MAPLE OR ROSEWOOD.. Sorry if this is dumb.

[ShowKing]

i love maple

 

[David Jayne]

I'll throw my hat into the ring.
The sound argument? Maple/brighter, Rosewood/darker? Well, Rosewood is a lot harder than Maple. A lot. So in theory Rosewood should have a brighter sound than Maple, but most folks say they hear the opposite. I think they are hallucinating, and personally I cannot tell the difference.

I like the feel of Rosewood a little better.

Rosewood and Maple expand and contract at different rates with humidity changes. In my experience this makes all Maple necks more stable, requiring less truss rod adjustments.

 

[Jeff K]

I wouldn't worry about the chipping. I have a '75 P and the maple neck/board still looks great.

I'm going to go against the prevailing sentiment here. While I do like black & maple with a black guard, I like black/rosewood/tort even better. And either brown tort or reddish tort look good on the black.

 

[Nickyzrx]

Whoo.. I guess we should vote for the best looking P-bass combo..lol

But thank you guys..thank you so much..

 

[6Steve6Harris6]

I'll throw my hat into the ring.
The sound argument? Maple/brighter, Rosewood/darker? Well, Rosewood is a lot harder than Maple. A lot. So in theory Rosewood should have a brighter sound than Maple, but most folks say they hear the opposite. I think they are hallucinating, and personally I cannot tell the difference.

I like the feel of Rosewood a little better.

Rosewood and Maple expand and contract at different rates with humidity changes. In my experience this makes all Maple necks more stable, requiring less truss rod adjustments.

I think it is the other way.

Maple is definitely harder, hence the brighter tone.

 

[Number27]

i'd go maple board with gold anodized pickguard, gold hardware too if you are feeling it

 

[excane]

I'll throw my hat into the ring.
The sound argument? Maple/brighter, Rosewood/darker? Well, Rosewood is a lot harder than Maple. A lot. So in theory Rosewood should have a brighter sound than Maple, but most folks say they hear the opposite. I think they are hallucinating, and personally I cannot tell the difference.

I like the feel of Rosewood a little better.

Rosewood and Maple expand and contract at different rates with humidity changes. In my experience this makes all Maple necks more stable, requiring less truss rod adjustments.

+1 Agreed. I cannot really tell a difference either and believe me, I am definitely one to scrutinize.

All of my basses (the exception being my MTD with a wenge board) have rosewood boards for purely aesthetic reasons, I just like the look of them better. The maple is just too stark for my liking.

 

[amimbari]

MickyZRX

let's forget about the "tone" issue for a moment...there is a black and maple club here with hundreds of pictures of black and maple EVERYTHINGS.

take a look..the bass color config your trying to decide on will probably be in there somewhere for you to actually see what it will look like and you can decide from there.

 

[Nedmundo]

I'll throw my hat into the ring.
The sound argument? Maple/brighter, Rosewood/darker? Well, Rosewood is a lot harder than Maple. A lot. So in theory Rosewood should have a brighter sound than Maple, but most folks say they hear the opposite. I think they are hallucinating, and personally I cannot tell the difference.

I like the feel of Rosewood a little better.

Rosewood and Maple expand and contract at different rates with humidity changes. In my experience this makes all Maple necks more stable, requiring less truss rod adjustments.

Rosewood might be harder, but it also contains more oil, and I think that's why it's generally not as bright as maple. The finishing on maple boards might contribute to its brightness as well. Regardless, the sonic differences are slight in most cases.