It seems for every maple fretboard I see on a bass, I see two or more rosewood fretboards. I know that they're a bit snappier (fretboard wood, IMO, is much more of a determining factor to tone, if the body wood type makes any) but I think they look really nice, sound nice and I feel like Maple would be much easier to get than Rosewood or Ebony, but I have no evidence. Is it more expensive? Do they require more maintenance?
Maple boards are really popular, maybe a little less common. It is possible, depending on manufacturing techniques, that a neck with second piece of wood for the fingerboard/fretboard is less expensive to produce. With a one piece neck the truss rod is installed through the back of the neck and that slot needs to be filled and smoothed which may be more expensive/time consuming than dropping the truss rod in through the front...again it would really depend on the manufacturing process.
They are not unpopular at all. There may not be quite as many as there are rosewood, but they are plenty popular.
I actually prefer Maple for instruments with low tunings. That extra *snap* really helps it to cut through! I used to keep an old G&L SB-2 JJ with a Maple board tuned to Ab, F, Ab, Eb.
It seems for the longest time MIM Fender Standards were rosewood only. Around '09 they started offering maple boards. I was all over it and bought two Precisions and a Jazz.
I think most mid range manufacturers make them the same way as a rw neck i.e. glue a maple fretboard onto a maple neck and smooth off the edges. I have a maple neck stingray and this was how it was done. You have to really closely though. Some signature p basses are made from one piece. I don't know if there's a difference in the sound but I think the maple neck looks cooler. Unless the neck is lacquered though they can get very dirty. I had this problem with the stingray, it had a very light satin finish and it got very grimy.
I'll take the two on the left. And could you throw in some fries? I'm getting to hate rosewood. My warwick has ebony, my squier maple. Take a guess which one is in my hands tonight.
I had the same question long ago. To this day i still have a hard time finding maple neck/fretboards. I find that maple while warm gives your tone a nice high end punch. i own a maple neck silver-tone guitar and a maple neck fender jazz bass. Both my first maples and love them very much.
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