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Post subject: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple pieces?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:00 am
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I am very interested in purchasing one of these MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS® SATIN basses...specifically the sunburst version. While researching the bass I found pictures of the back of the bass and I can tell that it is made from multiple pieces of wood ... like this one from Sweetwater.

Image

Is the whole body made from multiple pieces or is it an outer ply? I'd like to know before I buy ...

also, does anyone have opinion on how this affects the quality and lifespan of the instrument?


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:35 am
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so I clearly didn't do my homework :P http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/whats- ... dy-564377/

after 20+ years of playing I'm only now starting to get interested in how this stuff is made ... before I just liked to play them and didn't question the magic :P


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:30 am
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Very few basses are made from one piece of wood. There are not that many trees that are that wide and the bodies would tend to cup or warp over time.

I'll wager that all Fender bodies are made from multiple piece bodies.

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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:55 am
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BCbassman wrote:
Very few basses are made from one piece of wood. There are not that many trees that are that wide and the bodies would tend to cup or warp over time.

I'll wager that all Fender bodies are made from multiple piece bodies.


+1

Two- and three-piece bodies are the norm for instruments intended to receive a sunburst or otherwise-transparent finish. The four- and five-piece bodies usually end up as an opaque color. You can hide a multitude of sins under a coat of paint.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:27 am
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Fender has always used multi-piece blanks in everything USA made in ash or alder so far as I know. There has also been some laminated/veneered bodies used such as flame maple topped bodies.

Some blanks come from contractors with more pieces than others. The blanks are graded after they age a little. Obviously blanks made out of 4 or more pieces wouldn't grade as high as 3 piece blanks and are more likely to go to lower end stuff while exceptional 2 piece ones would be more apt to go to a translucent finish on a premium instrument. The Custom Shop gets the first pick and often master builders pick their own blanks from the cream of the crop.

As BC noted multi-piece bodies are inherently more stable. They are also more predictable weight wise. The body blanks have a specified target weight range so the contractor can mix ultra dense pieces with less weighty ones to land in a target weight range.

It does not matter if a body is two piece, three, four or five piece, it can sing or it can suck when compared to other bodies with more or less pieces. I can not explain why that is, but it absolutely is. You'd think a two piece body would always sound better than a 4 piece body, however I've seen 4 piece plus bodies that resonate BETTER than a 2 piece. I think it has something to do with mixing dense and less dense pieces but I'm not sure. (An acoustic-physicist I'm not.)

One REALLY funny thing is that MIM instruments often use laminated or veneered blanks with gosh knows how many pieces that for all the world appear to be one-piece bodies when finished translucently. I find some of those veneered ones actually sing as good as a two piece or three piece USA body! Why ask why? I give up trying to figure that one out since there are at least 5 to maybe 8 or even 10 pieces of wood glued together when you count the two veneer layers as pieces, which would count to me.

About 1990 I lucked into a method to winnow out duds. I use an "A" 440 tuning fork. You can line up several otherwise identical instruments, strike the fork, touch the base of the handle end of the fork to the body near the middle of the body. If the tone sounds louder while obviously sustaining longer than the fork does by itself then you just found a possible instrument. If the tone doesn't get louder or in fact the fork actually dies sooner than on it's own then right there is a tone sucking dud. Now and then you'll find one that makes the fork tone louder and sing for longer. Bingo.


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:00 am
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Thanks everyone for the responses ... I felt a little silly after I posted and then found the talkbass.com thread.. like I said I had never been interested in the "how" they were made before... just loved playing them :)

This has been very educational...


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:08 am
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case in point..


https://picasaweb.google.com/meridianmusicguitars/FenderFactoryTour2006?fgl=true&pli=1#4994463533223313426


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 12:36 pm
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I've got one and Fender did an super job of making it impossible to find any seams. Not only is it visually impossible but the surface is smooth and continuous by touch. They've really done a good job on this model.


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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 4:53 pm
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This has been a good thread. The number of body pieces really does not seem to be an issue. Picture a maple butcher block table....I bet that would sound pretty nice, or at least might. There are those that say the body has nothing to do with tone and sustain, that the whole deal is electronics and magnetics.

Those of us, which is most of us, that have been doing this for many years can tell you that no two basses sound alike. That is part of what makes it cool. The Moody Blues were searching for The Lost Chord, bass players are searching for that bass that is better than anything played before.

I love bass. And I love the hunt for the perfect bass. Of course, I will never find it, there will always be one better, and that is fine with me.

Watching Les Paul's documentary where he started out picking up radio signals and then ended up using a phonograph needle and piece of railroad track....bet that sounded different. But the search continues.

Brother Dave pretty much covered the bases....and offered a pretty cool tip, too.

Great subject. Bodies all make basses sound different, regardless of what "the world is flat" folks who espouse "electronics and magnetics only" think.

PS. If you can easily see the joints, I would put that on the manufacturer. Close examination will usually reveal them, but if you pick it up and see them...tsk tsk.

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Post subject: Re: MODERN PLAYER JAZZ BASS SATIN: is the body multiple piec
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:29 pm
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Neglected to mention that the quality of the wood in the neck and how the neck is crafted matters about as much as the body. Dead spots and Wolf tones are born in the neck, not the body. So the neck is important too. It isn't all about the body.


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