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What is the difference Between Rosewood and Maple Fretboards?

#85
I prefer Maple fingerbords but i think thats just because i always equate rosewood with cheap basses. Maple neck and rosewood finderbord seems to be the staple of cheap beginer basses and although i know its not true. Rosewood is chosen by many people on very expensive basses because they prefer it i just cant stop thinking its the worse option because its all you see on cheap basses.That and i prefer the look of a light fingerbord
 
#87
I personally can hear a difference between rosewood and maple. But I can hear a HUGE difference between rosewood and ebony, and an even huger difference between graphite and maple/rosewood (to be fair that is a whole neck though.)

While I agree that every piece of wood is different because it is organic material, there are certain properties about each wood that are fairly consistent (and i am including sonic properties.) Let's compare wood to something else that is organic for my point. It's like saying that molasses (rosewood) is less sweet (darker) than maple syrup (maple.) Now to be honest you could probably find examples where the reverse is true being organic and all (and probably some of you don't agree with that statement anyways.) The point is that molasses tastes DIFFERENT than maple syrup, and the descriptive terminology people use to describe the tastes is very ambiguous. This doesn't preclude the fact that their are certain qualities about both that make them what they are and that many people can distinguish which is which by just taste alone. Same with maple and rosewood boards. Their are certain sonic properties which are consistently different between rosewood and maple, but don't ask me to use words to describe them. Perhaps this is a less distinguishable difference than say the difference in taste between molasses and maple syrup, but it is their. So to be clear:

Maple sounds different than rosewood. Rosewood sounds different than maple.

Perhaps the only way to precisely illustrate it would be with a spectrograph of some type, and many many fretboard changes on the same instrument, but I would never use mere words... they are too ambiguous to describe sound precisely. We can never even get anyone to agree on what growly or punchy means for chris sake.

I know, I know... some people will say that I need to prove that maple sounds different than rosewood, but all I would say is "get better ears man." It's like if I said to you that you need to prove that molasses tastes different than maple syrup... you would think my sense of taste sucks if I couldn't tell the difference (and by the way, good luck on proving that using scientific methods. Can be done but what common person is equipped to do it?)
 
#90
Every neck sounds different to me regardless of the woods/fingerboard used. Even necks made of of the same woods/fingerboard sound different to me.

I just accept each one as they are and avoid conjuring generalities where none exist.
 
#91
mongo2 said:
Every neck sounds different to me regardless of the woods/fingerboard used. Even necks made of of the same woods/fingerboard sound different to me.

I just accept each one as they are and avoid conjuring generalities where none exist.
Click to expand...

Shame on you. You must pick a side and make generalizations to prove your point. It's in the rules. ;)


Oh, and this thread is like 4 days old. We need a new one. :rollno:
 
#92
I trust this man:

Sadowsky said:
I am in the position of basically building the same bass over and over and I can absolutely, positively tell you that maple is much brighter than rosewood and ebony has the most punch. Most people never get that opportunity. You can't compare apples to oranges on this one. I have nothing to gain by advocating one fingerboard over the other--it just is a fact.
Click to expand...

[emphasis mine]

'nuff said
 
#93
Marcus Willett said:
I trust this man:

Sadowsky said:
I can absolutely, positively tell you that maple is much brighter than rosewood
Click to expand...


'nuff said
Click to expand...

I trust my ears.

Especially when I've had several necks with rosewood fingerboards that absolutely, positively sound brighter than my solid maple necks or necks with maple fingerboards when used on the same bodies with the same pickups, hardware and strings.

There's more to it than just the type of wood the fingerboard is made of.
 
#95
There is little point in looking for the subtle changes in tone from a fretboard, especially when you more than likely are going to set the EQ on an Amp to find your prefered tone and then you have the problem of naturally occuring reverb and then the amount of sweat on your fingers and then you have the problem of where the wood came from, as most people can tell, several different batches of something that isn't controlled through out it's growing life will give a different aspects.

Potatoes for example, different brands of potatoes, same species, have different frying times, different flavours different colours and then you have the same brands and same species altering as well.

Personally I would just go on looks, and I prefer rosewood myself. Though that is my opinion, and the potatoe thing comes from working in a fish and chip shop for a fair while and noting that you should never mix two different batches of potatoes due to different frying times, raw chips (fries) are not good.

M.Riley
 
#96
People that plug in to a rig that scoops out all of their mids and gives them just the low range classic p-bass + ampeg tone probably think maple and rosewood sound exactly the same. Because in that configuration they do.

Plug the same two basses into say something like a solid state head, with accugroove cabs and you will find quite quickly that maple is brighter.

How can you tell that maple isn't any brighter than rosewood at 2.5khz-4.0hkz when your rig won't produce any sound over 800hz. Why does your limited experience not only make you form an opinion but somehow transform your own idea into self-dellusioned logic that must be shouted to all the perceived morons of the world. Why must it not be allowed to rest until you have metaphorically burned the villages and pillaged the women of truth, logic and scientific evaluation. Even to the point that when the science stares you in the face you deny its existence.

Is it possible for a bass with a rosewood fingerboard to be brighter than one with a maple? Of course it is. Does that somehow prove that maple adds nothing to the sound whatsoever? Of course not. Is it possible to find a jazz bass that has a better classic P bass sound than some if not most P's? Of course it is. Does that mean that all Jazz basses sound more like P's that P's do? Of course not. It is idiotic to to use simple case scenarios to make sweeping generalizations about something.

Might I suggest that before you haul off on a rant about something having no measurable difference in your extremely limited experience that you simply do a little research and ask a professional their opinion. I think you would have a very hard time finding any custom bass builder that didn't think fingerboard wood had a sonic influence.

And aren't those the people who's job it is to know? Aren't those the people who night after night day after day breath life into something that didn't exist before and see what it screams to them at birth.

Perhaps someone who has constructed hundreds if not thousands of instruments out of raw materials would have some perspective on the subject worth hearing.

Then again the fact that you own a rosewood fingerboard and an ampeg combo and your cousin eddie came over that one time with his maple boarded squire and YOU couldn't tell the difference was all the evidence the world needed.

I'm pretty sure this post is going to fall on the same deaf ears but there you have it.

Some day you might know more and look back at this moment and realize just how little you knew. Maybe think about that before hitting reply.

-Rav
 
#97
Rav said:
People that plug in to a rig that scoops out all of their mids and gives them just the low range classic p-bass + ampeg tone probably think maple and rosewood sound exactly the same. Because in that configuration they do.

Plug the same two basses into say something like a solid state head, with accugroove cabs and you will find quite quickly that maple is brighter.

How can you tell that maple isn't any brighter than rosewood at 2.5khz-4.0hkz when your rig won't produce any sound over 800hz. Why does your limited experience not only make you form an opinion but somehow transform your own idea into self-dellusioned logic that must be shouted to all the perceived morons of the world. Why must it not be allowed to rest until you have metaphorically burned the villages and pillaged the women of truth, logic and scientific evaluation. Even to the point that when the science stares you in the face you deny its existence.

Is it possible for a bass with a rosewood fingerboard to be brighter than one with a maple? Of course it is. Does that somehow prove that maple adds nothing to the sound whatsoever? Of course not. Is it possible to find a jazz bass that has a better classic P bass sound than some if not most P's? Of course it is. Does that mean that all Jazz basses sound more like P's that P's do? Of course not. It is idiotic to to use simple case scenarios to make sweeping generalizations about something.

Might I suggest that before you haul off on a rant about something having no measurable difference in your extremely limited experience that you simply do a little research and ask a professional their opinion. I think you would have a very hard time finding any custom bass builder that didn't think fingerboard wood had a sonic influence.

And aren't those the people who's job it is to know? Aren't those the people who night after night day after day breath life into something that didn't exist before and see what it screams to them at birth.

Perhaps someone who has constructed hundreds if not thousands of instruments out of raw materials would have some perspective on the subject worth hearing.

Then again the fact that you own a rosewood fingerboard and an ampeg combo and your cousin eddie came over that one time with his maple boarded squire and YOU couldn't tell the difference was all the evidence the world needed.

I'm pretty sure this post is going to fall on the same deaf ears but there you have it.

Some day you might know more and look back at this moment and realize just how little you knew. Maybe think about that before hitting reply.

-Rav
Click to expand...

+1
 
#99
lousybassplayer said:
I know! Ever notice how when you think you have a good point 50 people can prove you are clueless in 5 minutes on this damn forum? I've decided that I just don't know anything.
Click to expand...

WAIT A MINUTE!! Take heart! This is a good thing. Remember that an expert is a person that knows more and more about less and less. So that when you find the one thing that you can be an expert about, all other things cease to matter.

Remember the movie "City Slickers," where Curly (Jack Palance) told Billy Crystal's character that he had to find out what the "one" thing was? You have to find your "one."

That way, you can have opinions on everything else, but be willing and able to present your creds to demonstrate your expertise.

I was the same way with technology - I even have a Master of Education degree in Educational Technology and am State certified. Then, the State (Pennsylvania) changed administrations, so the Department of Education director changed, therefore standards changed, and it became more and more expensive to keep up with all I needed to know and become aware of as technology progresses. But now I know just enough to tick off IT people that are experts at networking and hardware, but are freakin' clueless as to how people use technology and how it should be used.

Find your expertise - technique, transcription, bass construction, electronics, how woods and electronics work together, etc. - and master it.

As for maple v. rosewood, maple is a hard wood that is gives you brighter tone and harder attack; rosewood is a softer wood and gives you a more balanced tone. It works better with electronics for a wide range of uses (which is why it's a most prevalent type of board out there on commercially available guitars and basses). Ebony is also a hard wood, giving a more pronounced attack like maple, and balances out the warm tone woods of spruce (on guitar and violin) and mahogany which bodies can be made of, and rosewood balances out the brighter bodies of ash and alder. (Come to think of it, why aren't bass bodies made of spruce?)

Now if you have an ash or alder body, a maple neck and board, that's going to be a really bright sounding bass, with not a lot of mid-range tone. You might want to balance that with some "darker" electronics, like Bartolini pickups and EQ. But if you have a mahogany body, and a wenge neck and board (like an Ibanez SR506), you might want to consider replacing the Bartolini electronics (even though it sounds great) with an Audere pre-amp, since Auderes let the more of the natural sound of the woods of the bass come through.

I completely agree with Rav - you'll be amazed at how many people to tell you to scoop out your mids. All they want is bass "mud," since you're mids cut through the mix. In fact, your mids are equivalent to a guitar's treble boost. Many basses I've played simply add "hiss" when you kick up the treble on an EQ. This is, why I think lots of folks like passive electronics, so that the amp can do the tone work. Me, I like active. I would much rather control my tone based on how my bass is constructed, and then run through a Crown amplifier (with no tone control at all) and speaker. I wouldn't be able to do that with a Fender, though (which I why I don't own nor play one - remember that the excellent sound you hear from a P or a Jazz bass on a recording has gone through all kinds of signal processing in a studio). When you're looking for your tone, it's not enough just to get a bass that has tone woods or electronics - you have to play it through a rig, too...that will have an effect on sound as well.

Then again, I'm no expert (if I was, I'd be playing in a studio somewhere...)

Z
 

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