I do not use any slap style in my playing but i do perfer the sound of a maple fingerboards whille playing fingerstyle. Who else out their is a fingerstyle player that uses maple fingerboard basses.
Me. I have a Lakland "Dudepit" Joe Osborne with a maple board and an MIA P bass with a maple board. My first good bass was 78 P, rootbeer/maple, and I've been partial to them ever since.
I use a maple fretboard, but I don't bother with those annoying metal lines on it. Mostly fingerstyle, and some tap/slapping at the end of the fretboard for some persuccive effects.
IMHO, anyone who's a plucker,, finger-style, whatever,,,should use a maple fingerboard, which includes me. Rosewood just sounds a bit soft, IMHO.
I also have a maple fretboard on my Fender J-Bass. I love it's sound for finger picking, I don't know if it would be too bright with using a pick, but I really don't care cuz I don't use a pick, IMO.
I have yet to own a bass with a maple fretboard.. whats the main diffference in sound/feel compared to a rosewood?
Usually, a maple board has a little more zing and top end to the sound, with a little less mids than a rosewood family counterpart. I started on a rosewood board, but I got into maple necks later because I thought they looked cool when I was a kid. I'm still playin' maple now.
I guess the hidden agenda here is about brightness and playing maple boards fingerstyle??? Not a problem at all, at least for me, as long as I have the controls to take the "bite" off of my stainless strings.
I'm really enjoying the tone out of my Kingston 5 string with maple board,, punchy, focused, etc. The Fender Geddy Lee also has killer tone for fingerstyle and slap. hmm,, maybe I should stick with maple/maple/alder basses for fretted!
I am mostly a fingerstyle player and I've been playing my U-Retro equipped Marcus Miller Jazz Bass almost exclusively lately. Though it has a great slap tone, I've been really digging the fingerstyle tone, especially when I play it through my EBS HD350 and Epifani 410UL. I used to think the finger tone was too bright, but my technique and style have changed in the past year, where I'm digging in more with the pads of the fingers for deeper and warmer tone. Now the crisp sound of the maple board with a lot of bite is what I like to hear.