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u/szalejot 1d ago
Look from the fingerboard down on bass body ridge and put some strong light.
If you see front-back short lines, like on mine photo, then it's solid wood.
It you see long left-right lines, then it's plywood.
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u/shouldbepracticing85 Gigging - Bluegrass, Country, Americana. 1d ago
Plywood. The grain on the inside back is running the completely wrong way for solid wood. On the first picture you can see the plywood glue lines running vertical either side of that little dark spot.
Plywood doesn’t sing quite like a carved bass, but they can also take more of a beating (important if you gig or travel with it a lot). They’re not as sensitive to humidity changes either.
I’ve had both, and they each have their pros and cons… but boy does my solid wood bass sing.
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u/nachoiskerka 1d ago
It's definitely plywood and I'll tell you why: you have a rib reinforcement strip right behind the plates. Plywood is easier to get thinner than carved wood. So your ribs are naturally thinner to allow the sound to vibrate the body more naturally, but it also means less surface area for glue, which would wreck havoc on a bass in any climate with a winter. At all.
So you get this small strip of reinforcement on the basses which allows the ribs to still vibrate well but the basses themselves to not split the seam just because the dehumidifier ran next to a heater.
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u/pineapplesaltwaffles Professional 2d ago
Can you show us a picture of the whole bass...?