a bad choice.

 

[blueman335]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

There are two very different types of basswood, one used on high-end guitars, and the other used on cheap ones. Big difference in tone. Make sure which basswood you're talking about.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

I've got a Chinese Gibson knockoff SG that would obviously be one of the cheap woods, but the pickup it came with sounded good, a Brobucker gave me a top notch hard rock and classic metal sound and now I have a Dimarzio Moe'Jo that sounds fantastic and very hot without being sizzly or overbearing. I also have a basswood mid 70s strat body made by Washburn that sounds killer with Mooretone custom pickups in it. With the SG I play rock and metal and the strat is for stuff like the Rolling Stones, SRV, some early Led Zeppelin etc. I've had good luck with basswood.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

There are two very different types of basswood

Are you sure? There are dozens of Tilia species, several of which are known as basswood.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Soft...dings easy...sounds decent...but EXPECT DINGS!

 

[jeremy]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

by itself i find it has a fairly flat response with a low mid hump that can make it sound a little dull. slap a maple top on that sucka and there is a match made in heaven

 

[blueman335]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Are you sure? There are dozens of Tilia species, several of which are known as basswood.

Yeah, look up Warmouth and some other sitres that tell about guitar wood. When you see $150 & $2,500 guitars made of 'basswood', they ain't using the same kind of lumber.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Basswood was never consider a viable wood for Guitar back in the day of Lacquer finishes, Because it was thought to be to soft. But now with ultra hard Urethane finishes some manufactures have been using Basswood. I can't comment on it's tonal properties, But one upside is that it is very Light. When you've put your back out from slinging a Les Paul for 20 years.:eyecrazy: Basswood, I imagine will sound great!

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Yeah, look up Warmouth and some other sitres that tell about guitar wood. When you see $150 & $2,500 guitars made of 'basswood', they ain't using the same kind of lumber.

Warmoth makes no mention of two different kinds. Neither does the Anderson site (though it does mention that some other species were briefly and mistakenly thought to be basswood).

There are about 30 species of Tilia, several of which are commonly known as basswood.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Quality basswood is an excellent tone wood for certain tones and styles. Alan Holdsworth (who had a very smooth almost sax like tone) started using it in the 80's, and it also became popular to use it on guitars with locking trems to help thicken them up. It's gives a fat midrangey tone with warm highs, and a fairly smooth attack. It's not (by itself) for styles that demand real strong and tight lows with dropped tunings. The response is too soft for that. It's very different from say ash that has more agressive pick attack and stronger highs and lows. For some this can be heard as "bland". Basswood is often mixed with maple to give it more punch in the lows and more pop in the highs. Surh says that basswood with a maple top is awesome.

I built a few guitars with basswood (they sounded good) and one of my best guitars is basswood with a maple top. It has very strong bass actually.

 

[357mag]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

So when you buy one of these coveted MIJ Strats that are made with Basswood are you getting the great Basswood or are you getting the lousy Basswood?

 

[uOpt]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

I have a Roadstar which probably is basswood, and a MM Steve Morse which is poplar. I can tell you that these blend right into the different kinds and individual pieces of Ash and Alder you hear. Ash in particular varies greatly.

The poplar axe is actually impressive, but it also has a tune-o-matic, not a tremolo, so who knows what happens with a trem.

 

[blueman335]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Are you sure? There are dozens of Tilia species, several of which are known as basswood.

At Jemsite.com, there's a Guitar Wood FAQ. It says that: "Japanese factories see to get a tan colored, more uniform basswood, while other Asian factories get a more flawed yellowish basswood. And there seems to be a big difference in tone. A clearer, darker basswood should prduce more sound, while the yellowish lower grade seems to have more of the undersirable total qualities of poplar."

It also says that basswood is a soft wood with tight grain. Highs are dampened and smoothed, which helps offset the tinny sound associated with knife edge tremelo contacts. The softness also fosters a weak low end. It's light weight is from a low overall mass, not large pores. Complex overtones are muted along with highs, leaving a strong fundemental tone.

 

[blueman335]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

So when you buy one of these coveted MIJ Strats that are made with Basswood are you getting the great Basswood or are you getting the lousy Basswood?

Looks like you're getting the good stuff. No wonder they're coveted.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

by itself i find it has a fairly flat response with a low mid hump that can make it sound a little dull. slap a maple top on that sucka and there is a match made in heaven

Nailed it...

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

it's the alnico 4 of tone-wood....

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

At Jemsite.com, there's a Guitar Wood FAQ. [snip]

It basically looks like no-one can agree then - Warmoth's description is different as is Tom Anderson's.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

Basically there are two quite simple reasons for the conflicting info.

First of all, there are grades of basswood as with EVERY wood. It's just that one can have a VISUAL verification of the quality with basswood (the yellowish mineral streaks).

Secondly, with the 80s craze many manufacturers used cheap asian wood that had absolutely nothing to do with basswood but still opted to call it as such as a marketing ploy (just like many call Agathis or Nato as Mahogany). That was NOT basswood however of ANY kind, good or bad!

My own personal observations confirm the consencus, pretty uniform EQ with a small mid hump, can be great for high-gain humbucker tone because of that.
They get a WICKED 80s tone with the right pickups and amp settings.
I've played ones with a maple top too and while they certainly had more punch at least the ones I tried were kinda bright...

 

[Razix]

Re: what are your thoughts on basswood guitars?

I have 2 Squier Strats- one alder the other basswood. Overall, the alder one is significantly brighter than the basswood one. I would have to say I like each of them for their unique sound, I just had to match pickups to the wood.