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Blindfold Test: Maple vs Rosewood

Which audio is maple, which is rosewood?

  • Audio 1 is maple, audio 2 is rosewood.

    Votes: 208 40.5%

  • Audio 2 is maple, audio 1 is rosewood.

    Votes: 305 59.5%
  • Total voters
    513
#82
Maple: 2
Rosewood: 1

I have an Ibanez ATK 300 bass w/ a maple fretboard, and 2 sounds more like my bass than 1 does, a bit more clarity in the tone, and some additional buzz from the strings were my motivating factors.

The rosewood fretboard has a softer tone (which i actually prefer for that style of playing) and seems to handle the chords differently.
 
#87
Fuzzbass said:
Not true. The difference is the entire neck, not just the fingerboard. It's very possible that a difference in tone between the two samples is because of the neck wood, not the fingerboard wood. The neck wood (non-fingerboard) does have more mass than the fingerboard.

To put it another way: it's wrong to assume that two chunks of wood of the same species must have the same tone.

To nitpick even further: were the neck screws torqued equally in both instances? :ninja:

Interesting test, regardless! :)
Click to expand...
Yes, you are absolutely correct :) But for the purpose of finding the sound difference in fingerboard woods it is still the best setting I can think of.. oh, maybe apart from using torque wrench for tightening neck screws.. :p

Still the difference in clips is apparent and fairly exhibits the general traits one would expect from maple or rosewood, based on previous playing experience. (considering I am right in what I hear there, I voted 1M, 2R :ninja:)
 
#92
1 Maple

2 Rosewood


The first one seemed a tiny bit brighter imo. Perhaps the zing might be brought out more if the playing was a bit more aggressive?

Tbh i've always thought the material of the frets would make more difference to the tone than the wood. Body woods make a very clear difference though. However I don't ever say I want *insert body wood here* on my next bass. I tend to play basses for whatever sounds good, feels nice and is built well.
 
#93
lomo said:
The fact that the guesses are divided nearly 50/50 argues strongly that the emperor is buck *&%$ing naked, LOL.
Click to expand...

No, it just means that people don't know what one or the other sounds like! :p

In my experience maple boards are brighter and have more presence while rosewood is darker and smoother.

This is why slappers like maple.

Also, the two clips weren't the same level, and the louder one usually sounds better to people.
 
#94
Pugz said:
Perhaps the zing might be brought out more if the playing was a bit more aggressive?
Click to expand...

Yes! That was my thought too. It was played too softly to really get a good tone from the bass. There's a sweet spot between too soft and really hard. Harder is better than softer... you get more energy and harmonics from the strings.

Pugz said:
Tbh i've always thought the material of the frets would make more difference to the tone than the wood. Body woods make a very clear difference though. However I don't ever say I want *insert body wood here* on my next bass. I tend to play basses for whatever sounds good, feels nice and is built well.
Click to expand...

The fingerboard plays a big part because the frets are sitting on it, and it has a lot more mass than the frets. If the frets are well seated, they will transfer the energy into the fingerboard. Maple is hard and bright sounding because it absorbs less energy from the strings. Rosewood is dense, but it is oily and darker sounding... it has a damping effect. You hear the tone of these woods when they use them for acoustic guitars. Ebony would be brighter than the other two.

I use phenolic fingerboards on my personal basses, and I can really hear the tone of the board.

To me the second clip had more presence, so I felt that was the maple. But I had to adjust the levels on my headphones because the first one was so weak.
 
#95
I always go with my instinct on these tests. If it needs over analyzing then really, who cares!

#1 is Rosewood and #2 is Maple. I thought the second had that maple zingy edge with the first being rounder and warmer but with slightly less deep bass.
 

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