Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

[MarkyMarkRox]

I know a lot of SD pickups say they work especially well with a certain kind of fretboard wood; rosewood being the most favored among the humbuckers. I'm a maple kind of guy, so I'm wondering if the difference really matters that much in the pickup's tone. Let me know!! I don't mind rosewoods that much...

 

[big_black]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

The neck affects most of the acoustic tone IMO. Play a rosewood and maple board side by side.

If you have questions about woods and pickups, ask it here. I find alot of the tone chart stuff very misleading.

 

[dani]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

apparently it does. that is the first wooden surface the strings will transmit its vibration/sound waves on before the neck wood comes into play and thereby transferring to the body.

 

[MarkyMarkRox]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

haha well my first question is what IMO means...and more specifically my next guitar project will be a standard fat strat with a JB in the bridge, ssl-1, and either the cool or vintage rails. I know it says rosewood is recommended for the JB and ssl-1 but I jus wanted some input before making the purchase

 

[dani]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

fyi, the jb was designed to be use with 250k pots. actually, jb/vr/cr would work really well.

 

[acosmicmessenger]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

In
My
Opinion

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

For
Your
Information

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

I find fretboard wood makes a difference as one part total of tone balance.

I use SD Distortion pickups and in my ebony fretboard, the pickup tone is bright already and the ebony is bright, so it's bright on bright. It works, but the Distortion paired with my rosewood fretboard, it's bright pickup on a warm and spongy sounding surface. When you have that tonal balance, you get what the tonal chart says about 'works especially well with rosewood' or 'works especially well with ebony or maple'.

So, you can place whatever wherever, it's just you get more tonal spectrum of sound which can result in some pleasing results. The charts REALLY help, but aren't rule.

 

[acosmicmessenger]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

to my untrained ear, fretboard woods don't matter much tone-wise...

what i look for in a fretboard wood is the FEEL... i hate finished maple boards... and ebony seems too slippery to me... thus, i like rosewood.

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

JB+maple board+250k pots=in the clear.

I got that in my ernie ball music man. Should all be good.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

Probably they recommend rosewood for the JB because it is top-heavy tonewise -- strong treble and upper mids with less bass. I presume the rosewood recommendation is to warm the tone up some, which in my experience makes sense.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

The diff can be subtle but there is a diff. Rosewood gives a guitar a slightly warmer tone with more complex mids compared to maple. And Brazilian Rosewood sounds more complex than Indian.

I started off on rosewood Gibsons, then started craving 50's maple neck/fingerboard Fenders...now I'm starting to like rosewood fingerboards more again.

Lew

 

[RW James]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

to my untrained ear, fretboard woods don't matter much tone-wise...

what i look for in a fretboard wood is the FEEL... i hate finished maple boards... and ebony seems too slippery to me... thus, i like rosewood.

This is probably the best response so far. This is very important. When you are starting out - your ear is untrained. Everything sounds the same.

So you have two choices - (1) get whatever looks or feels best to you - or - (2) depend on the collective wisdom and experience of others (with hopefully trained ears).

If you go with choice one, you may regret it after your ear becomes "trained". But honestly, choice two, becomes just opinions.

Regret is real... which is probably why many experienced people will recommend not spending a lot of money on an instrument when you are just starting out, because the chance of regret is proportional to the amount of money spent.

Personally, I like the look of maple, but I like the sound of rosewood. But that's just me.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

I think the difference in feel is much greater than the difference in tone, but the tone difference is there. Your neck and body wood will have a bigger effect on tone than the fretboard wood.

 

[St-Jimmy]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

I definitely notice a difference in tone and feel. I've played maple and rosewood fretboards, and I like both of them although I like the rosewood more. The maple fretboard is pretty slick feeling and is pretty bright. The only problem I had with them is that if you do use a JB, which I had with this fretboard, it is really bright and icepicky to the ear. I could tap to oblivion with it though.

I like rosewood because it has a warmer sound, as people put it. the bass and the crunch really come out, especially with the brighter pickups.

 

[fenderiarhs]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

fretboard wood has an influence on tone (at least to my ears) but it's not so drastic as some tone gurus are suggesting.

 

[DeanSweden]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

George Lynch had a quite bright tone in the early Dokken days

 

[acosmicmessenger]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

I think the difference in feel is much greater than the difference in tone, but the tone difference is there. Your neck and body wood will have a bigger effect on tone than the fretboard wood.

that's what i was getting at... i DO hear a difference... but (at least to me) the TONE of fretboard woods is secondary to how they feel under ny fingers... ESPECIALLY when you consider how much more the body and neck of a guitar will alter its tone.

 

[vinterland]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

Totally does, especially when your talking good quality fretboards and guitars in general. I can completely tell the difference between my ebony and rosewood fretboard which are on two different guitars but with the same body wood.

 

[BigDaddy]

Re: Do fretboard woods really matter that much?

The fret board wood does have an affect on the overall tone of the guitar. You really can not say what it will be though unless you actually see the wood. No two pieces of wood are the same. So one maple board might be bright sounding and another could be very warm and mellow. It depends on the woods density, grain and hardness.

A hard piece of wood as opposed to a soft one of the same type will sound different. I had a few maple neck that was warm and mellow and not bright at all and I have had one's that were really bright. Same for ebony, a hard ebony can be really bright. It seems every time I build a guitar it never comes out the way I planned and I end up switching necks until I get the right match.

My rule of thumb is that if the body is light than I use a dense neck wood and less bright sounding fret board. If I have a heavy body than I'll use a lighter weight neck wood and brighter sounding fret board. I have built about 20 or so guitars out of mostly Warmoth parts over the last 3 years. I will never buy another Fender or Gibson. I will also almost never use anybodies pickups other than a "Duncan" and I have tried just about all of them. I usally end up going back to a Duncan, they always sound good.