Bass bodies are typically made of wood, although other
materials such as graphite (for example, some of the Steinberger designs) have
also been used. While a wide variety of woods are suitable for use in the body,
neck, and fretboard of the bass guitar, the most common type of wood used for
the body is alder, for the neck is maple, and for the fretboard is rosewood.
Other commonly used woods include mahogany, maple, ash, and poplar for bodies,
mahogany for necks, and maple and ebony for fretboards.
Other design options include finishes, such as lacquer, wax and oil; flat and
carved designs; Luthier-produced custom-designed instruments; headless basses,
which have tuning machines in the bridge of the instrument (e.g., Steinberger
and Hohner designs) and several artificial materials such as luthite. The use
of artificial materials (e.g., BassLab) allows for unique production techniques
such as die-casting, to produce complex body shapes. While most basses have
solid bodies, they can also include hollow chambers to increase the resonance
or reduce the weight of the musical
instruments. Some basses are built with entirely hollow bodies, which
change the tone and resonance of the instrument. Acoustic bass guitars are
typically equipped with piezoelectric or magnetic pickups and amplified.
Instruments handmade by highly skilled luthiers are becoming increasingly
available. Exotic materials include woods such as bubinga, wenge, ovangkol,
ebony and goncalo alves. Graphite composite is used to make lightweight
necks[16][17] Exotic woods are used on more expensive instruments: for example,
Alembic uses cocobolo as a body or top layer material because of its attractive
grain. Warwick bass
guitars are also well known for exotic hardwoods: most of the necks are
made of ovangkol, and the fingerboards wenge or ebony. Solid bubinga bodies are
also used for tonal and aesthetic qualities.
