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Maple or Rosewood??

tat2clod

tat2clod

Guest
Nov 19, 2011
220
302
Bloomington IN
#1
Hello was looking for some advice on which fretboard to get on a Fender American Standard?Im going to take the plunge and get one LOL after some serious thought but unsure on which fretboard to get can you guys explain the pros and cons of either or which you have and why?My local music store guy had some good input but looking for the opinions of others,Thanks in advance :bassist:
 
#3
from the Lakland site: "Maple boards have a bright and round response with good ringing piano-like treble and sustaining quality. Rosewood is a little mellower on the treble side with great midrange and thick bass. Ebony has the brightness of Maple but the treble characteristic has a different "presence" that especially helps bring out a "growling" quality that sounds great with fretless basses."
 
#5
I love tinted maple, the only guitar I own with a rosewood fretboard is an LP Standard. All my other guitars and basses are maple necked............for the life of me I don't know where this preference came from.:confused:
 
#7
Maple = Percussive/Bright
Rosewood = Warm

I like both for different reasons. To me, maple is better for thumping, slapping, plucking, growl. But it does straight ahead rock, blue, jazz, (you name it quite nicely). I like the warmth of rosewood for blues and rock. I can't really speak to other genres because i don't play them. Both do equally as well for recording. Of course a lot has to do with the actual bass and player in that scenario.

Your best bet is to play the different necks through your amp playing your style of music to see which suites you best.

Check this site out for a good overview of the different tone variations that particular neck woods can give you.

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#8
parsons said:
Get what you think looks prettiest. It has 0 to do with how it sounds.
Click to expand...

Hay Dios mio, not this again :rollno:

I am sure guitar builders all over the world are not lying to us when they say the wood (especially for the neck), makes a different in how a guitar sounds. All things being equal (bass model, hardware, pickups, strings, amp, speakers, settings, etc.) Play a rosewood neck then play a maple neck. You will hear a difference. Sometimes I actually wish i couldn't hear the difference so that I could buy cheap $100 basses and go about my business.
 
#12
parsons said:
Get what you think looks prettiest. It has 0 to do with how it sounds.
Click to expand...

No matter what boutique builders say about the perceived differences audibly there is very little difference. Other factors will contribute far more to tonality than the material the fret board is made out of.

I think you'd be better off to look at in terms of which look you like better and how they feel when you play them. Neck size and profile, the type of frets, and the scale length would mean more to me than the material and I've owned basses with maple, rosewood, ebony, and synthetic boards.

The perception is that maple will give you a sharper, brighter tone and that rosewood will sound mellower yet both of those perceptions are defeated just by which strings you use. Bright, zingy rounds on a rosewood neck will not make that bass sound at all mellow and thumpy flats on a maple neck won't give you the brightness or attack you want for slap style.

Any bass with good pickups and electronics played through a good amp can be EQ'd to sound just the opposite of what these perceptions tell us. Maybe someone with a sound spectrum analyzer could show us the scientific difference but for most of us our ears alone won't. Close you eyes or put it in a live mix and few would know the difference between the two.

Play them both and get the one you prefer the feel of. That should be the most important thing about any neck. Not even what fret board finish it has. JMHO.
 
#13
Alrod said:
Hay Dios mio, not this again :rollno:

I am sure guitar builders all over the world are not lying to us when they say the wood (especially for the neck), makes a different in how a guitar sounds. All things being equal (bass model, hardware, pickups, strings, amp, speakers, settings, etc.) Play a rosewood neck then play a maple neck. You will hear a difference. Sometimes I actually wish i couldn't hear the difference so that I could buy cheap $100 basses and go about my business.
Click to expand...

Any slight difference I've ever heard could be just as easily chalked up to just the difference between two identical basses... No two sound the same regardless of what they're made of, so I just buy the ones I like, and try not to discriminate based on materials alone. Like any system, it's the sum of the parts that matters moreso than the parts.

Fender went from all maple boards in the 50s to all rosewood in the 60s, and then back to all maple in the 70s. They haven't alienated anyone simply because they prefer bright over warm, or mellow over snappy, from what I can tell.
 
#14
I agree with the point that if you cant hear the difference, then the neck wood just isn't going to matter.

I truly believe that there are those that simply cannot hear the difference. But then there are those that can. Again, builders and players whether they are pro or not CAN hear the difference. To say they are wrong is pretty bold, if not arrogant.

Are the differences day and night? no, but as with all music, it is the small nuances, and variations that make the difference between something sounding good and something sounding great. This holds true with wood.

More power to those of you that cannot hear the difference...

Keep in mind, there are also those that can't hear the difference between:

An electric bass vs an upright bass.
A bass played on a keyboard vs a real bass
A tube amp vs a solid state amp
Different amps
Different strings
Different pickups

The list can go on and on. I think you get the picture. The big question is, does that mean a difference does not exist? Or is it possible that some people have better ears or know what to actually listen for?

I think there are those who are simple and think red wine is just red wine, beer is just beer, a burger is just a burger, and a woman is just a woman. They are all the same. A shame to live that way but hey to each his own.
 
#15
Maple always seems to have a little more ... "clack" and clarity to it. Like string noise, but in a good way, if that makes sense. I don't like the feeling of finish beneath my fingertips.

Rosewood seems to round the sound off, cutting out sharp highs, reducing some of that clarity. But it feels great on my fingers and sounds full bodied.

Just as in all tonewood threads, we'll soon be reduced to using adjectives that describe beer. Bottoms up!
 
#17
I think there is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy about all of this. You expect rosewood to sound "warmer" (whatever that means) so that's what you hear. Same with Maple sounding "brighter".

I've got a 2012 American Standard jazz with a maple finger board and love it. The high gloss finish is gorgeous so I would go for that. No science involved from my perspecive!
 
#19
Realistically, the tonal differences are negligible at best. I've played basses of both fingerboards and in all honestly the biggest difference I could tell was in the physical feel of the boards. The maple boards would feel a little "smoother" than the rosewood boards.

On paper, people will tell you that maple boards have somewhat of a brighter tone while the rosewood boards have a bit of a warmer, mellower tone. Personally, I couldn't tell the difference between the two in a blindfolded test so, unless you've been building guitars your entire life, I don't think you will either. At the end of the day, you can EQ these tones into your sound through your amp if you need a brighter or deeper tone.
 

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