Upright bass with a maple fingerboard.

[Tommygunn]

I was just wondering if anybody has an acoustic (or upright or whatever, got flack for calling it the wrong name last time) with a maple fingerboard.

If so, pics please.

Thanks

[crowsmengegus]

Hi Tommy,

I'm going to assume you're from the BG world and new to the upright.

Even though maple fingerboards are common on very nice BGs, they are not considered desirable on DBs, so you won't see a lot of maple fingerboards in the DB world. On cheaper DBs you will see maple fingerboards that have been "ebonized" (painted to look like ebony) and occasionally rosewood or jatoba.

The common wood is ebony, probably mostly for its high density and its prettiness.

Janka hardness rating:
hard maple = 1450
rosewood = 1780
jatoba = 2350
ebony = 3692

That's not to say there aren't some nice DB's out there with maple fingerboards....

EDIT: Look at post 33 in this thread.

[Tommygunn]

Yeah I'm a BG player. I was just curious cause you guys use flatwound type strings so I would figure hardness of fingerboard wood wouldn't matter. Maple fingerboards on fretless BGs aren't very popular/practical but if you use flats you can get away with it. You prolly knew that.

Edit: Ahhhh........ I really like that, but I was wondering really because I think it would be a cool contrast because double basses are normally darker colors.

[zeytoun]

In that picture, you can see that the bass is strung with gut strings.

Steel strings, even if flatwound like commonly on a double bass, would probably chew up a maple fingerboard pretty quickly.

[Tommygunn]

I've never played a upright with nylon strings. Do they have a steel core (nylon tapewound BG strings) or are they just staight up solid, smooth, nylon? How would those fare with maple.

On the flatwounds I've played (for DB) they don't seem any more rough (prolly less so) than BG flatwounds. Unless you guys don't put an epoxy or poly finish over the maple, I would understand then.

[Square Bear]

Originally Posted by Tommygunn

Yeah I'm a BG player. I was just curious cause you guys use flatwound type strings so I would figure hardness of fingerboard wood wouldn't matter. Maple fingerboards on fretless BGs aren't very popular/practical but if you use flats you can get away with it. You prolly knew that.
.

keep in mind that the strings on a bass guitar will actually chew up your frets before they mess up your board (unless you're playing with really bad technique). steel strings even eat through ebony eventually, and would probably work through a maple board about 3 times faster.

[zeytoun]

Originally Posted by Tommygunn

I've never played a upright with nylon strings. Do they have a steel core (nylon tapewound BG strings) or are they just staight up solid, smooth, nylon? How would those fare with maple.

Yes, they make strings with steel, synthetic, or 'rope' centers, wound with nylon. But they ones in the picture aren't nylon, they're gut.

[shwashwa]

they generally dont epoxy or coat the fingerboard of an upright bass. even though the strings are "flatwound" they eventually wear grooves in the ebony fingerboards and they need to be planed and dressed every so often

[Carl Johnson]

I just scored a funky old flatback that’s just going in for repair. It’s a pretty cool axe, looks to be from around the 1920’s with hatpeg tuners. Appears to be a german shop gamba without outer linings. Big body, something like a 7/8 but with a 42” string length. Needs the top off and many cracks repaired and some inner glue joints redone. But all in all nothing too bad.

Funny thing is that somewhere along the line someone put a maple fingerboard on it, its well cut and dressed, with a nice E bevel. I’m not going to replace the FB quite yet, I’m going to string it up with gut and see how it does. It looks absolutely nuts with that white fingerboard.

[crowsmengegus]

Originally Posted by Carl Johnson

It looks absolutely nuts with that white fingerboard.

Carl -- have the decency to post some pics for Tommy. He came here looking for maple fingerboard bass porn....

[Carl Johnson]

Originally Posted by crowsmengegus

Carl -- have the decency to post some pics for Tommy. He came here looking for maple fingerboard bass porn....

I'll see if I can get over and take a shot or two this weekend. Even with all the cracks it's a cannon, looking forward to playing it after rehab

[Tommygunn]

Man, dude it sounds great! Can't wait!

[Carl Johnson]

The blacking on the finger board is almost all gone, the lighting in the photo makes it look darker than it is. I plan to remove all the paint then tung oil the top.

My luthier really wants to put a ebony FB on it, but I'm going to hold off for a while. I've heard that early viol instruments used pear wood for finger boards so I'm thinking that maple should be OK with guts.

Anyone ever used anything other than ebony??

[eerbrev]

Molly Kay would be the person to say this for sure, but I believe I may have read on these forums somewhere that Kay used rosewood occasionally.

In regards to maple fingerboards, from my research (and someone, please correct me if I'm wrong, i'd love to know), there were a lot of old violones etc (as you mentioned) that had maple and other "softer" hardwoods for their fingerboards. I have a Strad Magazine poster in my room of a five string cello described as being from the " Brothers Amati c. 1600 " that I velieve has a maple fingerboard (all the info's on the back, and it's in a frame), pretty nicely decorated at the end of it. I would suspect it was likely a bit of a "use what you have" sort of situation, where they used the hardest wood they could get their hands on.

regards,

Alex

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by Carl Johnson

The blacking on the finger board is almost all gone, the lighting in the photo makes it look darker than it is. I plan to remove all the paint then tung oil the top.

My luthier really wants to put a ebony FB on it, but I'm going to hold off for a while. I've heard that early viol instruments used pear wood for finger boards so I'm thinking that maple should be OK with guts.

Anyone ever used anything other than ebony??

If the board is thick and strong (and straight) its not necessary to switch. I find that the lighter, more open woods have a more open sound.

For the record, Kay used mostly Brazilian Rosewood along with Walnut and Maple - Ebony was only used on the top models. My old Bohemian has a Beech fingerboard and I've seen Pear and Cherry too.

[BassInUrFace]

yes but like everyone has said it is not desirable and generaly cheaper basses will be painted black over the top of the maple. here is a picture of one that has had the black taken off.

[Tommygunn]

Thats cool looking IMO

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well it depends whether you view the thing as an ornamental piece of furniture or a "usable instrument"....

When you are talking about DB, you have centuries of history about what works best - not like the mere decades for BG and so you have to think that the best bass makers have chosen Ebony for good reason!

[Square Bear]

a friend of mine had an old kay with a maple board. it was a really nice bass and got a great sound. a maple board does not necessarily indicate a poor instrument, it just doesn't last as long as ebony. ebony boards don't last forever either though! the fact is, a new maple board would easily last through a few players' use of a bass before needing replaced whereas ebony would last through several more. They both serve the intended function just fine though.

[Square Bear]

and FWIW i agree, maple boards look cool.