Why is Basswood considered low end wood when it is on great ibanez guitars???

[HDS]

YOu guys are all wrong, I have a guitar made out of a soapbar and man she screams! She smells good but I cant take her on a rain gig :/

Cleanest sounding guitar I have ever played.

[rvai]

^^ hahahaha

[kotornut]

I like the way basswood sounds. I think it works well for certain tones.

I however, unlike so many people on this forum it seems, haven't built tons of guitars out of different types of woods so I'm not expert.

[HeavyMetal4Ever]

Play what you like. Does it really matter what brand it is or what wood it's made out of?

I've got basswood guitars that sound every bit as good as my mahogany or alder ones, and when I bought them the last thing on my mind was what wood the body was made of. I chose them because I like the way they play and sound, simple as that.

Rock on!

[igloo]

At least it is wood.
What of the 20th/How does it sound?

[Invad3r]

Ive never heard Basswood being called a cheap wood. Interesting. The Type of wood doesn't not make the wood cheap. It's the quality of the wood.

[Matheau]

Originally Posted by Invad3r

Ive never heard Basswood being called a cheap wood. Interesting. The Type of wood doesn't not make the wood cheap. It's the quality of the wood.

Basswood is cheap, that is why so many low end guitars use it. There are different grades of wood and higher grades do usually cost more, but basswood is still a pretty inherently cheap wood compared to many others.

The thing is that cheap has absolutely no correlation to how good the wood is (other than if you are talking about different grade levels of wood), cost of wood is based on rarity and processing costs. If mahogany was cheaper than basswood, then low end guitars would be predominately made of mahogany. It has no bearing whether people thought one was better than the other, just a matter of cost.

[Hikey Mikey]

Originally Posted by igloo

At least it is wood.
What of the 20th/How does it sound?

I love mine. Doesn't sound "dead" or cardboard to me.

Play what sounds good to you!

[Invad3r]

Originally Posted by Matheau

Basswood is cheap, that is why so many low end guitars use it. There are different grades of wood and higher grades do usually cost more, but basswood is still a pretty inherently cheap wood compared to many others.

The thing is that cheap has absolutely no correlation to how good the wood is (other than if you are talking about different grade levels of wood), cost of wood is based on rarity and processing costs. If mahogany was cheaper than basswood, then low end guitars would be predominately made of mahogany. It has no bearing whether people thought one was better than the other, just a matter of cost.

I guess this explains why the JEM UV777 is made out of basswood. Weird Ive seen squier strats and knock off strats made out of alder. Low end Jacksons made out of Alder. Other brands as well selling cheap guitars, and using wood other than Basswood.

[Tank]

Originally Posted by lashing

Wow, it amazes me how guitar players cannot wrap their heads around this topic. ...
....
....
TURN THE GAIN DOWN if you are going to argue wood.

Thanks for that insight, you have just shown that you have ZIPPO, ZERO or ABSOLUTELY NO idea what you are talking about.
First of all, if you listen to Vai, Gilbert or Satch -> They actually use quite little gain, compared to say Petrucci or Hammet.
Secondly if you cannot hear the difference between a basswood and an alder guitar (same build as both are JEMs) even at high gain, then you should consult your nearest ear specialist.

What people do not understand is, that there are different wood qualities. You can build a basswood guitar from woods that cost you below 100 bucks. But also behold that basswood can actually become very very expensive if you look for higher quality woods. Same as with every other wood, there are cheap mahagony guitars you know...
Wood selection is one of the most problamatic things for a luthier and I swear my basswood RG550 sounds different than the JEM and the JS (not only bc of pickups as the RG has PAF Pros like the FP).

And last I have to say: Even if wood would only make a difference at low gain, a Pro (like Vai or Satch) would still use the best wood they can, cause you know they have even clean played songs... So I think when a Pro world famous guitarist can have a guitar custom built to suit their liking, they chose what they think is the best in any particular way they can. Vai doesn't care if basswood is cheaper than Koa, if he wanted a Koa guitar for clean playing, he would use one in a heartbeat and Ibanez would make a special model and sell it for 7k in no time.

[ZippoTragedy]

To my ear, Basswood is much darker than Mahogany; a Mahogany with a Maple cap will be brighter than just a straight Mahogany guitar.

I had a Basswood RG255oZ, and I hated it. To my ears, every pickup that I put in there sounded awful, or simply never reached its potential (comparing the tones I got out of the pups in other guitars). I finally ditched it, and I never looked back.

My RGA121NTF, however, is a kick-ass axe, and I love it. I have modified the piss out of it, but all of my upgrades were well thopught out and improved the guitar to my tastes and tone pallette.

I don't think there's any comparison, imo. Two totally different guitars.

My Fender EVH Wolfgang is an amazing guitar - absolutely amazing. It is Basswood, which was initially a turn-off for me, but after playing it for 2 hours in the shop I knew they made some magic. Since these are actually made by Charvel Custom Shop, I would think that they could have used whatever tone wood they wanted. It's all about the 'voicing'.

When I play my Fender EVH Wolfie throughmy EL38 Suhr Badger 18, it sounds very muddy unless I tweak tones a LOT to compensate. It's not a really pleasant sound using the same settings, and always retains a high level of 'darkness' no matter what I do. That same guitar through my Swart SST 30 sounds amazing.

The sad truth is that most low and midrange guitar manufacturers are delivery instruments that have no special voice. They assume that you're going to pull the pups and re-load with your own choices. This choice is part cost, and part practicality.

Using Basswood in a ~$1,000 guitar like the RG2550Z, to me, is a matter of cost containment, not 'voicing'. The truth of the matter is that you need to 'see' and 'hear' the sound qualities that you're looking for to get there. EQ's and different pickups can make a considerable difference, as can the 'voice' our your amp. The better the understanding that your have over those key integration point, the more successful you'l be in getting a prime sound dialed in.



Two

[Agent540]

not want to read all the posts of this old thread you resurrect, but :

Basswood seems to be the best compromise between :

cost/availability/weight/sounding/solidity/reliability

woods have their own proprieties, that can be modified by any treatment they have
to "suffer" , and any add they have to come with !

and be aware of terms that could be "commercial" or scientific (like Mahogany and Nato)

[ashleighhhh]

basswood, alder, ash, mahogany ..... bah...if you are playing it through a 5-10 watts mini cheapo practice amp they all sound crap.

[Bmax]

Originally Posted by ashleighhhh

basswood, alder, ash, mahogany ..... bah...if you are playing it through a 5-10 watts mini cheapo practice amp they all sound crap.

I'll second that.

also any kind of wood can sound good or bad. The grade of the wood, as well as the shape its cut in (flying v, superstrat, LP) make huge differences in sound.

[Tank]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, was about time LOL