Do you dislike maple fingerboards?

[scheil442]

A few of each. Maple and Rosewood are kind of like salt-and-pepper. You need both to spice the music to taste!!!

 

[metron]

I went with maple on my ADE P bass. It has a "62" pickup. With the tone dial on it sounds dark and a little gritty. With the tone dial off it sounds bright-ish with some 70s p bass edge. I dont really find an onboard pre necessary. It looks cool too.

I like rosewood equally though. Dont care much about tone nuances. I enjoy my basses for what they are and just play them.

I did a 6 song recording earlier this year with my band. All songs with my rosewood/alder jazz except one with my alder/maple p bass. Mixed down with a little compression, there isnt much distinction between them.

 

[wmhill]

I love em!! I love that twonk it gives you.
(and to those that say there's no difference between rosewood & maple, try out some like basses with each option)

 

[pbass6811]

I used to be very anti-Maple, but that was way over there. Now, I've owned a couple of basses with maple boards and they were fantastic. With the rise of Birdseye maple and the Roasted Maple I'm seeing on some of the higher end stuff, I really dig the look.

I still prefer dark woods. My current basses are both Rosewood, and my "on order" basses will have Ebony, but at least one of my future builds will have a Maple board.

 

[Dan Bass]

Do you dislike maple fingerboards? I do not. With a flexible preamp and a treble roll off, it's easy to manipulate the tone of the maple fingerboard.

My first Bass back in 1983 was a Hondo Series 830 gloss black P-Bass with a maple fretboard, I loved the sound of that fat Fender P-Bass tone, but from then on I just prefer a Rosewood or any dark wood fretboard, IMO I like the dark looking necks better then the light colored ones. A Bass guitar with a dark black brown fretboard with Abalone inlays just looks so sweet.

 

[wideload]

My basses have ebony boards. I had maple on my old RD Artist. I have the talent to ruin the sound of ANY bass or wood combination. Having said that, if I were buying a new P, it'd be 3TSB with a maple fretboard, cause I'm a rebel...

 

[Joedog]

As long as I'm playing a bass, I'm a happy camper, and don't give a crap about the color of the FB.

For the record I have 3 basses, and FB's are ebony, rosewood and maple. Love them all.

 

[CinnamicAcid]

I don't really care as long as it looks and feels nice. I like maple on light colored finishes and a darker wood on darker finishes. Something about a black body, black headstock, and maple fingerboard really turns me off.

 

[raventepes]

I like darker woods, for aesthetic reasons, but beyond that, I really just don't like the feel of maple boards. I've test driven a few, and I walked away underwhelmed. I've tried them new, I've tried them heavily used...my sister has an old Fender P that has a maple bored, and I just couldn't even get along with that. For whatever reason, maple just doesn't appeal to me as a fretboard material.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I don't like pasty white neck wood, if it's nitro orange, or tung oil - I like it.

Funny, I like maple except when it's coated with that awful nuclear orange.

 

[Hamish MacCleod]

I like maple... mmmmm!
Rondo

 

[bolophonic]

Tonally, it doesn't matter. Aesthetically, it depends on the rest of the bass.

1. This.

2. My name is also Brendan.

 

[warrplayer]

Black or White is alright. Brown? Gotta turn that down. Unless the body wood is yellow. In which case brown gets a hello.

 

[R Baer]

Typically, I find that maple boards have a slight bit of upper mid clank that I don't care for quite as much, but I do admit that this also tends to make them sit great in the mix. Given a choice, I usually go with something like Pau Ferro, but I am considering having a bass made with a roasted maple board, as I've found that roasting seems to warm up the tone of the maple a slight bit.

 

[Kim Jong Funk]

I have basses with ebony, wenge, rosewood, and the polyester on Pedulla fretless, but maple sounds great on these two:

 

[Steve Dallman]

i find no difference in tone. I've swapped Tele necks with no difference in either Tele...mapel or rosewood. I put an ebony fingerboard on a Strat. No difference from the rosewood that was there.

I love 'em all. I have a big block maple neck on a Stingray knockoff I built. I'm not crazy about the block markers (black) but while playing, I never think about them.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The only maple boards I've seen and liked is on the Ric 4003w, the contrast of walnut body and maple FB looks good. Rosewood fb's look better with age, maple just wears through the laquer and looks dirty. Some people covet that look, not me.

 

[Marikk]

Maple boards seem easier to care for whne the finish is still there. Unfinished woods feel better to me.
I'll take either one if the bass sounds and feels great. I do prefer maple boards with blocks or blank, dont care for dots a whole lot, saying t hat, all my maple boards have dots

On a more serious note, Real Maple syrup with your meal provides the best tone for your taste buds, Especially on icecream or in other desserts or added to bacon while cooking

 

[Brian D]

I much prefer rosewood boards, even though my #1 has a maple board. I can't remember exactly why I ended up with a maple neck, I think it was the price or the fact that it had some nice birdseye. It doesn't have a thick finish so it's fine for me now. I bought a maple necked tele guitar years ago and sold it a few months later for a sizeable hit as I didn't like the finish.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

My Strat has a maple fretboard. I guess what it really means is that the fretboard & the neck are the same piece of wood.

My basses are both Rosewood, one of the Pau Ferro variety.

My Warbeast has an ebony fretboard w/o any inlays. It makes it look mean.