• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Can You Tell The Difference??? MAPLE vs. ROSEWOOD

WHICH IS WHICH?

  • Clip A is Rosewood, Clip B is Maple

    Votes: 49 24.1%

  • Clip A is Maple, Clip B is Rosewood

    Votes: 154 75.9%
  • Total voters
    203
Status
Not open for further replies.
#101
I think B was recorded later in the day and the sun had gone down a bit, thus making it sound a tiny bit darker, thereby obviously making B the rosewood fretboard!

Actually, both sounded pretty much the same to me on my headphones.

Next tests: Ebony vs Ebonol...
20 vs 21 vs 24 fret necks
vintage frets vs modern jumbo frets
left handed necks vs right handed
Energizer vs Duracell effect on tone
Colored ball ends vs plain
Angled plug vs straight (that 90 degree turn sucks the tone right out of my bass!)
 
#103
to my ears, it sounds like these were played with a pick? amirite?

if so, the pick can make a rosewood fretboard sound as snappy as maple.

if not, you've got some good attack with the fingers.

also, was compression used on the sound clips?
 
#104
I couldn't discern any real difference between the two. But the differences between maple vs. rosewood are perhaps best heard on a fretless, where you're talking wood vs. metal string contact. With maple you have varnish to prevent oxidation and generally rosewood (on many Fenders, anyway) is unfinished. I'm not saying definitively that there's no tonal differences in the woods themselves, but to me, the lack of finish vs. finished board produces a not insignificant difference.
 
#109
mongo2 said:
Ding..Ding..Ding...we have a winner...sort of.

As long as the holistic nature of the interactions is considered.

Like I've always said...it's a crapshoot.

Edit: However you did contradict your "conventional wisdom about fretboard wood contributing to tone (in a signifcant way) is probably greatly exaggerated" statement when you said,




So, which one of your contradictory statements is the one you want to go with? Fretboard contribution to tone exaggerated or fretboard wood type easy to differentiate?
Click to expand...

I think you are stretching these comments. I would also say that many take the effect of fretboard woods and blow them out of proportion however relative to the effects of body wood, the differences in neck woods are easier to hear.
 
#110
metron said:
I think you are stretching these comments. I would also say that many take the effect of fretboard woods and blow them out of proportion however relative to the effects of body wood, the differences in neck woods are easier to hear.
Click to expand...

I agree about necks being a more dominant force in the tone equation than bodies. I've been saying it for years.
 
#111
well i voted for A-maple, B-rosewood. B sounded like a rounder bottom. Just listened through lap top speakers though.

I have played a maple neck american standard p bass and guitar center and compared it with another american standard with a rosewood board. Then I thought maple had more aggressive upper mids. I prefer playing on rosewood, I feel sometimes maple fretboards can feel "sticky" for lack of a better way to describe it. With that said I have heard that depending on the density on the rosewood it can sound as bright as a maple board.

If the basses are in fact 2 different basses than this test may speak more to the difference from one bass to the next. If it was a neck swap then that could would be interesting. I could get a brighter sound out of my bass with either a change in the way I played or eq so that certainly doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility here.

I'm interested to see the result.
 
#112
Ok, time for the big reveal!

Clip A is maple, Clip B is rosewood

Unlike my other recent tests of Alder vs. Ash, the majority of folks (77%) got this one right. I too thought it was VERY obvious which was which.

Thanks for playing!

P.S. A few "wood matters" zealots have denounced this type of test on the grounds that the rest of the neck, being made from different pieces of maple, could skew the tone. I assume they'll drop this complaint now that the results have gone their way. :D
 
#119
Without reading to see if you've posted the answer yet, I would say that the difference is very subtle, but A seems to be a little bit more lively to me. As for which is which, I don't know, so I picked "Clip A is Rosewood, Clip B is Maple ".

Personally, I think they both sound OK, and I definitely wouldn't choose one over the other based on the samples provided. That said, I don't like the look of maple boards at all, so I will always choose rosewood or ebony if available.
 
#120
Well, based on Dan's two recent tests, it seems most people can accurately discern a difference in neck (using conventional wisdom, experience, and gut instinct), but most of us fail the blind body wood test.

That could be interpreted as "neck/fingerboard has more impact on tone than body wood."

Which I have always felt in my gut to be true.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back