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How many rosewood board instruments do you have versus maple boards?

What's your ratio of maple boards versus rosewood?

  • I only have necks with maple boards.

    Votes: 15 5.0%

  • More maple than rosewood.

    Votes: 42 13.9%

  • I have an even collection of maple and rosewood.

    Votes: 51 16.8%

  • More rosewood than maple.

    Votes: 127 41.9%

  • Only rosewood.

    Votes: 68 22.4%
  • Total voters
    303
BAG

BAG

May 5, 2014
7,502
17,071
New Zealand
#1
I'm not really a fan of necks with maple boards which I realised the other night looking around my studio.
It got me thinking about how prevalent or otherwise maple board necks are compared to rosewood.
I have 7 basses all of which have rosewood boards..... and zero maple.
Overall my ratio is 7:0

Edit: My electric guitar ratio is 3:1
 
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#9
all I have is rosewood boards. over the years I discovered that I just don't like the feel of those plastic-y finished maple necks that most basses have that aren't rosewood or ebony. I got a nice CIJ '51 P reissue that had the classic maple baseball bat neck. I used it for a few years but gave it up without any real regrets, partly because of the maple/plastic neck feel ... that, and it was not a terribly versatile instrument for the stuff that I generally do.
 
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#10
I used to prefer maple boards because all of the cheap basses came with rosewood lol. How things have changed.

currently my preference is based on color : a black P looks better with a maple neck. A black stingray looks better with rosewood, e

I don’t care about the “feel” either. I don’t think my fingers even rouch the fretboard to be honest.
 
#11
I think I have more darkwood boards than maples. Strangely, and for whatever reason, some days maple looks more "right" to me than rosewood. Then next week I'm all about the dark woods, then rinse 'n repeat endlessly. Usually I can't discern any sonic difference between board woods because I've had examples of each that defied the "standard expectations". Or maybe my ears aren't keen enough to tell?

Aside;
I pretty much like all kinds of different board woods, and have had most of them. A couple years ago I traded for a Sandberg that has a "fumed oak" board. Didn't even know such a thing existed. Looks a lot like wenge.

1740628012877.jpeg


1740628035466.jpeg
 
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#13
BAG said:
I'm not really a fan of necks with maple boards which I realised the other night looking around my studio.
It got me thinking about how prevalent or otherwise maple board necks are compared to rosewood.
I have 7 basses all of which have rosewood boards..... and zero maple.
Overall my ratio is 7:0

Edit: My electric guitar ratio is 3:1
Click to expand...
I only have two basses. My 1982 Jazz has an all-maple neck along with 70's era pickup spacing, and my "no-name" 5-string (Rogue LX405 Pro) has a rosewood fretboard. My 1965 Jazz that I bought in 1966 and was stolen in 1976 had a rosewood fretboard and my 1965 (who knows what brand) Japanese short scale green piece of :poop: also had a rosewood fretboard - the only redeeming factor of that bass.

Of those basses, my 1982 Jazz with its all-maple neck is he best sounding of the bunch. It has a slightly brighter sound than my '65 had and I credit that to the 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center), which puts the bridge pickup almost half an inch closer to the bridge - 0.4" closer to be exact. It also has far better sustain, and I credit the all maple neck for that. So I will say my one maple neck bass is my choice between all-maple and with a rosewood fretboard.

Now as soon as you start looking at my guitars, they overwhelmingly have rosewood fretboards. I have three electric guitars (one is a Squier that needs some parts) with rosewood boards and four acoustic guitars also all with rosewood boards.

The only instrument that I have with an all-maple neck is my 1982 Jazz and it is definitely the best sounding instrument I have. I bought it because it was the only Jazz I was able to find between 1976 when my '65 was stolen, and 1985 when I bought it, that had the same neck shape, profile, and radius, as my '65 Jazz had. I didn't even realize it sounded better until 1997 when I was able to get an amp and start gigging again. Bought it for the neck, love it for the sound!
2basses1amp_2.jpg
 
#14
Well...
To be honest, fretboard wood was never a consideration for me, when purchasing a bass (I currently have 27 of the things). As long as it held the frets securely - and didn't give me splinters? I didn't much care. Still don't, actually. For fingerboard wood on a fretless bass, though? I prefer Ebony, which 3 0f my 4 fretless basses have. One has "Bolivian Rosewood", which the builder had the decency to call it by it's correct name - Pau Ferro. But, I suppose it can count as "Rosewood". Unless the bass is fairly old - or a custom one, few basses have Rosewood finger/fret boards made of real Rosewood, from the genus Dalbergia... Anyway; as for my basses?
- Rosewood ("real" or not): 15 (counting the Pau Ferro)
- Maple: 2 (I was surprised at the low number)
- Bubinga: 2
- Ebony: 6
- Synthetic (Ebanol): 2
I thought I had more Maple fretboards, but... apparently, I sold them. Of all the basses with "Rosewood"? Some of them are old enough that the fretboards are almost certainly "Real" Brazilian Rosewood. The rest are, for want of a better word - "fake" Rosewood. But, they all do what they're supposed to do, so... no complaints. Other than that I wish the fingerboard on my '93 Fury Anthem was Ebony, instead of "Bolivian Rosewood"... :whistle:
 
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