Visable differece w/ plywood?

[Richard Prowse]

Hi Billy,
I can spot a plywood, but won't try to give advice here because there are people reading this site with vast amounts of knowledge who will, no doubt, answer your question much better than I could at some point. I just wanted to say that I have a plywood that is well set up and plays really well. I played it solo (arco), outdoors at a wedding yesterday, and it did a good job - I think that playing solo outdoors is a pretty good test for a bass, projection wise.
If I ever manage to get a carved bass, as I've been trying to do, I'll keep my plywood as a 'road bass' - I've used it to play with some pretty good jazz musicians over the years; it's never let me down.