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Rosewood/Maple Finger Boards - Tone difference?
- Thread starter rob_the_bassist
- Start date
In summary, most people say yes and describe the difference as the same difference as the visual appearance, rosewood is darker, maple brighter.
In more than a 1/4 century I've never met anyone who claimed they could hear the difference who could tell what kind of wood a fingerboard is without looking. So in other words it's a very distinct tone difference that you need to see before hearing, you figure it out...
In more than a 1/4 century I've never met anyone who claimed they could hear the difference who could tell what kind of wood a fingerboard is without looking. So in other words it's a very distinct tone difference that you need to see before hearing, you figure it out...
Maple definetly has a brighter sound, more attack, rosewood is darker smoother. People like to say that "nobody can tell the difference without looking" but this is silly. It is also possible to make a bass smoother with dynamics or eq, or to make it brighter and punchier with eq or different pickups. But anybody that has played teh same bass with rosewood and maple fretboards can tell the difference. Also maple feels different, its smoother on bends and such becasue it is usually glossy finished, rosewood is grabbier beacause it is usually unfinshed.
+1 Ask any luthier, he or she will tell you the same thing. Warmoth.com has a section where they attempt to describe tonal differences attributable to many kinds of wood. Might be worth checking out if you are interested.Calaverasgrande said:
Is that your final answer. Time's up. Gotta argue that one. The fretboard absolutely makes no difference in sound. Fretting and playability yeah, but think about it. The pickups are down in the body, that is where you get the tonal differences in your wood on the bass. When a note is played on a fretted instrument, it is pushing off of metal, that is where the vibration ends. You cannot get any different tone from a different fretboard only different playability. The neck however can probably make a difference.Calaverasgrande said:
bigd4207 said:
Does this mean that a dead spot is the result of the fret as opposed to the fretboard?
One of the greatest mysteries of bassdom. All things being equal, all things are not equal. The way an instrument vibrates has a lot to do with how it sounds. When you narrow it down to fingerboards, there is an edge that maple imparts to the feel and therefore the sound and there is something different about a rosewood board. Not better or worse in any way, just different. I've been looking for a rosewood board Peavey Foundation so I can compare my 2 different maple board Peavey Foundations. I have been careerwise split between both kinds. And then theres ebony.
I am a luthier, I've made some high end stuff and have been a NAMM member since 1989, I've seen tons of people who swear they can tell a difference in almost anything you can see, I've never ever seen anyone who can demonstrate that in even the mildest of scientific settings.Dbassmon said:
I could find you a million kids who swear Santa is real and they have the presents to prove it. So I guess Santa is real.
There are a number of wood tonal descriptions on the net, some completely contradictory and most describe the sound as some variation of the look. Notice how often dark woods are described with dark adjectives.Dbassmon said:
Anyone here feel confident enough they can hear fingerboard wood without seeing it that they'd place a bet on it?
I'm not saying there is no difference or any other binary polarization's just that I've never met anyone of any skill level who can tell without looking. It's almost always some story about how "I played it" and heard the difference. There's an old thread here where someone posted clips from about 8 basses and their pictures and no one could match them up, the only thing we could consistently hear was a thumb basses pickups placement.
Don't forget, the rosewood used in commercial guitars comes from many species, some not even rosewood, from different continents, some farm grown, some old growth forest. To claim that rosewood has a singular sound reveals an ignorance about wood and it's consistency.
Another problem with this is the assumption that the 2 woods have no similarity in sounds as if the differences in the woods tone is much greater than it's similarities and somehow our ears can make taxonomic distinctions by listening that the lumber mill didn't even make. This is kind of like saying you can tell me what color my car is by the cd in the stereo. But if Flea said he could do it then we'd have tons of people who claim they can too.
I've also worked with many magicians over the last 1/4 century, I'm pretty sure none have had magical super powers but it is the norm to find people after the show talking about which tricks were real magic and which were just faked. Once people believe they can tell you can't get them to realize they're not special. I can teach people the trick and show it to them with the reveal and many will still think the "real" magician did it with magic.... Maybe I'm wrong though?
I've also worked with many magicians over the last 1/4 century, I'm pretty sure none have had magical super powers but it is the norm to find people after the show talking about which tricks were real magic and which were just faked. Once people believe they can tell you can't get them to realize they're not special. I can teach people the trick and show it to them with the reveal and many will still think the "real" magician did it with magic.... Maybe I'm wrong though?
Maple has a brighter tone, more high mid, in my opinion, while Rosewood has more warmth, a little deeper and a distinct snappiness to it. The Vibration does not stop on the frets, whomever said that is an idiot. Do you hear your bass when you put your ear to the neck? Yeah, that's what I thought. I find Rosewood sounds fatter than maple.
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
I-play-bass said:
I agree.
I choose Maple and Ebony fingerboards over Rosewood because I can hear the difference.for the most part Rosewood to my ears has a certain level of warmth projection that usually does not work for me.
if there is no tonal difference between these three wood fb's maybe luthiers should just start offering fb's as an option.
I'm sure a fingerboardless Bass will sound much different but I wonder would a single truss rod or duel action truss rod really make a difference in tone.
If you could see how many truss rods a bass has by looking at it we'd have mega threads arguing itJAUQO III-X said:
Just guessing but I would think doubling the amount of steel in a neck would be more significant than what species of hardwood the thin fingerboard is made from.
Jauqo, you're definitely a gear o phile, ever do any blind testing where you could identify woods with out any clue of what they are, or touching or seeing the bass?
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
Moo said:If you could see how many truss rods a bass has by looking at it we'd have mega threads arguing it
That's funny
Moo said:
No I haven't but I would love to do one(for a magazine) and have the results published.
I don't think very many, if any, could tell the difference without looking, I know I can't. I know that the tone in the bass starts with the neck and body, nut to bridge, that's the most important IMO for tonality. But by the time you put in the pu's, preamp and strings as well as your amp and cab selection, that can change everything about the wood.
Everything else aside, I do believe the FB does make a contribution.
Everything else aside, I do believe the FB does make a contribution.
I've been thinking about this for years. I would love to get into a place like Sadowsky's with a bunch of high end yet similar basses, get a hot shot studio quality guy and record all the basses direct, with fresh strings and settings flat trying to recreate as close as we can the same playing technique. With that I could build an application on the web that would allow people to listen and guess at all the variables (wood, finish, pickups etc...) and then post a score.JAUQO III-X said:
I have thought about this a long time, if you can swing the sound files I can swing the tech part. I think it would make a great article.
