Here is a question I am having trouble answering with ‘search’ and Google Fu.
I have a very light and soft bass body I am presently turning into a project bass.
It is an Aliexpress one.
I was worried it would be too light but with a neck on it seems to balance.
The thing is it is very light, I haven’t weighed it but I am talking about 1-1.5kg (guesstimate-I can weight it if required).
It is also quite soft wood.
It is a P and I am planning on putting on some flats- either cheap Alice flats or Ernie Balls- nothing settled yet.
Can anyone tell me what to expect with tone/ sustain etc with such a light body?
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You should be fine with it.
How body wood affects the tone/sustain of an electric bass, or not, has historically been quite a volatile topic on this and other forums.
That aside, Basswood is a body wood that is abundant and inexpensive for makers, so it is often found on less expensive basses. Because it’s soft, it is prone to getting dings easier than do harder and more expensive woods like Alder and Ash, with Ash being the priciest of these three examples.
Bottom line, you’ll likely be OK with the wood you have. Good luck.
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I am certainly interested to see how it sounds.
I am currently sanding and staining it- planned on doing a sunburst with Rit dye but this may not work, plan B is a sparkle red.
Will update when done but as always interested in discussion and opinions.
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The type of wood use on the body is not the indication how it would sound or what it would cost. It’s the availability of the wood inventory at the purchase it seems. Basswood was use in a cheaper bass for a while, then it was used in the music man stingray, Pine was thought to be cheap for a minute but then it’s an up charge on the fender mod shop (roasted pine).
What I can tell you from experience is denser and/ or heavier wood like maple body on my Steve Harris Fender feels great to play especially slapping. It feels like the vibration travels through the body and to my chest. It’s not something I discover right away but one day practicing without plugging in I felt it and once it’s registered I’m more sensitive to that sensation.
What separates the quality is the feel. Making the body and neck feel good takes a lot of hands on time and some types of wood feel better than the others. There’s not thing wrong with Maple they are the most familiar but roasted maple feels so awesome especially with satin finish, Ovalkal and Wenge are also feels great. If money is not an object I’d love to have an all ebony neck. Never seen one before but I bet it would feel pretty awesome.
There are some difference in tone with light and heavy mass but you would not be able to tell the difference by ear, may be, may be on the graph. If you want to make sure that you get the sustain what you can do to improve it is to add the slanted anchoring screws at the neck. This would ensure the rock solid attachment from neck to the body but even with that the difference is very mild especially when you plan to use it with flats.
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Hard to say on tone, each piece of wood is unique. With my tinnitus I doubt I could hear the small difference wood makes. And I wouldn’t worry about sustain. I have small bodied (6.5 pounds) basses that have superb sustain. I’ve never picked up a bass that didn’t have all the sustain I wanted.
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Sustain is a complete non-issue. Even my 3.5kg Rockbasses had way more sustain than I needed.
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My Swamp Ash basses all have amazing resonance, much more so than my less dense Alder basses. I often practice unamplified and I not only feel it but hear it as the strings ring out acoustically, especially with my Mayones: it just thrums and vibrates with the pluck of any string.
I suspect a lot of this has to with the solidity of how tightly the neck and body are fitted and the relative tension of the strings on a bass.
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Sure but it’s not directly related to density. Ash is a very resonnant wood, and Alder is a much more “snappy” sounding wood, with a lot of attack but way less resonnance. I like both (but my #1 bass and my #1 guitar are both made out of Ash …)
Also some very light woods can be very resonnant, like Paulownia for example. Pine is quite resonnant too, and not very heavy. And a lighter Ash body could be more resonnant than a heavier one, it depends.
Weight is not a really good indication.
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These were my points. Weight was not a factor.
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Yeah and I’m quite sure that the shape of the fibers and the internal damping of different woods will simply not behave the same with vibrations.
Ash and Mahogany bodies can have the same weight but the resonnance will be very different. Both are interesting but still really different.
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I agree. Different woods definitely have different physical and sonic characteristics.
My background is acoustic guitars. I’ve interviewed master luthiers of acoustic steel string guitars in their shops about their philosophy and approach to building their wholly custom instruments. One of the coolest things was to have them show me their stash of precious tonewoods.
Acoustic back and sides woods must be hard and sonically reflective, while topwoods for soundboards must be far softer, thinner and lighter in comparison. Wood for necks is still generally Maple, and most have truss rods, except in the case of luthiers who are brave enough to build ultra-lightweight guitars in the style of Golden Era Martins that did not have truss rods (not invented in the first part of the 20th century).
That said, electric basses are very different beasts than acoustic steel strings as they don’t rely on woods to entirely shape the tone, responsiveness, character and volume of the instrument.
Besides that, there is wood, and there is wood. Even a piece of wood of the same species, from the same environ, can very easily respond differently than another piece.
I don’t own a lot of basses (six, currently), but each exhibits a different acoustic voice. Since most are active basses with different tone settings and different strings, I expect them to sound different from one another when amped. But I’ve been surprised to hear marked differences in both resonance and volume of plucked strings on my basses.
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Back in the 90’s there’s a shop across the freeway from the Universal Studios called the bass company to say that’s it’s like kids in a candy store is totally an understatement. We took some pros visiting from Bangkok and picked up a few basses I worked up the nerve and tried a few basses. There’s a Modulus neck through.
That bass has the snappiest tone I’ve ever played the harmonics on that bass is so beautifully made. Then I picked up the Ken Smith burner wow. Ordered mine from them a few months later, 
.
I have a Status graphites neck on my Fender Deluxe that neck is so awesome.
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Totally agree, yeah. That’s why trying a few models of the same instrument is sometimes very interesting. I’ve had at least 20 Telecaster’s (probably more) and there is this one which imposed itself as my #1 guitar since more than 15 years. The body happens to be made out of Ash, quite on the heavy side.
As you say, woods are way more important on an acoustic instrument, obviously. But still, it’s something that makes a real difference on electric instruments too.
Also depending on the wood, there can be more difference from one piece to another. For example, most Alder body will sound more or less the same (with more or less attack tho), same thing with “cheap soft woods” like Basswood or Poplar, same thing with Maple, whereas you can see larger differences with Ash or Mahogany.
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As I have modified quite a few parts on my little Blackstar Travelbass, I found that those factors (ignoring wood and strings, which I did not replace) have impact on sound:
- High Mass Bridge (instead of classic bridge): improved sustain a little. Subjectively made the sound a little “richer”
- Brass nut (instead of plastic bridge): massively improved sustain for open notes.
- Using threaded inserts for neck screws: improved sound noticeably and sustain subjectively.
Please note that this is my travel bass, so I screwed/unscrewed the neck quite a lot., possibly softening the neck/body connection because of the original wood screws.
So this would support @Al1885 's theory that a firm neck/body connection is very important!
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I believe it’s critical. The only thing better than a super-secured bolt-on neck is a through-neck. You can’t get a neck and body more secure than that! 
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I agree 100%. My ESP Ltd B-4E has neck-through and it really sounds great!
Neck-through is an issue though, if you need to travel a lot, so another reason to sell it and get a shorty with bolt-on 
Interesting points, I am trying out a brass nut and a hi-mass bridge on this one
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Cool - if you like to “play” with stuff, why not try an adjustable brass nut, ie: ABM, Verstellbare Sättel
Notes:
- You need to make sure that you get the right one (size, string spacing).
- I had to put a 3mm brass plate under the ABM nut as it was not high enough.
- Also 125 strings can be a challenge, so I needed to file the E screw a bit. Now it’s perfect.
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Ah, before I forget: I could install the Fender high mass bridge in the existing holes of the previous cheapo chinese classic bridge, BUT: the “effective” string length changed a little, as the fender bridge is constructed differently.
Of course you can adjust that, but strangely enough I had to setup intonation differently on the highmass. Just so you know!
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I just got a plain nut- I’ll need to file a slot for it.
Also need to measure the placement for the bridge as it is not pre-drilled
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