maple vs rosewood fretboard playability

When it comes to guitars, whether electric or acoustic, the components that make the instrument, the design, and the type of materials used for its construction directly affect the way it sounds, feels and plays. I would tend to agree with you Alex. The other end is on a fret, so the sound there goes through the metal of the fret, through the wood it's mounted in (maple/rosewood), and down the neck and into the body. Finished fingerboards and big frets are key if have the same issued as I do. In my experience Maple necks are more varnished, whcih also might make a difference to the tone. Looks. Some wood combinations are not recommended and produce undesired effects in sound and weight balance. Maple. As for sound and tone, maple will offer tight bass notes, great sustain, brighter sound and sharp highs. When replacing the strings, the rosewood seems to adjust easier. The Maple neck is generally brighter, a bit more percussive. No fatigue in my hands or pains. As to why they are chosen? I find with these type of things, and often with speakers also, it takes a night of playing to figure it out. I like both. Rosewood is the most common fretboard wood that you are likely to find on a guitar. Because it’s so hard, ebony has a fantastic surface and feel, which makes it a delight to play. Overall the tones are rich and spacious. I am sure I could not hear the difference between two fingerboards, and I think most guitarplayers can not hear it either. Unlike rosewood, the maple board will damage and far more easily. But the key is to work it into the grain to fill the majority of the grain. Guitars and violins and such must be humidified all year long in many arid places. Common thoughts about a maple vs rosewood fretboard bass Some bassists swear that maple boards sound brighter and more aggressive than rosewood, which tends to have a darker, more mellow tone they claim. Try it, fret a string, or have someone else fret a string, and watch it from the side. Maple and Rosewood. Since one answer provided a shout-out for Warmoth, I would like to reciprocate with a recommendation for Musikraft for Fender-licensed bodies and necks. Warmoth has a stellar site dedicated to the distinction between different tonewoods (neck and body). That also has helped tremendously in my playing since my arthritis has gotten worse. I'd love to see you in a blindfold test of different fretboard sounds. So if one neck feels smoother than the other, it must have smoother frets. This includes the pickups, chords, guitar body, neck, potentiometers, shape and accessories. But it's pretty minimal really. I typically use a Fender Stratocaster, which I thought should be mentioned. The maple neck should be brighter than the rosewood one. Volume changes what we hear and fatigue can set in as well. Lots of people (some quite prominent) say it makes a difference though. Now that I'm older and been knocked down a lil, give me a maple fingerboard or a finished rosewood board. My only issue with lacquering rosewood would be natural oils in the wood unseating the lacquer over time. Consider factors such as aspect, the long run aging and transformation, and maintenance requirements explained above. I created GuitarTrance.Com so that I can keep up with my hobby. I have 2 guitars with the "alternative woods ". I'd say tradition, along with the availability of the wood itself. The string doesn't make enough contact w/ the FB for it to have a dramatic difference. It's all preference and your ability to enforce it. If these wear out, it can tarnish, get dirty and get an old, overplayed look. https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2636/what-is-the-difference-between-maple-and-rosewood-fretboards/2637#2637. in this case, the maple has the snap. Rumor has it that this characteristic also increases the value and prestige of the instrument on today’s market. There are plenty of guitars out there that don't follow these traditional approaches so your mileage may vary. I have been playing guitar since 1964. Would you not want to use a Dehumidifier? ALL THESE ARE EASY TO MANIPULATE IN MIXING BUT IT IS TRUE. Would you consider editing the last two sentences (maybe even removing the last one) and keep it about guitars and not about people who have views that are different from yours? If you never touch the fingerboard how does it end up dirty/worn on frets you use a lot? Rose wood and maple necks are often combined with other types of woods for the body/neck parts such as mahogany and alder. So I did the next best thing, I started finishing my rosewood fingerboards like maple boards. Curious if it changes the look much. Maple necks are made from one piece entirely, unlike rosewood, which is layered on top of another type of wood. Opinions and advice can vary, and can be subjective, but after you know the general agreed upon facts, you can make a much easier decision in picking or replacing a neck that will fit your playing style, sound and music genre. Personally I don't get the playing problem even with sweating on my hands and on the fingerboard. There's many phenomena that fool our senses: colors look different depending on the light source, mirages that look like water on the road but isn't. I'd still go with maple. I bend notes a lot and it seems with a rosewood fret board that sometimes I have a hard time controlling the bent note, where as with maple I can control it a little better. Most guitarists characterize this as being reflective and neutral. The bottom frequencies are loose and warm. I have not been able to feel the difference. I own maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards on different guitars, and I can't even begin to agree that it "makes no difference to the sound or playability". There they are with different fretboards). There is more than just rosewood and maple! Don’t rush if you’re undecided, especially if you want to make a big investment. Maple seems to have a dip in the mids and sound sorta scooped compared to RW. https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2636/what-is-the-difference-between-maple-and-rosewood-fretboards/34014#34014. Just as you may prefer … The only thing to be concerned about is caring for the wood and the way it looks when considering maple or rosewood. If you want to see the main differences between the two, and how these types of wood affect your playing, sound, aspect and maintenance, you will find below the most essential facts and important features of the two categories compared. Smart guitarists use a hygrometer to measure humidity and a humidifier to keep the humidity at at a constant level inside the case. Does it bother you that the pickup is sensing a relatively small portion of the string length? It will make a bit of difference to the sound - one ond of the string is resting on the bridge, and the vibration goes through that into the body. You don’t have to purchase an instrument right on the spot you can wait a few days or a week while you go through various music shops ask around and collect information, thus educating yourself in the matter and making an informed choice. Rosewood is an open-grained wood, which can make it feel less smooth and fast to play on. Enough fretting. Dec 6, 2006, 10:15 PM Even unscrewing the neck from one and adding the neck from the other wouldn't be 'proof' of any sort. I think rosewood fretboards on Strats feel better, but I prefer the look and sound of maple. It also matters what time of the day you record and how you sit in you chair..yes..but these were sure audible. The rosewood is very durable. Most guitars today have the Indian rosewood featured on their fretboards. The fret dividers vibrate differently on each type of wood, but anybody who is pro will tell you that each instrument becomes a personal choice based off the sound, looks, and overall playability. You can clearly see that string and finger float above the fingerboard. The sound and feel of a guitar depends much more on the material striking the string, how that string is vibrating (perpendicular or parallel to the top), the gauge, length and tuning of the strings and whatever the string directly contacts (the bridge and nut). Of course, I want to engage with the community as well! Here are the main options — Rosewood, Maple, Ebony, Granadillo and Richlite. Maple boards are typically placed on Swamp Ash or brighter wood bodies and it lends a snap to the tone of the guitar. So it all comes down to looks. What comes out of your amplifier, ultimately, is a low-fidelity approximation of the vibration of the length of guitar string from bridge saddle to fret, as picked up by a high impedance pickup, routed through all sorts of exciting tonestack and gain stage circuitry, then fired back out of one or a number of 12-inch speakers. In my young days I would told you rosewood all day till I die. Maple is a common fretboard material on electric guitars but is scarcely seen on acoustics. Unless your guitar is setup real bad, that is. https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2636/what-is-the-difference-between-maple-and-rosewood-fretboards/5963#5963. So if you live in certain climates, you should use a guitar humidifier to prevent those kinds of problems. It has a lighter brown hue, close to the caramel nuance. The sound is mellow and balanced, the highs sound natural, without sparky sounds that upset the year. My current profession is not really music-related. The funny thing is; when you play the guitar, your fingers don't touch the fingerboard, and the strings don't touch it either. After curing I then spray down some coats of lacquer sanding sealer. Anyone who says the fingers don't touch the board, doesn't "play" guitar. Following the precisely shaped top surface of the maple neck, the result is an ideal playing surface, harder and more durable than ebony or rosewood. Guitar Fretboard: Maple vs Rosewood. In my younger days, I hated maple fingerboards purely out of looks. However I still wasn't wanting to switch to maple fingerboards yet. Hard, straight-grained maple is more abundant than similar rosewood, so the odds are slightly with you with a maple neck/rosewood board combo, I think. I never noticed before how much "work" I actually having to put into playing certain types of things. All the hammer ons and pull offs, slides, bends and taps.. all of it seemed so easy to play and execute on maple fingerboards. However, in time you should be able to tell which is which, so based on our description, consider which type of sound you would like to have in the long run. View attachment 184976 View attachment 184977 A fellow guitar player Kenny Blue Ray gave me a maple neck with maple fingerboard to try out. There are far too many variables at stake, and no amount of empirical evidence can compensate for that, ultimately. This makes the playing experience warm, organic and natural to the hand and fingers. A decent deep conditioner, followed by a little conditioning oil a week or so later, is enough to keep rosewood in top condition for 9+ months. Although I'm a bit skeptical of the claim that the fretboard makes much of a sonic difference, especially on an electric, since it makes up such a small percentage of the wood used. It is quite discouraging but I just don't want to drop my zeal--especially not to guitars! I need to play on more maple fretboards to see if I can really tell the difference. Maple Fretboard. I can only speak from personal experience on what I think is better, and in the end, its all subjective and a matter of preference. Single coil or humbucker? They definitely feel different too. Listen to a tele with a rosewood board, and one with a maple one. Can Rob and Lee tell the difference between a Rosewood and Maple fretboard? In fact maple sounds tighter overall while rosewood has a looseness in the tone. https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2636/what-is-the-difference-between-maple-and-rosewood-fretboards/31326#31326. Since you’ll be stuck with it for a while, choose carefully based on sound playability and your personal playing preferences and the music you like. Superstition. Unlike a conventional fingerboard, the Coform fingerboard is of uniform thickness. Cleaning a rosewood fretboard without damaging it can be done using wood oil soap, steel wool, lemon oil, and a towel. To be honest though, I think looks have more to do with it than anything else. The rosewood is naturally oily, so it doesn’t require any coating. Using Fender neck construction as the baseline, how would this tonal variation come about, simply and solely from the 5/16" of material glued to the top of a maple neck blank? Ebony frets cost around 10 times that of rosewood. Neither of them touch the fingerboard. Your 30+ years of owning two Stratocasters equates to exactly nothing in this debate. The Brazilian type doesn’t feature on guitars after the 60’s, since it’s been banned for cutting, exploitation and commercial use. As far as roasted maple vs rosewood goes, this is again a bit of a luck-of-the-draw situation, but rosewood may be the better option by virtue of the fact it's a little easier to keep conditioned. Doing this gives me a level board with filled in grain. I just never was a fan of that bright looking fingerboard on guitars. Yeah +1 for Warmoth too! Which sound is the true sound of an electric guitar- the neck pickup or the bridge or both? There are several types of wood used for making a guitar, with maple and rosewood being two of the most popular for fretboards. Not just playing a similar rif on the two things being compared. I am not sure how to say this but I think I hear the difference. When I split the neck pickup to a single coil the sound gets thinner and snappier even through the tube amp. When manufacturing a guitar, luthiers consider every aspect and try to come up with a balanced combination that makes for a great instrument. The sound is supremely influenced by pickups, amps, speakers, the room and volume. While the type of wood used in the fabrication of the guitar fretboard does have an impact on the overall tone of a guitar, the kind of wood is used for a fretboard has a greater impact on the overall feel and playability of an instrument. I wouldn't worry too much one way or the other re. Some recent Gibson models use fingerboards of granadillo (Dalbergia retusa) which also goes by names including cocobolo and palisander. Listen to a Paul Standard with rosewood, and a Paul Custom with ebony. So for me I always liked the looks of rosewood or ebony boards. I have a Les Paul that sounds big, fat and warm through my tube amp/1x12 cab and thin and bright through a Yamaha practice amp with tiny speakers. I've seen old Rickenbackers with delaminating lacquer on the neck, possibly as a result of this. https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2636/what-is-the-difference-between-maple-and-rosewood-fretboards/57251#57251. It depends on the Guitar. They differ. Some guitarists enjoy this process, as an indicator of experience, while it also makes the instrument look more vintage and aged. Your hearing can be influenced by a number of factors. I can get a warm fat sound or a thin snapping sound just by manipulating the string- but that was me, not the fingerboard. I ordered the maple to try but they sent the wrong guitar. I have both a maple and a rosewood with two different fret sizes and two different radius (radi?) Gibson has been doing a lot of this in the last year due to their acute shortage of rosewood (it's a long story). One of the very common questions is how different types of necks and fretboard materials affect the sound and the playing of the guitars. Im Monica and I am an avid lover of guitars and everything in-between. Rosewood vs Maple vs Ebony Fretboards. I tried the rosewood and recorded a track digitally then sent it back. What I do to mine so they seal properly, most argue the porous grain on rosewood is too difficult to try and fill before sealing. Rosewood Vs. Maple is a thick and hard cloth, providing that more glowing and snappier tone. It makes no difference to the sound or playability of an electric guitar whether you have rosewood or maple for the fingerboard. Rosewood vs Maple Fretboards: Which is Better? Once I ordered an LP style guitar. However, you will have to play it for years for these signs to take effect. I prefer ebony though. But what I do is take the board and clean it, then wearing gloves, I mix a small amount of clear 5 minute set epoxy. A few years back I picked up a couple Fenders with maple fingerboards. I think the use of clear finish makes the fingerboard more slippery and I like that, but that has nothing to do with the wood type. The nut and the back neck can be various types of woods, with the rosewood layered on the fretboard. For what it's worth, setup is much more of a key to playability than fretboard wood or finish. However, both of them allow flawless string bending compared to maple. - Guitar Space You can adjust the tone of a Strat by tightening or slackening off the neck bolts (and if they are '70s Strats with that micro-tilt garbage, or a folded up bus ticket acting as a crude shim, then all bets are off). So it was that ebony, rosewood, and maple were the primary choices of fretboard woods for the greater part of the 20th century. the fingerboard - the fingerboard does matter, but on a Tele not as much as the body wood and the bridge style/material. In a nutshell, the primary sonic quality maple is known for is its linearity — it has very predictable dampening and stiffness factors that make it the most transparent-sounding wood. Could you? You'll never be able to identify a fingerboard wood just by listening. It'll affect sustain and tone quality, although to be honest other factors like the type of string, pickup and body make much more difference. Once I feel its filled enough the way I want it, I let it cure. If I'm in a crowded room I can focus my hearing better by looking at someone directly. Here's the neck site. If you don't, your guitar may be ruined. I take a finger of my glove and take a little dab of epoxy and wipe it into the grain of the fingerboard smooth. A popular wood choice for necks and fretboards, maple is highly recognizable due to the grain patterns, moderate weight, and bright tone. I think maple is a softer colour, it luks great, and i find it easyer to play than rosewood. He has some tendon problems in his hand and had surgery, since then he's been playing more maple boards and dropped down to a set of 9's when he plays now. Is there a difference that's based on feel or sound - why are they the two most widely used choices? With this in mind it is impossible to isolate the influence of fretboard material in the overall tone of the instrument. On my rosewoods, its a struggle with arthritis now. But the rosewood boards I've finished and sealed, they bend like butter and my fingertips glide across I have no problems playing anything anymore, even on a bad day of arthritis! Just put a spectrum analyser infront of the amp, and you will read a different frequence responce with maple vs rosewood. As soon as I get my tax return I'm getting my first custom guitar from there. Rooms sound very different. Maple seems to grab the strings a little more where rosewood seems to be a little slicker IMO. In my universe (meaning: guitars that I have), it's vice versa tone wise. So now there are Les Pauls and SGs with roasted maple fingerboards instead of rosewood. WiredGuitarist. (You can find there guitar on the guitarfetish website. Usually if the air is very dry, you always keep the guitar inside its case when it is not being played, and you only humidify the inside of the guitar case, and measure and monitor the humidity inside the case.

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