Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Maple versus rosewood with flats....?


Beedster
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've found I prefer maple boards when playing roundwound strings but have yet to try an A-B with flatwounds. Anyone got any opinions/experience on the difference in sound/feel between the two woods when playing flats?
Cheers
Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yep....!

Maple/maple...... Yummy warm thwump. Resembling double bass on steroids.

Maple/rosewood...... More yummy than a mouth full of warm pure unsweetened lemon juice, but closer to 1/2 round or knacked roundwound sound..Thwump with a slight zing, if that makes sense...?

Both D'addario Chromes on PRS IV tuned to EADG......

So Maple for me.... (of course due to the individuality of wood it may be just the selected wood in these two necks, but the P bass, sounds very similar to the rosewood/ maple neckd PRS)

Any help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have two '72-ish P's which are to all intents and puposes identical, apart from one is rosewood and the other is maple, and the maple one is a little lighter in weight. They're both armed with LaBella flats, and have had the pickups rewound by the same person around the same time.

The maple one sounds noticeably brighter.

Having said that, I still firmly believe there's more to it than simply 'maple/rosewood'...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my two P-Basses (one with maple fretboard, one with rosewood), I tried both rounds and flats.

To begin with, the maple board P (Fender MIJ) does have a brighter, more aggressive sound with a slight mid scoop while the rosewood one (Fender HW 1) has a rounder, warmer sound with more prominent lower mids.

I found that rounds were just too zingy on the MIJ while the Chromes complement the bass perfectly - it now goes from a dirty, growly 70s funk sound (think Paul Jackson) to a fat, soulful thump (think Duck Dunn) by a turn of the tone knob.

The HW1, while a great Motown machine with flats, really comes alive with rounds. It now has that classic, cutting, in-your-face rock sound that goes so well with an Ampeg stack but still does a convincing Jamerson job with the highs rolled off.

So for me it´s maple + flats and rosewood + rounds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks chaps, interesting stuff. I was hoping to AB the same strings on the two basses but I've got a bloody BADASS on one and a Fender bridge on the other, and as one's a three screw string through and the other's a 5 screw, it's gona be difficult to determine whether its the board or the bridge that's the significant factor. I'll keep you posted either way - any other opinions/advice gratefully received
Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I've come to a conclusion. Maple feels tons better - and I mean tons - but rosewood has the edge on tone, just feels like you can get a bigger range of sounds and that there's slightly more low end with a rosewood board. Thanks for the advice guys
Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...