While I like the idea of tests, the fact is that when you fret a note, the board wood does not come into play as the fretted note is suspended between two fretwires. That's right, usually, the string doesn't even make it to the board on a well set up bass.
So it follows logic that the board material itself is not that important to tone. How could it be? Because maple boards support frets differently than rosewood boards?
Whatever tonal differences that can be heard between the same bass with different boards probably have more to do with setup or the actual differences between these two necks than the differences between the material of the boards. In my opinion, the tonal differences are present when we want to hear them and are not when when we don't.
And besides, whatever differences that can be heard will be sent up in smoke the second you play the bass with a drummer and a guitarist. The mix, my friends, is a cruel master.
All this wood and board debate is cool if you play bass in your room by yourself and get very precise about tone in that environment. In the real world, all this is very academic, in my opinion. How your bass sounds in your room has little to do with how it will sound in the studio or live.
My lone tone sounds not so good. But it will cut through and support the song. And that, my friends, is what we should be doing 99% of the time, in my opinion. That's why we are hired the vast majority of the time. People really don't care how our bass sounds when played by itself.
John
