difference between maple and rosewood?

[bass_fish]

Yeah, there is no difference between maple and rosewood and guys like Roger Sadowsky, Mike Tobias, Vinnie Fodera and others know nothing.

can you hear it in a band setup?

 

[Coelho]

can you hear it in a band setup?

Depends on the band and the bass. If you are going to record Metallica's "and justice for all", it probably doesn't matter.

One bass that I think has very distinctive sound between maple and rosewood versions is the musicman stingray, and I played a lot of them!

 

[Jim Carr]

While trying to decide between ordering a rosewood or ebony fingerboard on a new bass, I found the grooveshoppe AUDIO clips (below) were helpful. They may help you.

Use headphones. The maple and rosewood comparison is less straight forward here, because the body wood is not the same on those clips. That said, one can still clearly hear that wood does affect the tone, admitting that two "identical" basses don't quite sound identical at some level.

Invalid Link Removed


It is worth a search to turn up the various posts on this topic by Roger Sadowsky. There have been several including the link posted above by Lowbass68.

 

[MtManiac]

Yeah but, I don't think I ever saw a fretless with a maple fingerboard.

I've seen several. Fender used to make a few.

 

[fretlessman71]

Yeah but, I don't think I ever saw a fretless with a maple fingerboard.

Fender used to make a stock fretless P-bass with a maple unlined board. Had that "thick skin" finish they loved so much (and me, too) in the 70's and early 80's. Can't say whether it looked right or not; I was 13 when I saw the first, and ALL basses looked cool to me.

 

[basskababble]

Depends on the band and the bass. If you are going to record Metallica's "and justice for all", it probably doesn't matter.

One bass that I think has very distinctive sound between maple and rosewood versions is the musicman stingray, and I played a lot of them!

I was a skeptic too but I a-b'd identical Rays at a GC and there's a noticeable diference in the mid-high range.

 

[Coelho]

That's what I said, maple ray is very different compared to a rosewood ray !

 

[Geddy Claypool]

I have different preferences for guitar and bass. On guitar, I tend to like rosewood necks because they tend to play quite a bit faster in my opinion. But on bass, I feel that the smoothness of maple, as well as the "bright" tone (which I notice) lead me to favor maple on basses.

 

[basskababble]

That's what I said, maple ray is very different compared to a rosewood ray !

Don't you jut hate it when people agree?

I should have added the +1... well now the count is +4 from the two of us...