Fretboard Question???

[Halftooth]

How does Ebony compare to Maple in the tone dept.? I know both are on the bright side.

Ebony is nothing like Maple, IMO. It's not nearly as bright or hissy. It's similar to Purpleheart in the tonal spectrum as far as my ears can tell. As far as why it isn't used much, mot Luthiers claim that it's rather tough to work with.

 

[zombywoof5050]

I love ebony boards, especially for fretless.

One thing no one has mentioned yet is that ebony has more of a tendency (than maple or rosewood, for example) to shrink in dry climates, allowing the fret ends to stick out a little. Usually just filing them once after it happens will take care of that, though.

 

[fourstringdrums]

Ebony is nothing like Maple, IMO. It's not nearly as bright or hissy. It's similar to Purpleheart in the tonal spectrum as far as my ears can tell.

My old bass teacher always described ebony as "With ebony, the note goes around you, rather than through you". He felt that it had a more "rubbery" feel to it.

 

[Horokito]

Strangely enough, my $300 Yamaha BBN4 has an Ebony board. However, it's not supposed to. I actually took it to a luthier to have it verified, we took a little chip out of the end of the board to make sure it wasn't just dyed rosewood (since the bass SHOULD have a rosewood board). It was WAY too hard to chip for it to be rosewood, and its got a tight, jet black grain all the way through. It also plays amazingly well, and sounds fantastic. I guess I just wound up with a factory freak!

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Im not a huge ebony fan, or maple for that matter, just love the way rosewood looks, and dont like the feel of maple or ebony, like a wood that has a deeper grain to it

 

[embellisher]

I've only heard that Ebony chips easily.

Oh I forgot, you can get a custom Cirrus with an Ebony board.

Yeah, my Cirrus tigereye 6 has an ebony board.

Ebony sits somewhere in between maple and rosewood tonally. Not quite as smooth as rosewood, not as much bite as maple.

It is second on my list, behind maple, for fretted, and second on my list, behind phenowood, for fretless.

The one real problem with ebony is that it shrinks more due to humidity changes than any other fingerboard wood that I have experienced.