Got wood for bass tone?

Let's talk wood and how it influences the sound of your bass.

Most modern bass guitars are still primarily made out of wood. There are some high-end manufacturers who are building bass guitars out of graphite, plastics and composites. I won't talk about those materials here but rather I'd like to focus on the most common wood options available to bass players.

Obviously you'll find wood in three areas of construction for a bass guitar: the body, the neck and fretboard.

I found an excellent resource which goes into great detail about wood and it's tonal characteristics. Allow me to summarize in a reasonably consistent way. I will assign a number ratio to the low, mid and hi frequency ranges. For example, a rating of low=5, mid=5, hi=5 would represent a very flat frequency response. A rating of low=4, mid=6, hi=4 would represent a wood with a relatively strong midrange response.


Basswood

• low=4 mid=6 hi=4
• Basswood is typically used as a body wood. This is a soft, light-weight and inexpensive wood. Used in the production of a lot of discount basses. IMHO, I wouldn't touch a bass made with this wood.
• 

Alder

• low=5 mid=6 hi=5
• Alder is harder, light-weight and fairly inexpensive. This is a very common body wood used by many reputable manufactures. Found standard in many Fender P and Jazz basses. Jaco's 'bass of doom' was an alder body.
• 

Swamp ash

• low=5 mid=5 hi=6
• Swamp ash is a little heavier and hard body wood. More expensive. Very beautiful figure in the grain. A body wood very popular with Ernie Ball and many fender models. My personal favourite sounding and looking body wood.
• 

Maple

• low=4 mid=5 hi=6
• Good ole Canadian Maple is heavy and hard. Very pretty and rugged. Used both as a body, neck and fretboard wood. There are several varieties of maple. I really love the sound of a maple neck with a maple fretboard because of the bright overtones produced at the fretboard. As a neck wood, it is very commonly used as it transmits vibration very effectively to the body wood thus showcasing the sonic character of the body wood.
• 

Mahogany

• low=6 mid=5 hi=6
• Mohagany is considered quite thick sounding as it sounds slightly scooped in the mid range. Used in both body and neck construction.
• 

Rosewood

• low=5 mid=5 hi=4
• Rosewood is very common fretboard wood. It's darker sounding than maple with less harmonic overtone content. Good for a big round bass sound.

• 

Pao Ferro

• low=5 mid=5 hi=5.5
• Pao Ferro is nice and even response as a fretboard wood. Not as bright as maple and not as dark as rosewood. Alot of boutique basses feature a snappy sounding Pao Ferro fretboard.
• 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I owned a Musicman for several years. It had an all-around very nice sounding wood ensemble of ash, maple and rosewood. I sold that a couple of years ago and replaced it with a customized bass. I now play a knock-off fender Jazz bass with an ash body, maple neck and maple fretboard. Very bright indeed. This is the sound I love. What I like about this combination is that when required I have all the highs I could ever want - when I don't need them I simply roll off some highs with the EQ.

One piece of advice - take it or leave it. Next time you are purchasing a bass, before you plug it in, try playing it unplugged. Place an ear directly on the body of the bass and pluck away. You can hear the actual sound of the wood before the pick-ups and amp have coloured the sound. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear", some wise owl once said. A good sounding unplugged bass is going to provide the foundation sound source for your pick-ups - to your amp - to your cab - to your ears.