Wood Etc. as it relates to Smith Basses..

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tamás Száva

What sound does cherry exactly produce? One of the leading musical instrument builders of this country told me that cherry was an exellent wood choice for a bass body center, due to its light weight and sound, but in fact I've never heard of any cherry bass.
It's interesting for me because -although my next bass will be a Smith for sure now- originally I've been thinking of having one built here. The problem was that I wanted swamp ash then, which doesn't grow in Europe. So we started thinkink of domestic wood choices and it turned out that there weren't so many. Hungarian ash for example (used earlier by German company Esh - used to own their bass-) has even more aggressive mids compared to swamp, and is usually extremely heavy, etc. (This lack of wood choice would explain why most European classical string instruments used to be built of maple, pinewood and ebony...)
Same sound as maple, or goes deeper?

Ebony is not from Europe. It is imported from Africa and India mainly. Many countries but wood form others for centuries including the USA. How about the Bow woods? Those are from Tropical America usually.

On the Cherry, it is almost as hard as Maple and Walnut so I don't see the light weight part about it. Many fine Hungarian Basses, Cellos and Violins have been made with domestic Carpathian Maple which is not so hard or heavy. Try some of that and I am sure you will like it. As for the Bass itself, I don't know what your Luthier can do but I would easily make good Basses with the same Maple as used there for Violins.

Tonight as a matter of fact I did a Symphony Rehearsal with a bass believed to have been made in Hungary. It has an Italian Label but is a counterfeit. It's my Bisiach labeled Bass. It sounds great and is one of my lightest Basses but not small at all. Must be the wood used.

[Tamás Száva]

Thank you! Interesting. (Yes, I knew ebony was an exception.)

Just one more question. Do highly figured woods sound significantly better? Are they denser? I would like a black walnut T&B and maple core, but I don't think I could afford figured walnut...

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tamás Száva

Thank you! Interesting. (Yes, I knew ebony was an exception.)

Just one more question. Do highly figured woods sound significantly better? Are they denser? I would like a black walnut T&B and maple core, but I don't think I could afford figured walnut...

Most of our GNs and even some MW Bolt-ons have figured Walnut. It is the degree of Figure that sets the price in my Basses at least.

On the sound, Figure is usually more molecules of wood brunched together thereby having more mass. Like rolling up a piece of paper into a small ball. It is no denser for its size then a larger sheet or paper. Same thing in wood or anything else. What sounds better is what your ear likes alone just like the taste of food. What some love, others hate!

[Tamás Száva]

Ken, I haven't made up mind which bass to choose yet, but now I'm thinking about ordering a BSR-5M-A. Do you build two piece bodys? (Without a center block...)

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tamás Száva

Ken, I haven't made up mind which bass to choose yet, but now I'm thinking about ordering a BSR-5M-A. Do you build two piece bodys? (Without a center block...)

The '-A' stands for Black Hardware in our code system. The only woods we do in 2-piece bodies without the center block is Walnut, Avodire' and Tiger maple. The Maple in the wider widths is as available. Walnut we have plenty in stock in wider widths. Avodire' is also currently in stock if you favor a slightly lighter weight than Maple in a light colored wood.

[Tamás Száva]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

The '-A' stands for Black Hardware in our code system. The only woods we do in 2-piece bodies without the center block is Walnut, Avodire' and Tiger maple. The Maple in the wider widths is as available. Walnut we have plenty in stock in wider widths. Avodire' is also currently in stock if you favor a slightly lighter weight than Maple in a light colored wood.

Sorry, I thought A stood for Ash. That's what I meant Do you have Ash in narrower pieces?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tamás Száva

Sorry, I thought A stood for Ash. That's what I meant Do you have Ash in narrower pieces?

Do you mean 'wider' pieces? No, currently all the Ash we have is cut into body wings and center blocks. We bought this lot of Ash in 1997 even before we moved into this building. It was about 500 bd.ft. of 8/4 (2 inch thick) kiln dried narrow width (5-6") lumber. In that same time be have purchased 25-50,000 bd.ft. each of figured Maples and various Walnuts. We rarely make a Bass using Ash these days as it is only used only our lower cost handmade Basses in the J and M series bolt-ons. Most of when we build are laminated bodies but in the solids, figured Maple is #1 by far followed by Black Walnut.