Being one who loves alder, I haven't the foggiest about purpleheart or osage orange. There is an iterview or article here at the site by Mike Kinal about the tonewoods he uses and their charateristics that you might want to check out. I have seen a few custom jobs with purpleheart. One other possibility is to contact wish basses (you will have to run that in your search engine). The guy there uses purpleheart, I believe, in some of his designs and might could help you.
Good luck in your prototype bass. It sounds like a really interesting project.
Doug

Thanks. I'll take a look at the site when I find it. Hopefully this will be something that will end up being more than an experimental prototype. Thanks again.

Shawn

I think there is a description of purpleheart's characteristics at the Warmoth website.

Bo

I haven't looked in to the Warmoth website deep enough to find that. I will take another look and see what they have to say. Thanks. I hope the purpleheart mass will be a good resonating body.

Shawn

Purple heart is a very greasy wood and needs to be very well seasoned for a glue joint to hold.
I don't know about the sonic properties of either of your chosen woods but aesthetically it sounds interesting. I have built bases out of scrounged particle board and bolt on necks that sounded great. I think that anything would sound good using Lawrence Sound Research Pick ups. I use their pups in all my projects and have yet to be disappointed. Good luck!!

You are exactly right regarding the qualities of the purpleheart. I use it for making pens and it is very waxy. The dust creates a health risk too. If the sound comes close to the overall appearence of the bass, I will be quite pleased with it. Do you have any pictures of the "particle board bass?" I would be very interested in seeing something like that. Thanks

Shawn

I have purpleheart on my fretless. My fretless is a neck-thru and there are two purpleheart stringers between three pieces of maple. Purpleheart, as I understand it, is a very hard and strong wood. On my bass it really adds to the look of the bass as it is sandwiched between the lighter colored maple.

Here's a pic of my Wishbass from the rear where you can see the purpleheart.



These pics are before and after I waxed the bass.

Pete

Greetings,

The purpleheart is a very strong and hard wood. I am hoping that the mass of the wings and the "stringers," on this one will act as strong resonating body parts. I must say that yours is THE most interesting bass I have seen. Very cool! The unusual body shape is very eyecatching and the open headstock is quite unique. How does it play overall? Thanks.

Shawn

I like the way it plays. It has an unlined fingerboard with markers on the side for the 3, 5, 7, 9, etc.

The neck is very thick and takes a little getting used to. It is extremely well balanced and has a nice tone.

The wings on this bass are poplar and the fingerboard is locust.

Pete

Very nice...Is it a three octave fingerboard? I showed a friend the picture and he asked that question.

Yes, it only has position markers to the 2nd octave (3, 5, 7, 9, etc.), but you can play it to the 3rd. However its very difficult because the distance between positions is very tiny after the 2nd octave. If you have a good ear, you can easily slide up to the 3rd octave.