What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Whoever told you that is giving out very good advice. My ears tell me that on a solid body guitar all of this talk about fret boards, body wood, bridges, tuners, pick guards and what kind of screws are used on the strap buttons effecting tone is just silly conjecture that is useful for filling pages on forums but that's about it. 99.99999% of tone comes from player, pups, and amp. Simply using a different pick will change your tone far more than any effect body and neck woods can make. Having said all of that the fact is that none of this can be proven one way or the other and the question can only be answered by one person. You.

Thanks! Finally a sensible fellow. Wood matters only if the guitar is acoustic. Pickups and amps dominate more in electrics. As soon as the strings are plucked the sound will be picked up by the pickups and transferred to the amp before reverberating throughout the body and neck. And when you use considerable amount of effects, the impact of the wood factor declines even more considerably.

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

There wouldn't be any options for fretboard woods if there was no difference.

Visual aesthetics and pride are also important. Some people like the look of maple, some like rosewood. With ebony or bird's eye maple fretboard you can go around and brag about it.

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

This is sooo wrong! Im guessing beachbum is using digital amps.
Granted, on modern guitars with tight articulate high gain amps, the tone is pretty one dimensional, and you arent going to get much variance , but with a high end classic style Les Paul, Strat , or Tele guitar, or a special made guitar, or an old guitar, the difference is enormous. Great duncan pickups will quickly shut you up about how there is no difference in neck tonewoods, but only through a responsive organic tube amp with classic tone.

I have several guitars with different kind of woods, they all have SD or Dimarzio and sound crap played through a Boss SD-1, but sound majestic through a Digitech Grunge. Obviously, woods don't matter here.

[DarkMatter]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I went from an all maple neck to a walnut and ebony neck on my strat and the difference in sound was substantial. No other changes were made at that time.

Woods matter.

[Ayrton]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Thanks! Finally a sensible fellow. Wood matters only if the guitar is acoustic. Pickups and amps dominate more in electrics. As soon as the strings are plucked the sound will be picked up by the pickups and transferred to the amp before reverberating throughout the body and neck. And when you use considerable amount of effects, the impact of the wood factor declines even more considerably.

While you are correct that the more effects involved, the less the body wood matters, the part in bold is simply false. Anyone that owns several guitars can attest to this.

Now if you take something like an EMG, then it is going to sound pretty much the same no matter what you put it in. However, you take a PAF style pup and try it in an Alder, Maple, and then Mahogany and see if it sounds the same.

[DarkMatter]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

And yes, pickups and amps matter more, very true. And neck wood matters much more than body wood, but they can make a noticeable difference.

[Hellion]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Ya know, I once got into an argument with a Quarter Horse show judge who told me that 90% of the foal was the result of the mare, at which time I responded with, "Well, then why bother to breed to a good stud?" Everything is connected. And you can almost hear opinions forming, can't ya? A Les Paul Standard with the maple cap sounds different than one without, and those strings never come within a quarter inch of the wood. Let's just hope that the idiot doesn't start to breed.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode where it's a battle between normal guitar players and the dumbest ones.

[Hellion]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Thanks! Finally a sensible fellow. Wood matters only if the guitar is acoustic. Pickups and amps dominate more in electrics. As soon as the strings are plucked the sound will be picked up by the pickups and transferred to the amp before reverberating throughout the body and neck. And when you use considerable amount of effects, the impact of the wood factor declines even more considerably.

Paul Reed Smith said years ago that, "...an electric guitar is first and foremost, an acoustic guitar." And he's correct. A Telecaster unplugged sounds very much the same plugged in, same kind of spank, same kind of timbre, etc. Pickups are microphones. They vary in the same degree as in the difference between an SM58 and a KSM32. Everything is connected. ALL parts of the guitar matter.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Back in the '80s I bought a Cort headless guitar. It featured an 'Ebonol' fretboard .... basically it was plastic. Both acoustically and plugged in, the fretboard gave the instrument a sound i can only describe as 'bloopy'. It was horrible, and i got rid of it very quickly. If that guitar had had a wooden fretboard, I'm sure it would have stayed around for longer.

As some people are pointing out here, guitar construction is a recipe, and every ingedient shapes the final flavour, just as every ingredient affects the taste when preparing food. I've replaced necks on Stratocasters with other Strat necks featuring different fretboard woods and each time the differences are clearly noticeable.

[NewWave]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

There's different tone in different wood. Lot of gain kills the Tone. The easiest way to differentiate the tone wood is by trying a strat/similar with the same series but different fretboard because in a les paul/similar the maple cap make it harder to hear the different in tone

[shawn7oh]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

They matter, each fretboard wood has it's own characteristics, and will feel different playing. maple is harder, the tone is brighter, rosewood is softer, the tone is warmer, the playing faster. Ebony feels somewhat harder than rosewood, and adds excellent harmonics to the sound. Taylor acoustics have ebony on standard models, ebony is also on many heavy metal axes. I once played someone's artisan les paul, it had an ebony fingerboard, I've always felt ebony fretboards were the best since that time, early 80's. the harmonics are awesome.

[shawn7oh]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

there is something called an "ebonized" fretboard wood which i believe is rosewood that has been chemically or pressure treated, or both, to give it more of the hardness and harmonic characteristics of ebony. I think this is what schecter uses on their mass produced guitars, i'm not sure. I have had some schecters and really like the fretboards, but i think that ebony is the best for my personal taste. If anyone knows more about "ebonized" fretboard wood I'd like to know about it...

[frankfalbo]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Ugh, these are tiring. If it doesn't make a difference then make a fretboard out of rubber. Then will it matter? What will happen if the fret is mounted into rubber? Guess what? You'll hear that difference through the amp, won't you? No sustain, dull highs, they'll all come through loud and clear.
As with everything, there is a difference. The net effect on your life is up to you.
1. Is the difference enough for you to hear and/or experience?
2. If so, do you care?
You can argue all day about whether you care, whether it makes a difference to your ears in your plugged-in tone, but of course it makes a difference. If you can't hear the difference between that fake "Ebonol" material (found in perfectly decent bowling balls) and Rosewood, just consider yourself lucky. Ignorance is bliss. You have the luxury of going through your playing career with less to worry about. Just get some good pickups and you're happy!

[shawn7oh]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I think ebanol is when you pour alcohol on an ebony fretboard. i think u r right, ebanol being just black plastic, like nato (plastic which looks and feels alot like wood) as a wood type is a joke. I had a great charvel acoustic, with a nato neck. I didn't realize it was plastic for a long time. i played the guitar alot, and everything was fine, until at some point i noticed the nato was just starting to give way, and the neck felt spongey or rubbery. i'm pretty sure most ovation acoustics have nato necks, it's a trade off thing. no biggey, but i won't have one again. If wood type didn't matter, then why not plastic? you r so right!