Rosewood neck vs maple neck

[kramersteen]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

Maple is harder.

Explain this to me then?


Patagonian Rosewood / Curupay / Angico Preto / Piptadenia Macrocarpa / Brazilian Tiger Mahogany 3840
Hard Maple / Sugar Maple 1450
Balsa 100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

So the consensus is, it is more the matter of look rather than tone? I heard many times that maple board makes a guitar sounds brighter than rosewood, but personally I think this owes more to the pickup and the body.

This has been my experience. People can say what they hear but honestly I've had strats and teles with maple and rosewood and could never pin anything down to "oh that's the sound of maple" or "that's the sound of rosewood". These days I have to take the tone of the guitar as a whole and no longer have a maple or rosewood preference.
I've had a rosewood board les paul that sounded brighter than 2 agile les pauls that had ebony boards. I have no doubt that fretboard wood contributes *something* to the tone but I just can't seem to hear exactly what that difference is. So I don't sweat it.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

I like both. My preference depends only on the aesthetic scheme of the guitar in question.

I wouldn't like a maple board on a guitar that was dark...unless that guitar also had a light toned pick guard. For example, Glenn Tipton's Strat: yucky (even though it's a polished stainless steel guard, the overall look of the body is still pretty dark on stage). But Dave Murray's Strat: yummy, with its maple neck and old-school one-ply white guard. Same thing with David Gilmour's black-on-black-on-maple Strat (yucky) vs. Eric Clapton's Blackie (yummy).

I also don't like rosewood boards on black guitars, though as long as there is a large enough pick guard (e.g. Strat or Tele size) that is light in tone, it's okay. In those cases, the guard for the most part prevents the rosewood board from butting up against the black. On an Explorer or small-guard SG, though, there isn't enough guard to serve as a buffer, to prevent the black and the rosewood from clashing. That's why even though I wanted a black Explorer, I bought a white one instead, intending to paint it black myself. The white ones have ebony boards, while the black ones use rosewood.

OTOH, the rosewood board on my eggplant colored Dean looks great to me, even though the purple is not all that far removed from black.

I really dislike maple on Gibson-style guitars; I've never seen one like that that looked anywhere close to good to my eyes.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

Not saying the difference isn't there, I actually kind of think there is one. But this is probably the most scientific audible test I could find and the difference could,be attributed to a BUNCH of different variables.

 

[elelpe]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

Rosewood board on maple is brighter than one-piece maple to me.

My experience also, at least with my tele, after swapping neck (in same body, same pickups, same parts and electronic, same strings, same rig, same setting) but no way I could differentiate the sound of maple or rosewood as general consensus. When it comes to neck, it's about feel and look to me. A rosewood neck with ebony fretboard is the nicest feeling and looking neck I ever play.

edit: just noticed the Youtube video. I did similar test with my ash body tele as I mentioned and found out that one-piece maple neck sounded fuller and less snappy than rosewood fb on maple, like the impression I got from that video.

 

[SJ318]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

+1 with elepe, and FOTBTone,
I heard a couple spots on the lower strings where I thought the maple had a slight but audible deeper sound, fleeting but there it was. I am surprised by that.
SJB

 

[El Supremo]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

My impression is maple has slightly sweeter highs compared to rosewood. Ebony seems to enhance the body character whilst adding a very defined attack.
Ebony, by far, is probably the most comfortable to play. A very smooth feel to the fingers. Maple (we're talking unfinished) is a close second to me.

Cosmetically, I like things traditional. Maple fretboards don't belong on a Gibson imo for example. Not roasted, deep fried or whatever. Maple necks are okay for me though.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

So the consensus is, it is more the matter of look rather than tone? I heard many times that maple board makes a guitar sounds brighter than rosewood, but personally I think this owes more to the pickup and the body.

If anything it is the other way round.

Overall, however, I think the truss rod details and the non-fretboard part of the maple have more to do with whether it sounds good or not.

 

[clydeabernethy]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

rosewood's rough quality removes it from the good list.. for me, maple is the better one..
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[Edgecrusher]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

rosewood's rough quality removes it from the good list.. for me, maple is the better one..

Not sure what you mean by "rough quality" My rosewood is pretty damn smooth. Or do you mean you dont like the openness of the grain?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

I'm going to join in and say that maple sounds a touch less bright and less deep than rosewood in my experience. It's not a huge difference by any means though. I played rosewood boards for years, but my number one guitar right now has a one piece oiled maple neck.

 

[Jethro_Dull]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

So, we go with Pledge to touch up our maple fretboards?

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

I notice a bigger difference in the tone of fretboards when also changing neck wood. For example on a Les Paul not much difference between the rosewood and ebony boards on mohagany necks, but on the old nolin era maple necks I notice much more difference between the rosewood and ebony sounds. Personally for most Gibsons I prefer ebony over mohagany(sunbursts look good with rosewood too) strat styles I prefer rosewood over maple, and teles I like all maple. Mostly based on looks

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

I love the ebony board more than anything... But I will play just anything.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

My impression was always that a maple board has kind of a more "clucky" tone to it. I wouldn't necessarily call it brighter but has a kind of upper midrange chirp and tightness while rosewood has a bit bigger of a bass but also more of an apparent or peaky high end even more so than the maple, like kind of scooped. This would explain the rosewood board having a more trebly top from a certain point of view which would make sense because of how hard the wood is. So similar experience to what Guitarstv said, not as much highs, not as much lows, but more focused towards the high end mids.

Despite the number of words I used to try to describe it, the difference is not that big in my ears, very very slight difference in the attack, to the point where if someone told me that it was in my head and that something else was causing the difference, I wouldn't totally doubt them. Though there are always the questions with slab boards as opposed to veneer boards and such, THEN we have to get into one piece maple necks vs rosewood boards etc...

But seriously when that tone knob gets rolled back to 9 or 8 the difference I hear goes away for the most part.

Thing is, on paper, what a maple board is supposed to do the tone, I prefer anyway. So aesthetically, tonally, feelwise, either way I'm on board for maple.

 

[SJ318]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

How boards look.
It seems looks play a fairly good part of this thread. I must say (knowing I'll reap a word storm) that I seem to be the only one who absolutely hates the look and feel of a Clapton "Layla" filthy maple board. I heard the tech from Petty's guitar tech say in a video that the guitarist (Mike?) would kill him if he tried to clean his very well used but all dark dirt and grease fretboard.
I guess that's a mojo thing, but I don't like the feel of bare dirty maple on my fingers. I usually remove any finish on the back, or un sticky it with scotch brite, but a finished maple neck feels sticky, and if there must be finish, like I did on mine, I just de-sticked it to make it satin, even tough I semi scoop the maple board for better string push. That's when I do the refinish myself as a backyard lutherie. With Rosewood, Ebony, clean it, oil it, done, like new, maybe better.
SJB

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Rosewood neck vs maple neck

I must say (knowing I'll reap a word storm) that I seem to be the only one who absolutely hates the look and feel of a Clapton "Layla" filthy maple board.

Who would blast you for not liking dirty fret boards? I know we can get a bit rough and tumble sometimes but dayum i cant imagine anyone screaming "Thee must love thy fretboard funk!!!!"