The Truth About Tone Wood / Getting Into Bass Building / Purchasing A Cheap Bass | EP100

The Truth About Tone Wood / Getting Into Bass Building / Purchasing A Cheap Bass | EP100
We were delighted to welcome Wil DeYoung, Carey Nordstrand, Spencer Lull and Joe Zon at our luthier panel discussion at Bass Space 23 this year. The session was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the summit and a true pleasure to attend, as four masters of the field dug into all of the different aspects of being a bass builder.
In this episode you're going to learn:
- How much tone wood truly affects your tone
- Some solid entryway strategies for getting into building your first bass
- What to keep in mind when purchasing an affordable bass
- The story behind Michael Manring’s Zon Hyperbass
- And much, much more!
[ - PODCAST - ]
► iTunes: apple.co/1O6P2oZ
► Spotify: spoti.fi/3M7ZlbY
► Stitcher: bit.ly/3BZNc4m
[ - SOCIAL - ]
► Facebook: / scottsbasslessons
► Instagram: / scottsbasslessons
► TikTok: / scottsbasslessons.com

[@christoddheartogold]

The Quest For Tone article Carey mentioned is like a bible for me. In it, Mike Tobias says (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Fundamentally, every electric bass is first an acoustic instrument. If you add the world's best pickups and electronics to a fundamentally crappy acoustic instrument, it won't sound good." So yeah, wood matters.

[@Nicky_Boy]

One of my favorite parts to this when Joe says “you almost need to go in blindfolded and have someone hand you basses and listen to it” - so true!

[@mikaelsnare]

Yes, please do this!

[@6minus3minus2]

My favorite SBL discussion so far. So much experience and knowledge from all the speakers. Makes me want to inspect the nut of my bass and make sure it's fine LOL

[@davidblack8174]

@ZonGuitars I was a junior in high school when Thönk came out, and I had also just recently discovered Victor Wooten and Infectious Grooves (1994 was a great year for me - i joined the Navy that year!), and I remember the Bass Player magazine that came out with the Hyperbass article...absolutely mind blowing...my Zon bass accompanied me on about a dozen submarine deployments! No shift in the neck at all, unlike the thumb bass that I had been taking out previous to that

[@paulomartins1264]

Thanks for your content, turn tv today is just bad news, listen to your podcast turn our my much better day.

[@rikd5452]

One of the best, yet! Thanks!

[@Freebybass]

This is great! All are amazing luthiers and amazing people. So happy that this video exists. More please.

[@absurdcus]

loved this video, so much insight!

[@ethanlocke3604]

Hell yeah! Super excited for this one

[@TwoBadBassist]

Fascinating stuff! Thanks guys!!

[@andrewpinner3181]

Thanks guys, great knowledge & insights !

[@Rick-pi9zn]

that was the best conversation about tonewood I ever saw on the internet.

[@OsmarOliveira]

Awesome reunion right there! You should repeat this format with other famous bass builders.Tons of knowledge to be shared.

[@klaiejah]

I loved the genuine affection and camaraderie. Nice guys, much respect... 😊

[@BenD_Bass]

I built my first bass from scratch and by hand. My advice is make a list of all the materials and tools you're gonna need and pick 1 bass to use measurements. I watched this guy on YT Tchiks guitars. He made a Telecastor build by hand and I basically did what he did step by step with Jazz Bass measurements

[@admarhermans1]

Great conversation amongst bass lovers that built basses from ‘different’ perspectives, designer wise, but are a lot alike in their respective quest for almost perfect instruments. There’s so many great and very knowledgeable builders! In Europe too!! 🖖 🖖

[@zyxwfish]

There was a guitar store near me in Nazareth PA called guitar villa. Should have been called bass villa. The one room was just boutique basses. It had pedulla, zon, Ken smith, Warwick, Carl Thompson, Spector, sadowski, roscoe etc. This was back in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Back then I wanted to hear a modern aggressive bass. I was super disappointed by all those basses. They looked awesome but sounded dead, especially the roscoe basses. They look awesome but I’ve never heard a bass so dead sounding. I played several of them. The best sounding basses I came across back in that room was a fender jazz and a used carvin 🤷‍♂️ I remember thinking why do these modern awesome looking basses sound so bad? I noticed the more pieces of exotic wood they had in them the more dead and dull they sounded.

[@jcisme]

I see a 2 hour vid and think I will watch 10 mins.. 2 hours later.. Awesome stuff.. What great people we have in the bass world..

[@Mrflippyfloop]

This was fantstic. I could listen for hours, days, months....years!!

[@adammono1839]

Love this video. And Ian is such a sweet guy at the end! I love him for that! Keep that up please, and the killer content of course...

[@carlton1390]

Great discussion! Assuming that tone wood is a thing (not everyone does), the fact that the selection of wood types by early solid body guitar/bass builders may have been based purely on cost/convenience is no argument against it’s importance sonically. I believe that the sound of those early electric instruments (no matter why they sounded that way) built the foundation of what we expect and value in the sound of electric guitars/basses. This is probably why they keep being reproduced and new designs struggle to attain acceptance

[@drewlewis9412]

More of this format please!

[@BenD_Bass]

I love this video! I have a similar story. I got into woodworking, Davie504, and Vulfpeck a couple years ago so I decided to build a bass. I did it all from scratch and by hand. Learned everything on youtube and google. It turned out great for my first build. It took like 3 months because it was all by hand and I had to buy specialty tools and materials over time. It was kinda expensive too lol. Ash body, maple neck, rosewood fb. Its a p bass, jazz bass, and Stingray hybrid

[@bassnsax]

Expensive is right! Building one instrument - you are only getting enough supplies for that single instrument, where instrument builders are able to buy supplies and components in volume. That's super cool that you built your own bass, though! Great job! I've done a bunch of mods to my instruments, but haven't taken that last giant leap to building yet. I've toyed with the idea of building my own, but until the prices of materials settles/stabilizes, it's off the table!

[@davidwinokur2131]

One of my custom basses - 5 string multiscale 32-34" - has three 'dead' notes no matter what strings, etc. B, C & C# on the D string. Every other note is fine.

[@punkanidea]

Now i'm curious what bass Scott had problem with the B string was..

[@chriscantor6329]

If tone woods have some modest influence on sound, suppose you put a plastic cover over a modest body cavity, would that plastic "diaphragm" not contribute to the sound? Tap your fingernails on the body wood and then on the plastic pick guard if you have one. Doesn't that sound different?

[@davidwinokur2131]

The best sounding bass I ever made had a 3/4" mahogany body with 3/4" quilted maple top (both book matched), one piece glued in maple neck and a tulipwood fingerboard with Carvin stacked humbuckers and active electronics in a 'JBass' layout. Built it back in '95. It is currently owned by a man in Oklahoma.

[@noahfreeman8115]

Okay but interview Jake serek!!

[@Iofflight78]

The Acinonyx V1 is a great sounding bass. It was the first new bass I'd bought in 4 years. I tried to ignore if for a year and finally failed.

[@Zlofengir]

Love Spencer Lull! I got a chance to play that baby blue P-Bass that's hanging behind him; truly a spectacular axe!!

[@admarhermans1]

Leightest bass, with the best sound? Original early ‘80’s Steinberger XL for me.

[@vivasectv4095]

I wish Joe would get off the island, return to the woodshed, and finish my Hyperbass!

[@stevenheinje181]

I bad player but a decent scientist here: I think it’s very hard to isolate variable when we talk tone wood. It’s seems me wood variability times it impact is quite low. But there is something called confounded variables. Wood effects tuning, neck and body flex. Then there is just overall build, would you build better with pricey wood? Probably. When I looked into this a bit, I came across the topic of Dead spots on a P bass neck. Isn’t that the most clear example of wood effecting the sound the pick up gets, and that wood is subtractive! I’d like to here more about this, it isn’t just frets right.

[@KitBasher1]

Thunderbuckers? Are those thunderbuckers? I played a fender that was customized with a set of those, they sounded amazing. I want to put a set of those in my Steinberger 5 string.

[@robeggers5560]

now to really blow your minds, jazz basses are a single pickup hum bucking bass. You just get to decide how much of each coil you use

[@MattOnnMarss]

Hey bro i been watching your podcasts is there any way i can reach out?

[@sirhandelno3]

I would have liked to hear about Dick Lövgren’s (Meshuggah) basses. He has two explorer shaped five strings and I can’t find anything about them anywhere. P.S. He was a ZON artist until recently

[@robeggers5560]

wood 15% tone and 50% of the tactile feel. music starts in the mind and goes through your fingers. wood matters

[@basstor1]

Blindtest!!!

[@gcvrsa]

When it comes to how many pieces of wood should go into an instrument, I have to question why the use of PVA white glue an aliphatic resin yellow glue is so prominent. From a woodworking perspective, these glues are not something I would ever use in a musical instrument.

[@eds6889]

I can’t believe people fall for “tone wood” on an electric instrument with magnetic pickups. That’s some Spinal Tap level gullibility. Just listen to the sustain. Lmao

[@gcvrsa]

The truth about tonewood is that the selection of wood matters greatly to the sound of all musical instruments, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is lying, uninformed, misinformed, or quite simply deaf. The differences are readily apparent even to laypeople, let alone those of us who have actually built things out of wood that are intended to make sounds. Demanding that other people "prove" to you that tonewood matters is like demanding people prove to you that the sun exists on a sunny day when you are standing outside in full sun, or demanding that people prove to you that the Earth is a sphere, not flat. It's perfectly fine to admit that you can't hear a difference, and it's perfectly fine to admit that the difference doesn't matter *to you*, but the difference is very discernible to those of us with working ears and brains. If you can't hear it, there's nothing anyone can show you on paper that you are going to find convincing. The proof of tone is in the ears, not the eyes.

[@in2anthr]

How many of these dudes are offering basswood bodies? Now tell me wood doesn't matter.

[@ThibaultDelattre]

All the invited guests are some of the best instrument builders in the world, and I am not questionning their ability to make amazing instruments. I have drooled over theirs at some point or another. I might be the a**hole in the room, but I want to see data. All the science done, with actual data gathered with tools, reproducible experiements, scientific peer reviewed papers, graphs and all, prove there is no such thing as "tone woods" for electric instruments. "I hear", "You can feel" are not good enough measurements. They have too much of bias and vested interest in making a bass XXX$ more expensive if YYYY wood is used, and that plays consciously or uncounciously. I am not saying wood does not matter in the building. Wood makes sturdier, long lasting instruments, more reliable, lighter or heavier, better to the touch. I was a tone wood believer before, science just proved me wrong. Science can prove me wrong again. Trust me, I want to believe wood makes a difference. EDIT: I read up again on the matter, and might acutally be convinced that tone woods might really be a thing. It came from acutal data and reproduceable experiments and not from "You can clearly hear" type of arguments. As I say below in the replies, my point about not taking the industry at its word stands.

[@jmannn5462]

Besides pickups, what do you think makes a difference to tone in terms of instrument construction? In my non-scientist's opinion, if things like hardware and bolt on vs neck through construction make a difference to tone then the material used for the body/neck/fingerboard must also make a difference but am interested to know your perspective

[@ThibaultDelattre]

​@@jmannn5462 Quite frankly, I don't really know. I am just not willing to take what the Industry is saying as the truth when actual research says things differently. Some other peer reviewed work my draw some other conclusions in the future.

[@jmannn5462]

@@ThibaultDelattre Can't argue with that! And fair play to you for honestly saying you don't know something on the Internet, it's not often that people are cool enough to admit that 😊 P.s I also have no clue what makes a difference to tone in instrument construction apart from pickups

[@gcvrsa]

This is completely false. Show us this "science", this "data". You can't, because no such "proof" exists. The truth about tonewood is that the selection of wood matters greatly to the sound of all musical instruments, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is lying, uninformed, misinformed, or quite simply deaf. The differences are readily apparent even to laypeople, let alone those of us who have actually built things out of wood that are intended to make sounds.

[@JLong-py6mx]

A luthier buddy of mine took 2 FSO bodies that he had made with the exact same specs. The only difference was the wood type. He recorded with one then swapped the electronics, neck and hardware to the second body and recorded. There was a significant difference in tone between the two even though the only difference was the bodies.

[@in2anthr]

Spector did themselves no favors having this dude represent a bass company.

[@ElectricBoogaloo007]

Why?