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Choosing wood

If we want to understand the influence of wood on tone we need to divide wood into at least 5 different categories:

  • Softwoods

  • Average soft and dense woods

  • Average dense and hardwoods

  • Hard and heavy woods

  • Hard, heavy and oily woods


Soft and less dense woods

In this category we can find birch and poplar woods. They shouldn’t be used for guitar construction because of their low toughness, density. Their tone has medium extent and it is deaf a little with quite a short degradation.


Average soft and dense woods

In this category we can find alder wood and swamp ash wood and some kinds of mahogany woods etc. It brings good sustain, volume, and wide frequency extent of tones.


Average dense and hardwoods

In this category we can find very resonant woods. Maple, which is the best wood for necks and some heavier woods as mahogany, ash and also walnut woods. These woods make sound with great sustain, big volume and wide frequency extent of tones.


Hard and heavy woods

In this category we can find mostly exotic woods as ebony, Pau Ferro, Wenge, Purple Heart, Bubinga, Padauk, Zebrano, Ovangkol. They are used mostly for fingerboards, but also for whole necks. They offer clear sound with long sustain, but lower volume. It is recommended to use these woods for neck pieces because they increase the density of the neck. They can be also used to the tops combining it with more neutral woods as mahogany, alder or ash woods. These hardwoods can help strengthen and improve the sustain and also make the attack sharper.


Hard, heavy and oily woods

This category consists of woods that have different content of oil and resin and it can differ from the minimum of rosewood to the maximum of Teak, Cocobolo, Bocote, Ziricote. These woods have tone, which can move from good sustain and low volume (minimal oil content) to general deaf tone (more oily) and they should be used with caution strictly speaking with a thinner fingerboard or thinner top board. For example, palisander is an oily wood and it subtracts the sound from resonating neck and it should be used as a very thin layer. Or it could be used where it is needed to darken the colorful tone of the instrument that is too clear.

Na internetu jsem narazil na zajímavé baskytary od Mirka Vlčka. Zjistil jsem, že několik mých kolegů si tyto nástroje oblíbilo a nezůstávají jen u jednoho kusu. Mirek Vlček díky své praxi ví, co dělá. Léta vývoje mu dala pochopit jak dřevo, povrchová úprava, design, hardware nebo elektronika bude na nástroji fungovat.
Tento konstruktér neustrnul a díky neustálé sebe-evoluci dospěl k vlastním modelům a nabízí tedy to, co považuje za to nejlepší (…a ceny jsou opravdu přívětivé). Pokud máte vlastní představu z jakého dřeva, nebo jakými prvky nástroj vybavit, u Mirka nenarazíte. Jeho dílna je otevřená Vašim přáním. Z osobní zkušenosti ale dávám raději přednost tomu co má kytarář vyzkoušené, nebo si pohrávám jen s vratnými změnami.
text: časopis Muzikus (Zdeněk Wimpy Tichota)

Once when I was just browsing through the Internet I ran across interesting bass guitars by Mirek Vlček. I found out that some of my colleagues liked those instruments and they didn’t have just one. Mirek Vlček knows what he’s doing that to his praxis. Years of development gave him the understanding of not just the woods, but also surface finish, design, hardware and knowing which electronics will work for which instrument.
This constructor didn’t stagnate and thanks to continuing self-evolution he arrived at making his own models and he offers what he considers to be the best (… and the prices are more than amiable). If you have your own vision of what wood you want to use or which pieces of equipment you want it to have, you won’t hit a wall with Mirek. His workshop is open to all of Your wishes. From my personal experience,

I have a preference of what the guitar-maker tested or I play with changes that are reversible.

text: časopis Muzikus (Zdeněk Wimpy Tichota)

“Encontré en internet unos bajos interesantes de Mirek Vlček. Averigué que algunos de mis colegas se habían enamorado de estos instrumentos y que no se quedaban solo con uno. Gracias a su experiencia, Mirek Vlček sabe muy bien que hace. A lo largo de los años de desarrollo ha comprendido cómo en un instrumento va a funcionar la madera, el acabado, el diseño, el hardware y la electrónica.
Este luthier no se quedó estancado y, debido a la autoevolución, llegó a hacer sus propios modelos, es decir lo que él considera lo mejor (y los precios  son realmente interesantes). Si tenéis vuestra propia visión de con qué madera y componentes armar vuestro instrumento os va a escuchar. Su taller está abierto a vuestros deseos. Desde mi propia experiencia prefiero lo que el luthier tiene probado o jugar solo con los cambios reversibles.“
texto: revista Muzikus (Zdeněk Wimpy Tichota)

Vlček basses

Miroslav Vlček

Jackov 68
67541 Nové Syrovice
tel: +420 603 545 131

info@vlcekbasses.cz


skype mirvlk13

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