Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
- Thread starter JALIN
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59paul
New member
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
This is purely from my perspective, and I'm sure others will probably have differing opinions. I'll use a Fender Strat as my " hypothetical " Guitar:
Maple> Has more of a " snap ", and lends itself to more of a " glassy " tone.
Rosewood> Seems to carry a warmer tone, a little more Robust sounding.
Ebony> seems similar to Rosewood, with more of a " silky " feel. Can sometimes lend itself to a Darker tone.
*** I have an Ebony fretboard on my Martin D-28. It feels more silky, and carries a little darker tone than my Gibson J-50, which has Rosewood.
So...hope this helps........
This is purely from my perspective, and I'm sure others will probably have differing opinions. I'll use a Fender Strat as my " hypothetical " Guitar:
Maple> Has more of a " snap ", and lends itself to more of a " glassy " tone.
Rosewood> Seems to carry a warmer tone, a little more Robust sounding.
Ebony> seems similar to Rosewood, with more of a " silky " feel. Can sometimes lend itself to a Darker tone.
*** I have an Ebony fretboard on my Martin D-28. It feels more silky, and carries a little darker tone than my Gibson J-50, which has Rosewood.
So...hope this helps........
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Vasshu the humanoid typhoon
Unseen
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
Maple onepiece, snappy clear loud and has a deep bass end, good for twangy open stuff, and lots of other things that wants those qualities, twopiece maple,
also snappy but slightly more spread out in the sound than a onepiece, otherwise the same sound mostly and the notes bloom alittle more.
Rosewood, great chorddefenition, makes the note bloom in a very warm and pleasent way, fat juicy overtones, nice feel, good allround wood.
Ebony, smooth sound, a focused sound, sounds better on acoustics than on an electric imho, has some of the qualities maple sports, but is a little more "dead" in the attack.
Very even sounding wood.
Maple onepiece, snappy clear loud and has a deep bass end, good for twangy open stuff, and lots of other things that wants those qualities, twopiece maple,
also snappy but slightly more spread out in the sound than a onepiece, otherwise the same sound mostly and the notes bloom alittle more.
Rosewood, great chorddefenition, makes the note bloom in a very warm and pleasent way, fat juicy overtones, nice feel, good allround wood.
Ebony, smooth sound, a focused sound, sounds better on acoustics than on an electric imho, has some of the qualities maple sports, but is a little more "dead" in the attack.
Very even sounding wood.
Norman_T
New member
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
You may also find the following link from the Warmoth site quite useful for the different types of boards quite useful (click on Neck Woods on the left side) to go through all of the woods used for necks and boards:
http://www.warmoth.com/common/frames/guitarneck.htm
You may also find the following link from the Warmoth site quite useful for the different types of boards quite useful (click on Neck Woods on the left side) to go through all of the woods used for necks and boards:
http://www.warmoth.com/common/frames/guitarneck.htm
7th Hell
New member
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
Fretboard wood has a larger impact on the overall tone of a guitar than one would think. After all- no single piece of wood other than the fretboard is in such close proximity to the vibrating strings and frets. I believe this tone shaping is due to soundwaves interacting with the fretboard material.
Maple- bright and crisp
Rosewood- warm and round
ebony- dark and fast
I wonder what a koa or korina fretboard would sound like? I once ordered a custom shop ESP that had an ebony fretboard. On the way over to NYC from Japan, the moisture from the shipping container expanded and contracted the fretboard until it had a very nasty crack running through it! All ebony fretboarders beware! Me- I prefer the warm, almost vocal-like tonal shapings offered from Rosewood.
Fretboard wood has a larger impact on the overall tone of a guitar than one would think. After all- no single piece of wood other than the fretboard is in such close proximity to the vibrating strings and frets. I believe this tone shaping is due to soundwaves interacting with the fretboard material.
Maple- bright and crisp
Rosewood- warm and round
ebony- dark and fast
I wonder what a koa or korina fretboard would sound like? I once ordered a custom shop ESP that had an ebony fretboard. On the way over to NYC from Japan, the moisture from the shipping container expanded and contracted the fretboard until it had a very nasty crack running through it! All ebony fretboarders beware! Me- I prefer the warm, almost vocal-like tonal shapings offered from Rosewood.
sgstrat
Member
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
We could probably discuss this until the cows come home, but I would say the tonal difference here has much more to do with the body wood (rosewood for the D-28 vs. mahogany for the J-50). IMHO, of course.
59paul said:
We could probably discuss this until the cows come home, but I would say the tonal difference here has much more to do with the body wood (rosewood for the D-28 vs. mahogany for the J-50). IMHO, of course.
59paul
New member
Re: Differences between the maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?
sgstrat> No Doubt about it, the body wood plays a MAJOR role in the tone of these 2 guitars !!!! I also think the difference in the fretboards play a role, as well. The J-50 is more resonant. The D-28 Louder and Darker. With the strings vibrating the entire length of the scale, and the neck being a Big part of that scale, the fretboard HAS to come into play. ......sgstrat said:
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