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Maple VS Rosewood Fingerboards????

#2
In simplified terms, maple is a bit more bright, attacking, rosewood is a bit more mellow, warm sounding. It's a subtle difference, but that's what the conventional wisdom is. There are also some differences in terms of the nature of the wood on a fretboard. I read somewhere once that Stevie Ray Vaughan preferred rosewood fretboards to maple because he had sweaty fingers and they would stick more on maple boards while the rosewood would absorb more of the sweat without getting sticky. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but you never know.

MLF
 
#3
Maple tends to be a brighter wood because it's stiffer than rosewood. Rosewood tends to lend more warmth. A lot of players pick the woods based on cosmetic preference and then adjust the electronics of their bass to achieve the qualities either wood might be lacking. A great medium sonically is ebony- it's stiff and bright like maple but warm like rosewood. I'm a maple man, but I've played basses made of all these woods and many others that I'd love to have in the stable, so it's all about your own preference.
 
#9
well that links certainly helped!!!

and another question...

i'm thinking of buying a fender jazz bass 74 vintage made in Japan!

ash body/maple fingerboard

mine is an Ibanez sr900 maple body/rosewood fingerboard

i Love that neck!!!but i think my bass is a light too bright!! sometimes..mayby it's the electonics..the body doesn't count in active basses right?

do u think the fender will be bright?? good enough for slaps?? i love the warmth tone ..will it have any?
 
#11
camelspotter said:
i'm thinking of buying a fender jazz bass 74 vintage made in Japan!

ash body/maple fingerboard

do u think the fender will be bright?? good enough for slaps?? i love the warmth tone ..will it have any?
Click to expand...

You will likely find it to be an ideal bass for slap actually and it will certainly be bright. If its too bright, you can use nickel rounds instead of SS, or even flats and you will still have some brightness in the tone, but you will get more warmth too. The Jazz ash/maple combo yields one on the brightest tones you can get on any bass.
 
#12
I have yet played a rosewood board that equals maple in brightness & harmonics- Ebony is the closest to maple that I have found.

the rosewood boards so far I have played, have been not the greatest harmonically. Just my experience. Great warm tones though.
 
#15
tough decision .. in 40 minutes the auction ends and i don't know what to do..i'm afraid i might not like the sound of it.. and maybe i wont be able to change the sound much with strings or amp's EQ

but i WILL get the jaco jazz bass fretless instead if not that..always wanted one.

you know..here in greece there's not much choice for instruments..dont even think about fenders to play and test..sadly.....that's why i'm worried..
 
#16
I've played the same bass with rw and map in music stores and I've owned a few maple and rw basses. Maple boards seem to bring out more of the upper harmonics (more twang) than a rose wood. For my money, I'll go with more twang. You can always dim the treble a bit but, you can't turn up what isn't there.
 
#18
camelspotter said:
tough decision .. in 40 minutes the auction ends and i don't know what to do..i'm afraid i might not like the sound of it.. and maybe i wont be able to change the sound much with strings or amp's EQ

but i WILL get the jaco jazz bass fretless instead if not that..always wanted one.

you know..here in greece there's not much choice for instruments..dont even think about fenders to play and test..sadly.....that's why i'm worried..
Click to expand...

strings and EQ have more of an effect on tone than fretboard in my experience
 
#19
Fuzzbass said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "stiffer", but rosewood is actually harder and denser than maple.
Click to expand...

I've read this too. I believe the extra warmth comes from the oils in rosewood that absorb certain frequencies, and perhaps the fact that it usually isn't coated like maple boards.

And keep in mind we're dealing with generalities that won't apply in every instance due to the differences among pieces of wood within each species (or group of species). My experience is consistent with these generalities (maple = brighter, rosewood = warmer), but the differences can be subtle as others have said.
 
#20
Nedmundo said:
And keep in mind we're dealing with generalities that won't apply in every instance due to the differences among pieces of wood within each species (or group of species). My experience is consistent with these generalities (maple = brighter, rosewood = warmer), but the differences can be subtle as others have said.
Click to expand...

Good point. In fact I'll add that, in my experience, the tonal contribution of the fingerboard is always subtle, and tonal differences between fingerboard types are inconsistent precisely because of the tonal variation of wood within the same species.

I won't go so far as to say that the fingerboard doesn't make a difference in tone (I don't want to start that debate for the umpteenth time) but I firmly believe that its effect is overstated by most bassists.
 

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