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Ebony or rosewood...which is best?
- Thread starter countrybass5
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- ebony
All three please...maple, rosewood, and macassar ebony. Definitely Ebony on fretless. Actually...even though my first bass back in the day was a 76 P black/maple, I have been anti-maple because I got so used to ebony boards on flamenco guitars...until recently when I picked up the Fender CS P bass on the left. Black/Maple. I like maple again. I am now open minded to everything in life. Hmmm. Yeah. Sure. 
Nice bass collection. That bass in the middle is mighty fine! Also, what is the brand of the hanging rack - I want one! Thank you.
Smooth_bass88
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- Oct 31, 2006
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Is that a vantage fretless?
I love that Ibanez maple -
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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I don't care, really. However, there must be some vital interplay between sex appeal, feel, and tone.
I like rosewood. I've seen far fewer cracked rosewood boards that ebony. I also prefer the feel.
What are your goals?
Attack: Ebony is super-fast, and can be pingy. Rosewood has a softer attack, more like the "purr" of a soft bass drum beater.
Timbre: Rosewood brings out a bit of the lower-mids. Ebony has more of an upper-mids emphasis.
Decay/Pitch: Ebony decays more quickly and cleanly; a major benefit if you do a lot of triple-stops or chordal stuff. To me, pitch also seems to center more quickly - clear, clear, clear! Rosewood is the opposite - so each note can have more "pillow," which is a classic bass sound, but also can be kind of muzzy in certain contexts - smear, smear, smear, but in a generally pleasing way.
Net net: for more modern, slap oriented or soloistic purposes, ebony is better. If old school, basic rock, country, etc., rosewood is better.
Attack: Ebony is super-fast, and can be pingy. Rosewood has a softer attack, more like the "purr" of a soft bass drum beater.
Timbre: Rosewood brings out a bit of the lower-mids. Ebony has more of an upper-mids emphasis.
Decay/Pitch: Ebony decays more quickly and cleanly; a major benefit if you do a lot of triple-stops or chordal stuff. To me, pitch also seems to center more quickly - clear, clear, clear! Rosewood is the opposite - so each note can have more "pillow," which is a classic bass sound, but also can be kind of muzzy in certain contexts - smear, smear, smear, but in a generally pleasing way.
Net net: for more modern, slap oriented or soloistic purposes, ebony is better. If old school, basic rock, country, etc., rosewood is better.
Man I really hope with the world caring more about which types of wood are more ecologically friendly, that we see more manufacturers use torrified/baked maple. To me, that seems like THE ideal wood choice. Sustainable, doesn’t warp, grows in America, hard, doesn’t need finish, looks beautiful.
I concur with the one of each approach, but I would never have a maple fretless...
L-R: Ebony, Pau Ferro, Maple, Rosewood.
I'm pretty sure my fretboard is pau ferro, even though it was billed as rosewood. Want my next bass to have a maple fretboard so I don't have to worry about flying with it.
Yup..People claim the differences are unnoticeable as well, but I disagree with that. My Fender Jazz elite with a RW board has (to my ears anyway) a warmer/mellower tone than my jazz elite with an ebony board which to me sounds brighter/more zingy ( and yeah, thats with the tone settings the same on both instruments and being played through the same amp without changing the settings_)
Of course switching to more sustainable woods is good, but there is a lot to fix in the ebony industry as well. And Bob Taylor of Taylor guitars has led the way. I mean it's a sad comment on human beings when they are sawing down rare Ebony trees and then letting the majority of them rot in the forest because they are not dark enough in color! Yes, it's understandable that if the men can't be paid to get them out, then they stay, but letting rare trees rot is like burning food to stay warm or something. Luckily Bob Taylor has started the ball rolling in changing the old ways so lesser trees can become used as well. I mean does stripey ebony really look bad? Does dyed ebony really play/sound that different? Especially when we have sawed up all the dark trees.
I'm old school so I prefer my fretboards to be Rosewood, but I don't have a problem with Ebony. I own basses with both of these woods installed as fretboards on them.
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