What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

verbotenco said:
Paul is not even a professional guitarist, he is a guitar builder. That pretty much sums it up why we didn't care what he said.
Click to expand...

You're not a professional guitarist either so I guess we shouldn't care about what you say. I doubt you have near the experience with guitars that Paul has. Plus he is a guitar player, like you, and probably has been playing longer than you have. Nice try but you clearly provided the tools to dismantle your own argument.

If you really believe that we should disregard Paul Reed Smith's opinion, than you clearly are out of your mind. Believe what you want, I'm not wasting any more time on you. I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Dr. Vegetable said:

Imagine there's no difference
It's easy if you try
Mahogany can't help us
Might as well just build from ply
Imagine all the players playing for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
My Indonesian knock-off
Will shred your Gibson, too
Imagine all the people playing Fender Squiers

You may say "this axe is a screamer"
But you're not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
All the wood will sound as one

Imagine no flamed maple
I wonder if you can
No need for grain or nitro
A brotherhood of bland
Imagine all the players sounding just the same

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday your ears will open
And this thread can finally be done.


peace-songs-john-lennon-200lvg091809.jpg
Click to expand...
:bigok::laughing:
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Rosewood fingerboards are noticeably warmer and fuller than maple in the clean channel, but not much different in distortion mode, I've noticed. However, the notes sound a little cleaner and distinct when playing alternate-picking riffs in distortion mode on my RG3XXV with maple fingerboard. I don't know if this is attributed to the maple fingerboard, or the stacked humbucker (Air Norton), verses a regular humbucker?!?
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

verbotenco said:
Yeah I know he named his guitars Evo, Flo, cause they have distinct sound even though are materially the same.

My point is wood still matters but only 20 percent of the overall sound, given other factors like pickup, amps, effects, cables.

So there is no point to fret about the kind/ pattern/ cutting of wood when you are going to plug it in anyway. If the sound needs to be improved/ altered, better mess with the pickup than changing the neck or fretboard for instance.

It's a different story with acoustic guitars.
Click to expand...

horse%20with%20blinders.jpg
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I think this is one of the 1000's of topics in the guitar world where people will always have their own opinion and there is never an end to the debate.
Discussions are good for the forum though provided they do not get out of hand.
 
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Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

@verbotenco: ok. I'll feed you once, troll.

If wood doesn't matter at all, explain to me how my guitar changed drastically when I swapped the neck? in fact, the necks of the two came from the same billet of wood. the only difference was the fretboard. The rosewood fretboard of the first made it warm, wooly and woofy and the maple board (glued on, so NOT singlepiece, just to cut down a possible argument) gave it much more snap, resulting in a tone more to what I wanted.

Ok, different scenario. I had a guitar refretted with bigger frets. the tone became brighter and sharper. How do you explain that? the pickups were the same, and the brand of strings, pots yada yada remained the same.

About the acryllic guitar: acryllic has proven itself over 30, 40 years as being a superheavy yet viable candidate for guitars. what's the fuss? does it sound like wood? no. it sounds like acryllic, ******.
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

orpheo said:
@verbotenco: ok. I'll feed you once, troll.

If wood doesn't matter at all, explain to me how my guitar changed drastically when I swapped the neck? in fact, the necks of the two came from the same billet of wood. the only difference was the fretboard. The rosewood fretboard of the first made it warm, wooly and woofy and the maple board (glued on, so NOT singlepiece, just to cut down a possible argument) gave it much more snap, resulting in a tone more to what I wanted.

Ok, different scenario. I had a guitar refretted with bigger frets. the tone became brighter and sharper. How do you explain that? the pickups were the same, and the brand of strings, pots yada yada remained the same.

About the acryllic guitar: acryllic has proven itself over 30, 40 years as being a superheavy yet viable candidate for guitars. what's the fuss? does it sound like wood? no. it sounds like acryllic, ******.
Click to expand...

Like I said previously, wood still matters to the overall sound, but not as significant as many people believe, given the impact of amps, effects, and of course, pickups. Plus, you have different fretboard, which might be the reason for the tone difference.

As for the other scenario, I assume you changed the strings to a new set after refretting, which explains the different result.

More importantly, all these alterations naturally breed a psychological impact on our judgement, whether we want to admit it or not. We normally condition ourselves before even seeing the result of a modification, to a car, guitar, even after taking a pain killer.

There is no hard evidence that what you heard was what it actually was. Consider the environment, room reverb, time of the day (density of air in the middle of the night breeds different tone than when you play in mid day), your mood, many factors.

That's why a blind test in a conditioned lab is required to end this debate once and for all.

Do you really think I can't replicate the sound of a Les Paul using a Strat? And vice versa? With modifications on everything but the wood. C'mon...
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Dr. Vegetable said:

Imagine there's no difference
It's easy if you try
Mahogany can't help us
Might as well just build from ply
Imagine all the players playing for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
My Indonesian knock-off
Will shred your Gibson, too
Imagine all the people playing Fender Squiers

You may say "this axe is a screamer"
But you're not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
All the wood will sound as one

Imagine no flamed maple
I wonder if you can
No need for grain or nitro
A brotherhood of bland
Imagine all the players sounding just the same

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday your ears will open
And this thread can finally be done.


peace-songs-john-lennon-200lvg091809.jpg
Click to expand...

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::fing2:
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Dr. Vegetable said:

Imagine there's no difference
It's easy if you try
Mahogany can't help us
Might as well just build from ply
Imagine all the players playing for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
My Indonesian knock-off
Will shred your Gibson, too
Imagine all the people playing Fender Squiers

You may say "this axe is a screamer"
But you're not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
All the wood will sound as one

Imagine no flamed maple
I wonder if you can
No need for grain or nitro
A brotherhood of bland
Imagine all the players sounding just the same

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday your ears will open
And this thread can finally be done.


peace-songs-john-lennon-200lvg091809.jpg
Click to expand...

THIS IS SOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

verbotenco said:
Do you really think I can't replicate the sound of a Les Paul using a Strat? And vice versa? With modifications on everything but the wood. C'mon...
Click to expand...

You may be able to replicate the sound of a LP on a Strat by using humbuckers, or get a push-pull pot for a LP, which will get you "some" of the Strat sounds. However, H-S-H configurations, or an H-H configuration with a 5-way blade switch, are the best and most convenient way of having the best of both worlds, without having to do mods or using effect processors to simulate the job.
 
Last edited:
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

verbotenco said:
Like I said previously, wood still matters to the overall sound, but not as significant as many people believe, given the impact of amps, effects, and of course, pickups. Plus, you have different fretboard, which might be the reason for the tone difference.

As for the other scenario, I assume you changed the strings to a new set after refretting, which explains the different result.

More importantly, all these alterations naturally breed a psychological impact on our judgement, whether we want to admit it or not. We normally condition ourselves before even seeing the result of a modification, to a car, guitar, even after taking a pain killer.

There is no hard evidence that what you heard was what it actually was. Consider the environment, room reverb, time of the day (density of air in the middle of the night breeds different tone than when you play in mid day), your mood, many factors.

That's why a blind test in a conditioned lab is required to end this debate once and for all.

Do you really think I can't replicate the sound of a Les Paul using a Strat? And vice versa? With modifications on everything but the wood. C'mon...
Click to expand...

Ok, top-researchers made an experiment on this in my university a couple months ago. They tested this very matter using same guitar design but changed the body, neck and fretboard wood and the difference was considerable on all. It was a conducted in a hi-tech lab with hi-tech audio equipment. What do you say about that then?

And your last comment about making a LP sound like a Strat has nothing to do with what we are talking about on this thread and defeats the whole purpose of this conversation. You can make them sound quite similar if try really hard but NEVER exatcly the same.
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Zhaggy said:
Ok, top-researchers made an experiment on this in my university a couple months ago. They tested this very matter using same guitar design but changed the body, neck and fretboard wood and the difference was considerable on all. It was a conducted in a hi-tech lab with hi-tech audio equipment. What do you say about that then?

And your last comment about making a LP sound like a Strat has nothing to do with what we are talking about on this thread and defeats the whole purpose of this conversation. You can make them sound quite similar if try really hard but NEVER exatcly the same.
Click to expand...

Show me the study (a link, University name, professors' names), otherwise, piss off... I can say that researchers at UCLA or whatever have confirmed my conjecture long before Jimi Hendrix died, but no one's gonna buy it. Sorry pal.

Obviously you made it up cause you hate my guts. Nice try a$$ white...

My last comment actually has everything to do with this discussion. It is my attempt to demonstrate that you can mess with anything but the wood to make a guitar sounds radically different.
 
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Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

All this thread has done is to again confirm what we already knew.
 
Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

shred4Him said:
When it comes to these discussions, I always refer to this link. http://www.ronkirn.com/quest.htm

This is the best statement on the matter that I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Here's a snippet from that article:

Now, take two identical (there is no such pair) guitars, one with a Nitro finish and the other with a Poly finish, for sake of argument, test them in the anechoic room so there will be no external influences, and it will take a pretty high-end and sophisticated audio spectrum analyzer to really tell the difference, acoustically. While YOU may notice a considerable difference, it’s just a figment of your imagination. Oh close your mouth, there’s more.
 
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