BUT, it really depends on the pickups dosent it ? when its plugged into an amp, how much of the sound is actually influenced by body wood and how many % of it is actually influenced by other factors such as the bassist, the amp and the pickup. when played unplugged , i do believe in a major tonal difference but once plugged in , in the case of G&Ls, they are known to be pretty consistent irregardless of body material or so i gather what i have read from dudepit.
i m not trying to say that body wood dosent influence tone. i personally feel that whilst body wood is a major component of tone, it is not the absolute determinant of tone. i think pickups , in the case of electric instruments per se the electric guitar and bass have a much bigger part to play. pickups are like lungs in electric instruments, for instance, throw a darkstar MM pickup into a OLP mm3 and would it sound just as good if not better than a MM stingray 5 ? throw a J-retro preamp and SD basslines pickups into a fender and would it sound better ? most defintely. retain pickups but change the body material ? thats not unheard of but its pretty rarely done.
its good to note that people who have actually TRIED both the basswood tribute and the swamp ash tribute have noted that there is practically little difference.
@tim1002
well , the G&L website dosent say its a SOLID SWAMP ASH BODY does it ? technically this dosent mean its NOT a swamp ash cap over a tilia body. its easy to dig up specs from manufacturer's webbies but its more practical to go to forums for the real deal people who have actually know the product well enough.
plus to have you know , G&L discontinued the plus line for quite some time. they found that it was neither here nor there.
to prove my point .. check out these couple of pictures shown over on evilbay.
heres the evilbay link :
http://cgi.ebay.com/A-G-L-L2500-Pre...393851407QQcategoryZ38079QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
now observe these pictures
a tribute L-2500 natural gloss/ amber, observe the ASH grain at the back.
now observe this image from the same seller, a BLUEBURST/CHERRYBURST L-2000 tribute bass.
the only way to tell if its a full solid swamp ash grain body would be to check both the front and the back of the bass for the ash grain. just look at the black back of this G&L L-2000 tribute BLUEBURST and its pretty Obvious that its a basswood(tilia) core beneath a swamp ash top
for comparison sake, here's an all authentic american G&L L-2000 with a FULL SWAMP ASH BODY. the grain is clearly visible from here.
do note. G&L DOES NOT offer the tribute series L-2000 premium edition with a swamp ash body and a rosewood fretboard. this is defintely and assuredly , a L-2000 USA made
well if anybody here remains unconvinced i can dig up a picture of an L-2000 tribute cherryburst which i saw recently with a similar basswood cap body with the apparent same approach to "swamp ash bodies" that G&L has.
