Author Topic: Effect of top woods (Read 110 times)

robinc · « **on:** June 04, 2008, 09:25:45 PM »

I feel like I've seen a page on the main Alembic website that talks about the different tonal attributes of top woods. Try as I might I can't seem to find that page again. Can anyone help me out? Maybe I dreamt the whole thing...

briant · « **Reply #1 on:** June 04, 2008, 09:56:03 PM »

There is actually a good description of top woods at the Ken Smith site... as much as I hate to redirect this request.

Truth is with a neck through instrument the top wood has a much lesser effect on the overall tone as with a bolt on or fixed neck. I can attest to that with my two Alembics. Very different top woods but much of the rest of the basses are the same. Both basses have Signature electronics and both have purpleheart strips in the neck- however the Rogue has an ebony strip. One bass has zebrawood on the top and the other has maple. The tone is very similar - the bass with the ebony strip has noticably more low end and sustain but otherwise they sound nearly identical.

robinc · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2008, 12:06:57 AM »

so then is the top wood of a neck-through instrument mostly for aesthetics? I could have sworn I read somewhere that some woods, namely coco bolo, are coveted for their tonal qualities.

keith_h · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2008, 04:26:04 AM »

Robin,
There have been several conversations on this. If you search the forum you should find them. That being said I have played and listened to a Series 1 with a maple top and a Series 1 with a walnut top and I can hear a distinct difference in their tone. The maple sounds brighter and the walnut mellower.

While the type of wood has more of an effect on set neck and bolt on instruments this does not mean they have no effect on a neck through. Wood selection will effect the overall sound of a neck through instrument. The thing is it can be more subtle than with the other construction techniques. By the way you are correct with your statement about coco bolo being a good tone wood.

Keith

tbrannon · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2008, 04:49:10 AM »

Here is the body wood page- hope this is what you were looking for!

http://www.alembic.com/info/wood_body.html

robinc · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2008, 08:22:22 AM »

Toby, I think what happened is I looked at the body wood page some time ago and then somewhere along the line read something about top woods, and then combined the two memories so that I thought I had seen something that doesn't actually exist! Whew, run-on sentence. :-)

ok well here's a related question:
I've seen some instruments with through-neck construction but continuous tops and/or backs, as in the neck still runs the length of the instrument but it is covered by the top wood (and accent lams?) and back wood, such as this one right here:
http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_lionsroar.html

What is the reason for this type of construction? Is it for aesthetics, or does having the neck embedded affect the sound quality? My gut feeling is that an embedded neck would result in the top wood playing a greater role in tone, if there is any difference at all between an embedded neck and a normal through-neck where the neck is visible from the top.

keith_h · « **Reply #6 on:** June 05, 2008, 10:41:56 AM »

Robin,
I found this page but note that to me some of the differences are not so subtle.

I'm guessing that a book matched to center (BMC) top would have some effect on the tone. Whether it is noticeable I don't know as I have never been able to do a side by side. However I personally would BMC the top with continuous truss rod cover for aesthetics.

Keith

robinc · « **Reply #7 on:** June 05, 2008, 11:08:42 AM »

You found it, keith! That has to be the page I saw before, although I incorrectly remembered it as looking like the fingerboard page with little pictures and descriptions of various woods.

dannobasso · « **Reply #8 on:** June 05, 2008, 06:03:08 PM »

I can attest that the wood combos make significant differences across the product line. I have a spoiler 6 that has a purpleheart body , maple top w maple/purp neck. Very bright and focused. I have another wider one with mahog body, koa top and map/purp neck. Another Spoiler wide 7 fretless mahog body, cocobolo top map/purp neck. Another 83 4 w/koa body maple neck. Then theres mahog/walnut, maple/walnut, mahog/vermillion, ash/ maple, etc. etc. My stable has spoilers, distillate, elan, essences, epic and excels. They all have different characters and evoke different subtleties in my playing.
I have to admit that the mahog/koa wide neck through has the tone that always pleases me whenever I play it. If I only knew about ebony lams back in 93 when I had it built. Alas , alas.

dfung60 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 07, 2008, 01:19:35 PM »

The reason for bookmatch-to-center tops and backs and continuous wood plates aren't tonal - it's so you preserve as much of the beautiful exotic figured woods as possible. The neck structure dominates the tone, and I don't think that changes with the match-to-center faces.

When I had my first Series II built, I went up to the factory to pick the top and back pieces. It's really cool looking through the library of pre-cut top blanks and they were happy to throw planks that have not yet been sawed and planed on the planer to expose the grain. At that time, they referred to the top woods as their paint. Not to say that there's no effect, but it's not that significant compared to the neck laminate.

David Fung

robinc · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2008, 02:49:09 PM »

In a recent conversation the point was made that carving down the neck to make room for the wider panels of a BTC top changes the ratio of the mass of top wood to neck wood. This in turn changes the amount of influence each has on tone.

In simpler terms:
more top wood means less neck wood, which means the top wood has more influence on tone (and the neck has less) than it would have had otherwise (if not BTC).

(Message edited by robinc on June 07, 2008)