Bassists, I plan to build a bass for my son, and I’d like to know what others like about their favorite bass. Do you like the sound? Then what makes it sound so good? What is the body made out of and what type of pickups, nut and bridge does it have? If it has good balance, where is the center of gravity–at what fret, or where in the body does it balance? Does it have a shape that makes it more comfortable? What other things about it do you like? Come to think of it, what strings do you like?
I’m planning to use a bolt-on Warmouth neck, probably a Jazz bass, maple, with a flat head to add strength. I’ll probably use a bolt on bridge, but could be talked into one that runs the strings through the body if it adds tone. The bass will not have active electronics, but I haven’t decided on the pickups, and I’d rather not have any extra bells and whistles, like a D-tuner or tremolo bridge. My son is into hip-hop, but I’d like to focus on the fundamentals here and give him a warm sounding bass with lots of tone that is comfortable to play sitting down or standing.
I’m also thinking about eventually building him an amp, probably rebuilding an old Worthington amp (flat frequency response and two 6L6 tubes for power) that I have laying around. I think it would sound good running through a couple of 10" speakers, but I’d like to know what you think.
The string-through body setup is supposed to increase sustain. Not sure what it does for tone.
Check out the difference in tone between maple fingerboard and rosewood fingerboard. I think the maple may produce more highs and be better for slapping and funk. Better yet, review both types of fingerboards with several types of pickups. Generally speaking, humbuckers tend to have fewer highs and single-coils more highs.
If you can find humbucking pickups that sound good, your son will thank you for the lack of, well, hum.
The 5- and 6-string basses are really popular. You might look into that as well.
I know that they make a whammy for bass, but I don’t think I’ve heard one on record. The really good ones by Floyd Rose and Kahler seem to require some serious attention: clip the ballends off of the string, clamp one end down, tune, clamp the other end down, fine adjust at the bridge. That may be more than your son is interested in.
Yeah, I agree about the tremolo tailpiece. I’m really set on a good sounding and functional four string so that he can focus on the fundamentals (no pun intended) and not get lost with a lot of add-ons.
I like the idea of a string-through body setup, if it adds to the tone of the bass. Solid bodies are still acoustic instruments at the root of it all, and the species of wood and string configuration make a difference. I haven’t seen any through-body tailpieces for basses though, which makes me think that either it isn’t as much of an issue for basses or the bend required is hard on the strings.
I used to play guitar, and I’ve built a couple of guitars, but basses may act a little differently. I’m thinking about sticking to a standard pickup shape, either Precision or Jazz Bass or humbuckers, so that he has a wider option of pickups if he decides to try something different later. Personally (being a guitarist), I like the idea of having a humbucking setup with separate leads to each coil, to allow playing with the coils out of phase, in series or as single coils, along with standard humbucking configuration (uh oh, here come the bells and whistles!)
I’m also concerned about the balance of the bass. A friend has raved about her bassist’s bass that sounded so good but was almost unplayable because the neck weighed a ton. Sure, I can lengthen the upper horn until the instrument balances, but I don’t know what is considered a good center of balance.
It’s actually fairly common, though moreso on the upscale brands. My 6-string bass has a string-through-body bridge, though it includes the option for “normal” stringing. I like it. Like 11811 said, string-through-body has more to do with sustain than tone.
There are only really three “standard” bass pickup styles: the P-Bass split humbucker, the J-Bass single-coil, and the MusicMan humbucker. There is also the “soapbar” style, but that’s basically a humbucker as well. Every type has a different sound, and certain types are better suited to different applications. For slapping, I believe the single-coil J pickups are the most popular. And of course, where you position the pickup is just as important as what kind of pickup you use.
I have a P-Bass (with the standard split humbucker), a Tobias 5-string with soapbar humbuckers, and a Rogue 6-string with single-coil pickups. They sound completely different.
Ideally, the end of the upper horn should align with the 12th fret. This helps with both balance and reach.
Bass builder Matt Pulcinella has some good thoughts on this page (scroll to the bottom).
Hey, thanks for the link. The twelfth fret seems like a good rule of thumb.
Regarding pickups, it looks like putting a Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position and a MusicMan pickup at the “neck” position seems like a common setup. It seems to me that this would give some tonal flexibility.
