Author Topic: Core wood (Read 351 times)

mint_bass · « **on:** May 11, 2004, 07:53:01 AM »

hi

i was just wondering if anyone can tell me about how much difference and what differences different
core woods make to the sound of basses or guitars rami's dark prince has a purple heart core does is not so what difference does that make except weight for the core of a bass to be made out of maple etc

keavin · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2004, 08:28:39 AM »

i know a maple would sound warm & brighter as a core, and mahagony would be darker sounding darker woods tend to give you more midrange.and if im correct theres more PUNCH in the dark woods,i think mica can clarify us on that though.

rami · « **Reply #2 on:** May 11, 2004, 07:35:15 PM »

Check out this cool link:

http://www.durablewoods.com/purpleheart.htm

It contains a complete description of Purpleheart from the tree itself, the characteristics of the wood and it's uses.

My personal favorite is ...heavy construction and shipbuilding... Kinda describes the Dark Prince and future Blackbyrd to a tee!

Cheers,

Rami

mint_bass · « **Reply #3 on:** May 12, 2004, 03:37:58 AM »

cool thanks for the link i look fforward to seeing your new project Blackbyrd can you twell me anything about it or is it a secret i love the other basses you have i think they dark prince and evil twin maybe my favourite alembic because madasscar ebony is my favourite wood i prefer it to coco bolo or quilted maple i think it looks so exotic
look forward to hearing from you thanks for the info guys

andrew

mint_bass · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2004, 05:40:32 AM »

ok another wood question what is quilted maple is the word quilted just used to describe the pattern of the wood or is there a process to make it quilted

rami · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2004, 06:13:49 AM »

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the nice compliments! I love Macassar Ebony for the same reasons as you - it's exotic, sultry beauty. Even it's name is exotic. I had never seen or heard of it before until we made these Basses.

The Blackbyrd was originally going to be a fretless version of the Dark Prince. Then Mica and I got these ideas and just went with them...

It'll have all the features of Dark Prince but fretless, and will also feature Series II electronics with red side LEDs. As well, it will have a 21 or 24 karat gold inlaid logo with Abalone shell, gold ring position markers (around the LEDs), NO BATTERY - it will operate from it's power supply only. I'm sure there are other little details as well, after all this time, it's kinda hard to remember everything.

But it's going to be something special!

About the Quilted Maple; It's called that for the beautiful natural quilted (wrinkley)look. Sort of has that 3D look. You'd be surprised at how beautiful nature's own artwork can be!

Cheers,

Rami

mica · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2004, 11:55:13 AM »

I've been working on a few new pages about woods and their affect on a build. Here's my first draft for the body woods section, hope it helps:

Body woods

The body wood you choose affects many aspects of your Alembic. Some woods are lighter weight than others. Certain woods have a noticeable affect on the tone, while others are quite neutral. On our neck through guitars and basses, the body wood contributes less to the sound than on our set neck models. The observations we present relate only to Alembics, other makers will surely find differing results with their own techniques.

[color=0000ff]Mahogany[/color]
Specific gravity about .4-.6
There are so many reasons we love Mahogany. It's always beautiful. The vast array of figure that is sometimes subtle and other times shocking coordinates with any other woods visually. It just plain sounds good. Neither overly bright or overly warm, it's influenced by the top or back wood more than other body woods. It sounds consistent. Even though Mahogany can vary greatly in density, it usually produces a similar tone from instrument to instrument. It's the body wood of most Alembics and is a part of our signature sound.

All basses except the Excel come standard with a Mahogany body. All guitars except the Tribute and Further come standard with Mahogany bodies as well.

[color=0000ff]Ash[/color]
Specific gravity about .30-.55
Ash bodies are popular on many brands of bolt-on basses and guitars, and contributes to the focused midrange that folks who play these instruments enjoy. The effect is the same for Alembic instruments as well, and is greatest on our set neck models. Ash is found in a great variety of densities, and this will affect the tone greatly. The more dense, the brighter and snappier the sound, especially in the upper midrange. Ash can also be extremely lightweight, but this must be specifically requested and may affect lead time.

The Excel bass comes standard with an Ash body.

[color=0000ff]Vermilion[/color]
Specific gravity about .55-.67
Stanley Clarke has helped to popularize Vermilion as a body wood. All his personal Series I basses are constructed with a Vermilion core. It is more dense than Mahogany, and produces an interesting sound with a slighly brighter tone than Mahogany on the highs. The densely packed cells are interspersed with large cells. These help the low frequencies to yield a slightly warmer sound than Mahogany. The sonic differences compared to Mahogany are not glaringly obvious, but carfeul listening reveals their subtlety.

Vermilion is an optional body wood for any Alembic.

[color=0000ff]Purpleheart[/color]
Specific gravity about .67-.91
Many people are shocked to find that Purpleheart is naturally a vibrant violet color. As a body wood, it's one of the densest we use. Expect Purpleheart to have a bright sound without being harsh, and to encourage a good deal of sustain.

Purpleheart is standard on the Further guitar and can be special ordered on any model.

[color=0000ff]Myrtle[/color]
Specific gravity about .51
Standard body for the Brown Bass. Similar to Mahogany in sound, sometimes slightly heavier.

David Houck · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2004, 12:12:53 PM »

Mica, this is great!

bracheen · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2004, 02:00:14 PM »

That's some good info, Mica. A couple of questions though. What is specific gravity and what effect if any do the lamenates have on the body wood? Are the effects, if any, much different with front and back lamenates as opposed to just front?
Thanks

Sam

bob · « **Reply #9 on:** May 13, 2004, 12:50:59 AM »

Sam,

I'll take a stab at specific gravity, in layman's terms (and someone more scientific can correct me as needd).

This is basically a convenient way of measuring relative mass. You take some particular volume of pure water, say a cubic foot, meter, or whatever you like, weigh it, and then arbitrarily say that it has a specific gravity of 1.0.

Now you take some other material, of the same volume (e.g. cubic foot) and weigh it. If it happens to be brass, depending on the exact composition it will weigh something on the order of 8.4 to 8.7 times as much - and that will be its specific gravity value.

This is one of those cases that makes you wish the US would get its act together (I know, it seems increasinly hopeless...) and convert to the metric system. Quoting from the link below, 1000 kg of pure water = 1 cubic metre. I don't know offhand exactly what conversion you need to do to get that to come out as 1.0 something, but that's how it works.

Ebony, for instance, has an average specific gravity of about 1.05, which means most specimens will not quite float. So it's a nice simple way, ignoring measurement units, of specifying relative mass, density, or weight.

Somehow or other, density seems to be quite relevant to the sound of our instruments, but that's only one of many factors.

Here is a site that lists specific gravity for a number of different materials.

Mica - thanks for your notes. If you get the time (hah!), it would be great if you could also include some of your favorite wood links.

-Bob

mint_bass · « **Reply #10 on:** May 13, 2004, 01:09:26 AM »

that is some cool info guys thanks for the list mica rami the new bass sounds great i cant wait to see it i rememberthe specific gravity thing from high school where we had to make boats out of different materials and try to float them in water and stuff that was fun its one of the few things i remember about school i forgot the rest and im only 20 ah well it cant of been that important or i would of remembered it

bob · « **Reply #11 on:** May 13, 2004, 09:24:51 AM »

Now that I'm awake - even before coffee - the standard 1.0 something is grams per cc. Seems I had some extra zeroes floating around last night...

adriaan · « **Reply #12 on:** May 13, 2004, 12:00:49 PM »

Metrics are superbly simple. One cubic decimeter of pure water is 1 kilogram. Ten decimeters maketh exactly one meter (prepared to meet thy maker?). Now try and do a conversion from cubic feet to fluid ounces - I don't think you end up with a useable result. All hail the French!

bracheen · « **Reply #13 on:** May 13, 2004, 12:53:48 PM »

Thanks Bob, that was pretty clear. The part that surprises me is the more dense the wood, the brighter the tone. I would have thought the opposite. It just seemed to follow that dense equals low frequency. Guess I learned something today. That makes a good day, thanks.

Sam

terry · « **Reply #14 on:** May 14, 2004, 11:42:02 AM »

> It just seemed to follow that dense equals low frequency

Denser woods tend to be stiffer as well.

--Terry.