Need advice about the wood for my new P-Bass..

[beebob]

Hi there,
I'm thinking about building a P-Bass. The body will be made of mahogany and the neck gonco alvez and the fretboard of pau ferro.. Do any of you guys have any experiences with these woods?

Greetings from Mads, Denmark

P.s. Sorry for my bad english.

 

[line6man]

Sounds like it would clash. You need contrast.

 

[beebob]

Okay.. what would you recommend?

 

[Wyliee]

Let's take a giant step back and ask what your goals are.  What are you trying to accomplish sonically and cosmetically?  (what do you want it to sound like and look like?)

It's hard to hit a target you cannot aim at....

 

[line6man]

Okay.. what would you recommend?

It depends on your aesthetic and tonal preferences.

If you want a Goncalo Alves neck, I would either do a Goncalo fretboard, or Ebony. Perhaps Ziricote could work? Rosewood works, as well.

The Mahogany body can work with a lot of necks, depending on the finish.

 

[beebob]

i basically want the sound of a p-bass but with a deeper and warmer tone..

I have actually been thinking about using ebony instead of pau ferro.. would that do it maybe?

 

[line6man]

i basically want the sound of a p-bass but with a deeper and warmer tone..

I have actually been thinking about using ebony instead of pau ferro.. would that do it maybe?

Most people on this forum will say to pick your fretboard for looks.

Ebony would be slightly brighter than Pau Ferro.

 

[beebob]

okay..

i have heard that the fretboard is 65% of your tone.. hmmm.

i'm a bit confused right now

mahogany body and goncalo alves neck is that a bad combination?

 

[line6man]

okay..

i have heard that the fretboard is 65% of your tone.. hmmm.

i'm a bit confused right now

mahogany body and goncalo alves neck is that a bad combination?

How could someone determine a precise figure such as that? And how would the fretboard alone make that much of a difference when the neck resonates as a whole? The tonality of a guitar is the sum of many factors working together, you cannot isolate one factor.
Also keep in mind that even building identical guitars will yield different tonalities, due to variations in wood, even of the same species.

In any case, you're going to get a different opinion on the contribution of each part of a guitar every place you go. This forum, overall, tends to pick fretboards for looks/feel.

 

[beebob]

okay. thanks for pushing that useless fact out of my head

okay now i am thinking of two options

mahogany body and an all goncalo alves neck?

or

mahogany body and an all bubinga neck..?
would any of that work?

actually i am here too learn.. so feel free to come with advice and experiences you have

 

[dNA]

Can i ask why you're set on a mahogany body? I generally associate mahogany in a bass to equal muddy tone. But I could be wrong.
On top of that, it's hard to imagine what you mean by a p-bass, but deeper and warmer. Is it really a p-bass tone you want then? I'm not even sure what counts as warmer than a p-bass, because to me a precision is one of the warmest, mellowest sounding guitars I'm familiar with.

My inclination would be to say, stick with the tried-and-true build elements for a p-bass, and experiment with different pickups. I would bet a typical p-bass build but with different pickups, maybe an active circuit, would have the basic qualities but with more tonal options.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

here's the thoughts of a dedicated P-bass lover and player (live & studio) ...

the secret key to a great P-bass is the genius of its pure simplicity

- Alder body

- Maple/Maple or Maple/Rosewood neck

- one split-coil passive pickup

- passive volume and tone control


no fancy woods ... no active electronics ... no additional pickups

if you want to stay on the warmer/mellower side ... use a Maple/Rosewood neck, use a vintage style pickup (like what Fender, Nordstrand, Dimarzio, etc ... offer, and not something like and EMG, Bartolini, or Seymor Duncan), load it with a set of mellow sounding flats, and play with your passive tone control slightly rolled off

that's it, nothing more is needed. it so simple it's easy to overlook it

all the best,

R

 

[line6man]

here's the thoughts of a dedicated P-bass lover and player (live & studio) ...

the secret key to a great P-bass is the genius of its pure simplicity

- Alder body

- Maple/Maple or Maple/Rosewood neck

- one split-coil passive pickup

- passive volume and tone control


no fancy woods ... no active electronics ... no additional pickups

if you want to stay on the warmer/mellower side ... use a Maple/Rosewood neck, use a vintage style pickup (like what Fender, Nordstrand, Dimarzio, etc ... offer, and not something like and EMG, Bartolini, or Seymor Duncan), load it with a set of mellow sounding flats, and play with your passive tone control slightly rolled off

that's it, nothing more is needed. it so simple it's easy to overlook it

all the best,

R

The problem with Maple necks is that they need a finish.

If you want Maple tonality, go with Canary or Padouk.

 

[dNA]

The problem with Maple necks is that they need a finish.

If you want Maple tonality, go with Canary or Padouk.

pah! splitting hairs. OP never expressed any particular inclination towards raw necks.

Also, you didn't recommend Pau Ferro. If i was gonna go for a raw neck comparable to maple, i'd totally gun for an all pau ferro neck - it's beautiful. Though the canary neck on my P/J is great too.

 

[Cagey]

Pau Ferro feels more like maple. Very dense and smooth. Almost feels finished even though it's not. It's like the ultimate satin finish - impervious to wear - never polishes up with use. Canary is supposed to sound more like Maple, but I can't attest to that. I have a Canary neck, but I haven't installed it yet. all I can say is the grain is a tad more open than the Pau Ferro. Not much, but it's discernible. I know it's going to sound a lot different, though, because that guitar's gonna have wildly different pickups on it, so there'll be no way to compare them tonally.

 

[line6man]

The problem with Maple necks is that they need a finish.

If you want Maple tonality, go with Canary or Padouk.

pah! splitting hairs. OP never expressed any particular inclination towards raw necks.

Also, you didn't recommend Pau Ferro. If i was gonna go for a raw neck comparable to maple, i'd totally gun for an all pau ferro neck - it's beautiful. Though the canary neck on my P/J is great too.

Pau Ferro is a wonderful wood. I love the fingerboard on my Padouk/Pau Ferro neck. I was originally going to get a Pau Ferro neck for my Walnut/Maple/Bubinga body, but Marko insisted it would be ice picky, so I ordered Rosewood instead.
Feel-wise, it would probably be real satin-y, as Cagey suggested, because the grain is very tight.

Bloodwood is another option. I still don't understand why it is not a more popular choice. The red color means it only works on certain builds, but Padouk is clearly a more popular wood. Tonally, it should not be too far off from Maple.

 

[beebob]

okay.. now i have decided that i will go for an alder body and a all pau ferro neck.. another subject i'm a bit confused about is the nut.. what would you recommend? graph tech TUSQ or white corian?

 

[Cagey]

I like the Graphtech parts because they're slippery so you're unlikely to get string hang-ups that will affect tuning. It comes in black or white, so pick what matches the rest of what you're doing. If you're using a vibrato bridge of any sort, then the LSR nut is great choice. There are other materials, such as corian or bone or whatever turns people on, but the only time the nut makes a difference in the sound you get is when you play an open string, and even then it's contribution questionable.

 

[drewfx]

On a bass the nut material doesn't make nearly as much difference in terms of tuning, as the string tension is much higher than a guitar.

 

[Cagey]

I forgot we were talking about a bass, so forget the slipperiness and the vibrato bridge. The open vs. fretted string thing still applies, though. So, the nut isn't a big deal. At least, less of a deal than it is on guitars. On a bass, probably the biggest consideration is whether or not the nut will hold the strings in place. Past that, you're good to go.