LeftyBassist.com

Dammit. Basswood

I had one jazz bass with basswood body from fender japan. Build quality was great but it didn't resonate very well. Somehow I felt that the wood was "soft".

I actually tried the same neck on an alder body with better results.

I've been a luthier/ repairman for over 45 years. I am fairly versed in just what woods sound like, and what myths people believe about what I call the 'tone pie chart' and the ingredients that add up to why a bass plays/ feels/ and sounds like it does.
Even saying that, these are MY opinions. Yours may differ. I own 5 jazz basses, and 4 p-basses. One Fender Japan '62 j reissue, and two Fender Japan p-basses are basswood. Here's the breakdown- One basswood, two maple body jazz's, an ash body jazz, and a Fender Japan alder bodied j bass. I have a Swamp ash P-J Warmoth, a Squier P-J with a custom made neck, maple body, two Fender Japan p-basses with basswood bodies. I also have a USA Customs Ash '51 p-bass ash body, maple neck. After playing all of these instruments on more gigs than I can remember.. I can honestly say, you'll hear more tonal difference with a pickup swap, than with a swap from basswood to alder or ash. I love my basswood J bass, it has EMG's and the BTC system. It is clear articulate, and takes no second place, both prior to the pickup swap, to now- to my other jazz basses. The PROS of basswood, are no pinched neck nerves after a long night playing it.

Thanks for you breakdown of the different wood types, I owned several Fender Japan and one was Basswood and I really loved it.

Seafoam Green is one of the colors I have I always wanted.

I have 2 MIJ Jazz Basses that are basswood. Too light, and both have had different pickups as well. Although one is worse than the other, they both retained their dead, mushy tone despite the pickup change.

I would concur with this opinion. But I'd also agree with Matt. On a typical passive J bass, I'd be wary of a stock basswood instrument.

The only basswood basses (I believe) I own are an EB Musicman Bongo and a Fender MIJ Jaguar. You'd be hard pressed to say anything negative about either because both are active basses and can be EQ'ed easily. If they were passive, I might have a different opinion.

What is that? I guess that is shielding tape to ground the bridge. I haven't seen it done like that before. At first glance I thought it was a gash in the paint.

It’s not tape, just a copper grounding strip. That’s how they did it back in the day

Peter I thought those Jaguars are alder, are they not?

The bass I have owned the longest is a early 80s MIJ Jazz....basswood. I bought new then....of course tweaked it a little. Used to have a badass and emgs back in the day but recently put it back to stock....yes I found the parts! Threw flats on it and man that bass is just RIGHT. Was on a gig once and Nathan East flipped it over and sat in for a few tunes (one advantage of playing lefty strung righty).....he came off the stand and said....”don’t ever sell that bass...”
Yeah....not gonna!
I’ve played some boring basswood mijs too so.....check them all out!

Basswood is teh best for bass.

It’s right there in the name. Duh.

Amirite or amirite?

It's impossible to deny. It is in fact right in the name. QED

I agree with checking them all out. I've owned close to a dozen and they all had their own sound and feel. They were a mix of alder and basswood , and one ash. I've sold a few. All of them were nice basses, too many though and decided to down size and consolidate. Maybe I was just lucky. I still have five, three P's and two J's. I'll probably get around selling the 2 J's.Only because I've finally accepted that I'm not a 2 PU player, so they're just collection pieces. The P's on the other hand are keepers, especially at the going price point right now. IMO the good MIJ/CIJ's at the right price are hard to beat. Every time I think about selling one I pick it up and play it and always come to the same conclusion. Nope!

You're right, my bad. Good thing I keep a list of detailed notes on my desktop for each of my basses in case the memory starts going...which it is.

The grounding strip has me a little confused, generally that was a sign that it was a 62 reissue however on this bass the 62 re-issue also had a strap holder on the back of the headstock but this bass does not? Not too sure what else is different about the 62 reissue in Japan (electonics?) but I do not understand why a current Fender J bass would have this? As Matt noted this was done on the older basses as the Ashtray Pick Up cover would hide it.

Lastly if you have a moment look at all the lefty as Chicago Music Exchange they have always had a nice stock for us Lefties.

The tuners & bridge are also wrong on this.

The strange thing, is ALL the Fender Japan '62 reissue Jazz Basses, have that brass exterior grounding strip, and they're ALL crooked! Mine did, and I deliberately straightened it out. I removed it when I installed the EMG's. A note here- there really was nothing wrong with the stock pickups at all. The bass sounded really good, and I decided I wanted it quiet, with no shock hazard..and expanded tonal options.
American Fender reissue J-basses have a wider brass exterior ground strip. It's mounted straight, too. This is the odd thing. All of these reissues from Japan, do not have allthread saddles and reverse wind tuners, as an original '62 would have.
The American '62 reissues do have those vintage style parts, but have Stacked pots! Those were discontinued, as far as I know, sometime either just before '62, or in that year. Every original 1962 and later Fender J-bass I've ever worked on, has V-V-T, 3 pots. A friend in N.Y., has a sunburst 1961. It had a three pot control assembly, and it was original to the bass. Another friend had a nearly identical sunburst '62, and it, too, had three knob controls. The earliest j-basses, had a set of individual string mutes- brass plates bent into a 'V' shape, with foam mounted on them, and bolted to the body ahead of the bridge. Perhaps that is what Fender made the rear cover so big, to conceal the entire assembly.

MY experience, I've had quite a few of those basswood MIJ/CIJ, old and new, and they all sounded like mush. I tried Dimarzios, and Duncan Antiquities and what-have-you, and they all ended up sounding like mushy peas.

I had an alder MIJ, and that was money. Wood matters.