Why do, if you do, prefer one fingerboard material over the others?

[PBFACTOR]

Wenge and Rosewood are my favs. I like the feel of them. They have a different feel to me than Maple or Ebony. Sound different too.

 

[overit]

My first bass had rosewood in the 80s and I've just always liked the look, feel and sound.

 

[HowieD72]

Wenge for me because it looks luverly

+1

 

[Steve Cooke]

Don't care what wood, but if there is an option, ill take it with a clear gloss finish because way easier to clean. I had a bass with an oiled maple board, it was always grungy.

 

[srosenthal13]

I've been using maple drumsticks since high-school, so I went for that look and feel with my first two basses. I just picked up a third with Indian Laurel, so I'm opening my mind to darker fingerboards. Ironically, I'm not a huge fan of maple drums, but that's a tonal thing.

 

[Pocket Dave]

My experience with the tonewood aspect of fretboards is based on 45+ years of gigging on the dark side as a guitarist using Fender Stratocasters (among other guitars). IME, there's been a tonal difference between every rosewood and maple fretboard Strat I've owned, especially played at clean-to-low-gain settings.

IME this has been consistent with basses.

I was blessed with the chance to meet and hang with Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1980. One of the things we discussed was the maple/rosewood thing on fretboards since I just couldn't make maple board strats work for me. His opinion was maple provided more bounce and brilliance; Rosewood, a warmer, darker, more grainy tone.

I still agree with this. Sure, the strings are more in contact with the frets than the board. There's indirect contact though; The strings resonate through the entire bass, bridge, nut, body wood, neck wood, and especially fretboard wood since that's what anchors the frets.

A couple examples from Stevie:

"Lenny" from his debut album, recorded with his maple fretboard Strat by the same name. Strong Curtis Mayfield influence on this one, BTW - Curtis' main guitar was his white maple-fretboard Strat.



"Texas Flood" from the same album, recorded with his #1 rosewood board Strat. A lot more heft and warmth.



Back to basses: I prefer the maple board on my Precision because of its quicker note attack over every rosewood board P I've played; Still, I love the warmth of the rosewood-board P's, and find them more visually appealing, just digging the maple fretboard thing on mine.

OTOH, I love the rosewood fretboard on my 2010 Road Worn Jazz, so there's that.

IME it makes even more difference with fretless because of direct vs indirect string contact. Personally, I prefer the fretless tone of tight and smooth fretboards. My cheap Squier CV 60's fretless came with an unfinished Indian Laurel board, which didn't much sound like the fretless tone in my head.

I "ebonized" it with multiple coats of scratch resistant gloss polyurethane (after dark staining it). Night and day tonal difference, plus the stain almost covered up those annoying lines.

 

[Nightsprinter]

I like Ebony, Roasted Purpleheart, and Wenge. It's probably aesthetics for me as well, but they are all good hard woods and, I think, help with delivery of mid range tones for articulation and drive in a live mix.

Koog

Where does one get a roasted purpleheart neck? I love my purpleheart neck but have never seen a roasted one!

 

[Sam Evans]

Wait....it sounds rounded edges?
.....isn't that like saying is sounds blue?

I once talked with a bassist who said he was aiming for a "round sound." I said, "Cool. Also, what are you on, and can I have some? ... "

 

[ectoflanger]

I like maple with a white body, rosewood on a black body with regard to Fenders-

However I love the unique pattern of the light rosewood fingerboard on my 80's Gibson Explorer bass which is being restored to its original Alpine White.

I like ebony on an unlined fretless bass, and I like the black phenolic material on my unlined fretless Steinberger XL-25-

Was remiss in stating why- for me it's primarily aesthetics. However I believe that the Macassar ebony on my fretless Warwicks is more durable with the round wounds than other woods, with the exception of maple. Mind you the Warwicks came from the factory with round wounds.

Of course ditto for the phenolic, or synthetic material on the fretless Steinberger- which all of the original Steinbergers, with or without frets, also came from the factory with roundwounds.

 

[_Obra_]

Definitely a difference between fretboard wood. I made a comparison with same bass guitars and strings. Only difference was fretboard wood, ebony and maple.

Here is how it sounds.

 

[And I]

i prefer either rosewood or maple depending on the fit and finish of the rest of the bass. therefore... the two basses in my profile pic.

 

[timmus]

Maple on fretted basses, ebony (or ebonite) on fretless basses

 

[ole Jason]

Ebony, richlite, etc. for my fancy basses. Black fretboards look the best. I like maple boards on P basses and rosewood boards on Mustangs because that's the classic look IMO.

 

[moon-bass]

Fretless: coated, ebony, rosewood, synthetic in that order. A highly polished ebony or rosewood board can sound like a coated board.

Fretted: maple for slapping and funk, rosewood for rock/Jazz, ebony is nice for both. I prefer the feel of an unfinished rosewood or maple board, but I can dig on ebony and finished maple.

 

[perfektspace6]

Ebony or a dark composite. Purely based on looks.

 

[groooooove]

a big thick slice of something super stable makes the bass more desirable.

ebony is often a good call.

i also love the fancy stuff, wenge, purpleheart, and so on. nothing wrong with maple, either.

but when the fingerboard is obviously adding some stability, that's a nice thing.

 

[Afc70]

Ebony is my preferred fingerboard, for the looks, durability & feel & also the clarity & sweet top end.

 

[factorplayer]

Ebony all the way, with the possible exceptions of macassar ebony and pale moon ebony.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I like maple mostly because of the looks. But I am one of those who claim that maple sounds brighter and more open sounding than rosewood, and I prefer that. (Let the tonewood war begin!) That being said, about half of my basses have maple, and the other half have rosewood fingerboards, and one has ebony and I like them all.

 

[Axtman]

I prefer rosewood except on dark stages where I prefer maple. Ebony for fretless.