Hi, I'm looking for a second Strat, does a rosewood fret board affect the tone of the guitar?
Thanks, jack
Hi, I'm looking for a second Strat, does a rosewood fret board affect the tone of the guitar?
Thanks, jack
Preface: This is strictly my opinion. There have been Internet wars over this topic...
Electric guitars produce their sound by pickups amplifying the vibration of strings. These strings hover a fraction of an inch above the pickups. The type of pickup does more for the sound of the guitar than anything else.
Oh, people wax poetically about "tone woods." But you know what? If you're not playing an acoustic guitar, the wood has very little, if anything, to do with it. Case in point: I have a 1994 aluminum-bodied 40th Anniversary Stratocaster that doesn't sound any different than my 2016 Artist Series Strat.
Both have maple necks. Which brings me to your question: To me, the neck is all about playability rather than tone. Necks come in wider and flatter radii, scalloped or not, and with different fret sizes. I like maple because I play it better than rosewood. Guys like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton play either well. At least I can't tell the difference.
Incidentally, now that rosewood has been listed as a CITES product, many guitar makers are shifting to pau ferro (which I know nothing about) and ebony. One of my oldest guitars, a 1971 Framus 12-string, has an ebony fretboard, and it's frickin' awesome!
I've found that a wall of Strats all made out of the same type of wood will often sound very different than each other so I don't discount the affect that wood has on the sound of an electric guitar. Having said that, I think fingerboard wood has very little, if any affect on a guitar's tone. I'd love to get a Strat with a rosewood fretboard for feel, rather than tone.
I have three Carvin guitars with ebony fingerboards and I agree with OldStrummer, they're frickin' awesome!
I think it makes a difference. On some. A Les Paul with an ebony board or a 355 with an ebony board instead of rosewood sounds different. At least it does to me. Now "how much"? People have always said on the web and before "a much sharper and clearer attack and more forward on the ebony". "Presence". It definitely plays different. Now, maple versus rosewood? I do not have much experience there. I would have to guess the maple may act more like ebony because of grain and fibers, yet I don't think it is as dense? Thing is, I don't think there is ANY real world way to tell as every piece of wood is different. Unless we could replace a fingerboard with the other unit and had some sort of empirical measurements? Just one of those mysteries of life I guess...
I think it comes down to this: you get the one that appeals to you most. If you are able, go to your local guitar store and play some of each. If your "taste test" tells you one sounds better than the other, there you have it. Otherwise, buy the one that looks best to you!
Thanks for the advise, I appreciate it. I'll head to our Fender dealer try both fret boards.
I think it is about feel and that affects how you play and that affects how you sound. I had started on maple neck strats in 1974 and even as a novice hated how it felt. Turns out it wasn't the maple but the finish that was poorly applied (much too thick and all over the frets). For the better part of 30 years I would not buy a maple neck fender if my life depended on it. Finally in the 90s Fender got their quality assurance under control and the rise of replica builders brought a level of playability that helped raise overall quality. Now I'll just as likely buy a maple neck IF it comes on a guitar that speaks to me like the GVCG tele blackguard I played 10 something years ago. I bought my Squier CV50 tele with a maple board. Even though I have since replaced it with a CVC60 tele neck, I still hang onto that maple neck because it is a good neck. I do have a slight preference for rosewood based on the feel and my aesthetic is towards a very dark even grain rosewood that is unfortunately increasingly hard to find.
Old Strummer said most of what I was about to say.
Electrics are all about magnets picking up how the string vibrates, the body not producing "sound" in any way, which makes the wood much less important than in an acoustic.
In a model like a Stratocaster, the strings are attached to a floating bridge (in most strats) and the headstock. I really don't think the human hearing can tell the slight difference it might make if the fretboard is maple or rosewood, nor have I ever noticed it myself.
However, the FB wood can and WILL affect playability, and the way YOU play the guitar will definitely affect how it will sound through the rig. In other words, when it comes to strat fretboards, it's all about which one you prefer, in the end.
You'll notice that maple FBs are finished and shiny, while RW ones are unfinished. The feel is quite different. Me, I love RW strats.
Try both and don't forget to tell us which one rang your bell!
And PICS!
Personally, I think it effects the attack of the note more than anything. With that said, I’ve had some dark sounding guitars that on paper should have been crazy bright.
Play as many as you can, that’s the real test. Best of luck to you amigo!!!
"don't worry, i'm a professional!"
Personally, I never heard a tone difference between a maple and a rosewood fingerboard. More difference between a Monday morning guitar and the same model made on a Wednesday or a Friday.
What I notice (and I may be alone on this) is a difference in feel. Some maple finishes feel sticky, others slick. Rosewood is neither. This rarely affects my playing because I tend to hammer on and pull off rather than bend. I suspect players who bend a lot may find this difference is touch to change their playing.
Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't. -- Pete Seeger
I play both and to me there is no real difference. Each guitar is unique. Given a choice I'd go with ebony just because it looks so beautiful. I have one ebony necked guitar and it's nice. My #1 player is granadillo which has worn in quite nicely.
All are nice, and certainly no difference moving the tone knob one number won't account for. Once you crank up the sound system and dive into the mix nobody can tell the difference anyway so why lose sleep over it?
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
If you can hear a difference then there is one, if you can't then there isn't.Originally Posted by jack crowder
The short answer is no.
They certainly feel different! When I last used a maple neck Tele I kept overshooting when sliding up to another note, it was much more slippery -especially when sweating!
Fuzz is proof God love us and wants us to be happy. - Franklin
http://www.frankdenigris.com
I agree about the feel! I wonder why ebony isn't used more? I love the feel of an ebony fretboard. Is it because of cost?
Now that rosewood is on the CITES list, I'm seeing more "pau ferro" being used. My G&L has a pau ferro fretboard, and I feel it's not as smooth as maple.
I've got two maple neck guitars. This single coil one I really can't tell a difference. IF there is a difference I eq it out to get the sound I want.
I can’t tell a difference in sound. A former band member said maple “sounds more open,” which is not a concrete way of describing sounds of a guitar. For me, it’s an aesthetic choice. My Tele and Strats have maple fbs, and I like the feel. I also like Gilmour and Clapton, and that pushed me towards maple. But my Precision and Jazz basses have rosewood, and I like the feel of those too. Hell, I wish I also had a sonic blue Strat and Tele with rosewood. I like both maple and rosewood according to the color of the guitar.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
One thing I noticed is that the feel is definitely different even if the rosewood is finished.
I recently got my first Rickenbacker and it has a finished RW board. Now I own strats with both unfinished rosewood neck, finished maple neck and a Ric with a finished RW neck. They're all different in feel.
The two strats are too different to offer a fair comparison tonewise, but I still think the board wood matters too little to be distinguishable by ear by humans. But it does affect the way you play the guitar.
What Sergio said, you can't hear the difference (unless you're Eric Johnson or something) but the difference in feel definitely affects the way you play. I recently put the maple neck back on my CV50 body, retaining the rosewood fingerboard for the new build that is in stasis right now. I've been playing this maple neck and now I'm rethinking my original plan to sell the guitar because I just dang like it so much. I still want a rosewood neck but this maple neck is the nicest maple Fender neck I've owned, I even like it more than the CS neck on my '58 hardtail.
Interestingly enough, my last acquisition was a Gibson HP 665SB - a parlor-sized acoustic guitar with a Richlite fingerboard - a composite material. I really like the feel and playability of it. I don't know how it will hold up, but it seems to be an alternative to the rarer woods.
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain
They say it resembles ebony. Does it?
After reading threads on this topic for years on end I've finally made up my mind about the definitive answer to this question and that is, If you can hear it then it does and if you can't hear it then it doesn't.
Crude empiricism, but I agree.If you can hear a difference then there is one, if you can't then there isn't.
"The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."
John Locke new his stuff.
I remember John Locke! He played keyboards for Spirit (and later, Nazareth).
He got his start in The Empiricals tho!
I remember John Locke! He played keyboards for Spirit (and later, Nazareth).
"The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."
I got this from a reputable luthier who shall have to remain nameless. This doesn't address the maple/rosewood issue but it is an intriguing comment on tone and wood.
This luthier made two Tele-style guitars from two necks out of the same block of maple and two bodies out of the same hunk of ash.
Body 1/Neck 1
Body 2/Neck 2
The two guitars had different tonal qualities. As an experiment, he moved Neck 2 to Body 1.
Body 1/Neck 2
He says that the tone of the guitar with Body 1 changed when Neck 2 was added. Not only that, he said that the tone of Body 1/Neck2 was closer in tone to Body 2/Neck 2. His conclusion was that at least in this case, the tone followed the neck and thus was a bigger factor in determining tone than the body.
I realize that there are numerous parameters involved in this but it is an interesting little factoid that I have been pondering for about five years. It still hurts my brain.
"The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."
And in the end (the love you take is equal to the love you make...), it's how a guitar feels and sounds when I play it that makes the difference. I'm not going to pass up the great dancer in favor of the prom queen. Who may not be as good a dancer, even though she looks fabulous.
I prefer Rosewood on my Stratocasters... Never could bond with maple fretboards...
JMHO... YMMV..
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