Maple or Rosewood?

Maple or Rosewood?

  • Maple

    Votes: 44 36.7%

  • Rosewood

    Votes: 47 39.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 8 6.7%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 21 17.5%
  • Total voters
    120
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

maple realy has nice snappy tone. great for singing leads, chirps, harmonics, stuff like that or sparkle cleans. rosewood leads on neck pickup sound nice and fat and smooth. cleans are good for jazz. :beerchug:
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I assumed the maple was the fretboard on a strat, so on a strat- maple

LP- Rosewood
SG- Rosewood
Tele- Rosewood (believe it or not)

The best explanation of how rosewood sounds I ever saw was that the sound seems to "blossum" rather than come out in a sharp "twang" like maple.

If ever you have a hard time telling the difference between rosewood and maple, just head into a GC (bear with me) and A/B two Fender Standard strats, one maple board, one rosewood. They should have them. You'll never be able to tell the difference between two different guitar types with different pups, bodywood, etc. But if you could A/B two guitars that are essentially the same, fretboard wood aside, you could hear it. Rosewood I think is a lot smoother and has more sustain, maple is more jangly.
 
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Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I like the feel of rosewood the best, maple feels weird, and I hate the way it's bright. Ebony is okay, but I think it's kinda lifeless playin' with it.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

i really like maple boards on fender guitars, all my teles have all maple necks and one of my strats has an all maple neck. I like rosewood on lp like guitars because of the smoothness it adds to the sound. i like the feel of the maple boards a bit more though
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I use my rosewood fretboard guitar for more "musical" sounds, and my maple for a more 'sonic' type of sound. It could just be the difference in my guitars, though.
 
Maple

Maple

Maple doesn't have the sustain or dark tone of Rosewood, but it's a lot easier to play for me. A few years ago, I really wanted to get a Gibson Les Paul. I ended up trying a Strat out of boredom that had a maple fretboard. I was so impressed that I decided I was not getting a Gibson, but a Strat instead. Much better choice in my opinion. I do have a Dean Z, with Rosewood, and I love it but it doesn't compare to my Strat.

If I want to just rock out, play something hard, heavy, I would definitly go for something with humbuckers and a Rosewood fretboard. If I wanted to play something soft, moderate, or anything non-heavy, I would go for nothing else but my maple neck Strat. Maple does make a guitar much brighter sounding.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I like maple, just feels right in my hands. Especially fenders maple fretboards since the edges of the fretboard are rolled.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I love the looks and the feel of maple. Fretboards don't really make as big a difference as many people think. Maple is a bright wood, but I haven't found a mahogany neck to be any "richer" than maple. They are both different things. Some people like dark guitars, others like brighter guitars. I prefer something brighter.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I have mostly rosewood fretboards, only 1 maple, and owned 1 Ebony in the past (in my Fender Ultra).
Rosewood suits me the best tonewise, but i could not miss the maple neck RG either, it has a more open sound and is even more expressive on pick attack. Guess it s all a matter of taste AND the style of music you play with that exact guitar.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I prefer rosewood but having said that, I have a USA Schecter Tele with an unfinished maple fretboard which I love. I definitely don't care for the finished maple necks - nothing wrong with them, just isn't my thing
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

take2 said:
I prefer rosewood but having said that, I have a USA Schecter Tele with an unfinished maple fretboard which I love. I definitely don't care for the finished maple necks - nothing wrong with them, just isn't my thing
Click to expand...

I played one Fernandez with a finished glossy maple neck, it was ridiculous, you couldnt even move up and down the neck! :rolleyes:
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

I've always been a rosewood guy, but decided I wanted to just be different and try a maple board on my new MIA strat.

I have to say, I believe I prefer it..not only for feel but for sound...it has a snappier attack to it, and is a bit brighter..which I'm finding I'd rather get through the guitar itself than with the amp. Just seems like I can dial in warmer tones on the amp , and still get good "cut" or "bite" without sounding shrill or treble-y.
 
Re: Maple or Rosewood?

Maple. After comparing two identical fender basses, one with rosewood and the other one with maple fretboard, i must say that i was surprised. The rosewood one just sounded plain "dull" compared to the maple one, that had so much more punch, attack and sparkle.

Oh well, the only stupid thing is that i dont own a maple fretboarded guitar or bass, they are just so darn hard to find ;).
 
Re: Maple

Re: Maple

CorruptedCrawford said:
Maple doesn't have the sustain or dark tone of Rosewood, but it's a lot easier to play for me. A few years ago, I really wanted to get a Gibson Les Paul. I ended up trying a Strat out of boredom that had a maple fretboard. I was so impressed that I decided I was not getting a Gibson, but a Strat instead. Much better choice in my opinion. I do have a Dean Z, with Rosewood, and I love it but it doesn't compare to my Strat.

If I want to just rock out, play something hard, heavy, I would definitly go for something with humbuckers and a Rosewood fretboard. If I wanted to play something soft, moderate, or anything non-heavy, I would go for nothing else but my maple neck Strat. Maple does make a guitar much brighter sounding.
Click to expand...

Exactly what happened to me! I just fell in love with me strat!
 
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