Doing Things Wrong

"Tonewood"

This really puts a dent in the whole tonewood argument.

I doubt there is anything very special about those piezos. My experience is that you need the right mounting and electronics to make a piezo sound good, and it has very little to do with the sensor itself, which is just a little bit of semiconductor.

To sound good, a piezo needs to be incorporated directly in the physical support of the strings. And it requires a very high output impedance, otherwise, it turns into a high-pass filter. Both of these are especially true on a bass.

I have to wonder where he got such a great-sounding brick. Home Depot, or Lowes? Or do you have to get your rock-tone from some specialty loothery supplier?

When I run out of plywood and masonite, I'm going down to Loothery Depot and pick up a 50-pound bag of ToneCrete. I will experiment with different mixes, aggregates, and colors, always testing in the most subjective and un-repeatable manner possible, as is luthiery tradition. As always, I will report my results here in Luthier's Corner.

I'll save you some time ... they all sound the same.

I want to see a comparison of different shirt materials, straps, belt buckles, and beer guts.

Either you believe in tonewood, or you don't.

Tonewood is marketing nonsense.


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Such a simple idea, yet it makes a world of difference in finishing. StewMac - feel free to copy this design, I've copied enough of yours!​

Sanding blocks are 1/8" neoprene foam (mousepad) glued over 1x2 & 1x3 scrap pine, with 1/4" roundovers ( makes 3/8" roundover with padding. ) Use waterproof contact cement. The large block is sized for 1/4 of a standard sheet of sandpaper, and will also take half of a 1/3 sheet piece. Small block works well for details, inside horns, etc. The neoprene grips the sandpaper exceedingly well, wet or dry, and has just the right amount of 'give' for very fine sanding.