Fingerboard material

[Pkomor]

I was just thinking, that i have heard severall people say that a maple fretbard gives a brighter sound, and a rosewood 'board gives a slightly warmer sound. I was jsust wondering how this can be, because, (on my stingray at least) the string does not even touch the wood of the fingerboard during playing!
Is it to do with how firmly the fret is held or somthing?
or is it a stupid question with a simple answer!

[Kev]

just the tone i think, wood ressonating and all that sh*t....

bollox really, i dont personally believe the fretboard has the slightest effect on tone, and id like to challenge anybody who has good enough hearing to tell the difference between the two

[ped]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='201673' date='May 18 2008, 07:17 PM']just the tone i think, wood ressonating and all that sh*t....

bollox really, i dont personally believe the fretboard has the slightest effect on tone, and id like to challenge anybody who has good enough hearing to tell the difference between the two[/quote]

I disagree - I don't know why but I think it does make a difference. I suppose it is something to do with the overall properties of the neck, and I guess the frets DO touch the wood, even if the string doesn't.

However - there was a thread on Talkbass where someone recorded the same bass with a maple and rosewood neck, and most people got it wrong.

[Buzz]

No-one's 100% sure really if it makes a that much of a difference. Most people for sounds, it's the electronics that really make the difference.

I personally reckon that it's down to the resonate frequencies of all the woods on the bass, but the finger board does also affect the stiffness (ergo stability) of the neck.

Seeing as the strings have contact points on the nut, frets and bridge, two of those are directly related to the fingerboard material, while the other is related to the mass of the bridge and the wood it's screwed into. The vibrations of the string will carry the whole length of the body, and end up affecting itself as the wood subtly changes the vibration.

But, unless you've got two completely identical basses (so, same tree(s) for all the woods used in both basses, same batch for parts, exactly the same windings on the pups, same wire length etc), it's probably the electrics and strings used having more of an effect than anything else, even though the other materials will have a subtle effect.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Buzz

[Jase]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='201673' date='May 18 2008, 07:17 PM']just the tone i think, wood ressonating and all that sh*t....

bollox really, i dont personally believe the fretboard has the slightest effect on tone, and id like to challenge anybody who has good enough hearing to tell the difference between the two[/quote]


I reckon there is a difference, maple being harder and brighter sounding. I've used two maples in the past P and J .....to my ears maple always sounds harsher, more zing perhaps, snappier. At the end of the day, it's what matters to the player, don't mind either myself

[jay249]

I am subscribing to the 'what a fat load of crap' camp here.

[Kev]

if someone has two pretty much identical basses, only one with maple and one with rosewood, then post a sound sample here, and see how many correctly guess which one is which

[Kiwi]

Why not spin the issue on its head? Given the fingerboard is wood and vibrating, why wouldn't it have an effect?

My own experience with trying 70's jazz basses is that it affects the uppermost frequencies - above 1KHz. So fret snap, clatter, sparkle etc are all affected. Of course if you have flatwounds, dead strings or rubbish pickups you probably won't notice anything.

[jay249]

End of the day, the biggest difference is a visual one, and sure, it adds to how you 'experience' playing the thing which can directly or indirectly influence the tone, but pickups and pickup location, strings and possibly bridge are, in my experience about 100000 times more decisive on the brightness or 'snap' or *insert vaguely understood word i.e ''growl'' here*

[Tait]

[quote name='ped' post='201684' date='May 18 2008, 07:22 PM']I don't know why but I think it does make a difference.[/quote]

+1.

i don't have a clue why i prefer them - to me it doesnt make a difference to the tone, the you dont even touch the fretboard (its probably just a mental thing lol) - but i prefer rosewood fretboards. so much so that ive only ever owned one bass with a maple fretboard (an OLP 5 string), and i only bought that because it was all black with a matching black headstock.

[Shockwave]

I personally can really easily tell the difference between maple and rosewood, and rosewood and ebony, But telling the difference between Ebony and maple is near impossible!

[wateroftyne]

I don't think it makes a difference. One day, I will swap the necks of my two P's around and prove it...

[LukeFRC]

when i got my maplenecked P bass the amount of noise i got of the fretboard compared to my rosewood shark was amazing, i had to totally refine my style to cope with it. More attack i think, and to my ears it does something different to the way it sustains.

if you apply the logic you are using to the rest of the bass, that 'the string doesnt touch it so therefore it doesnt affect the tone' then equally the string doesnt really touch the body. so therefore the body wood doesnt affect the tone? ?

the fretboard does affect the basic tone or colour of the notes. But ultimately the tones in yer fingers

[Jase]

[url="http://www.fclefbasses.com/mod-FileShare-download-file_id-42.html"]http://www.fclefbasses.com/mod-FileShare-d...file_id-42.html[/url]

[url="http://www.fclefbasses.com/mod-FileShare-download-file_id-52.html"]http://www.fclefbasses.com/mod-FileShare-d...file_id-52.html[/url]

Found these Fclef basses, it's not a guessing game because the links tell you what they are but I still think there are differences in tone. Lovely basses too

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Not very scientific, but my maple necked P has far too much zing even with flatwounds, although I put that down to the hard ash body as much as the one-piece maple neck. The rosewood boarded one is much better behaved and sounds more like I think a Precision should.

Blindly dismissing it as bollox is dumb as its easy enough to do some A/B tests - its not like we're trying to prove or disprove the existence of God here (although I think Richard Dawkins has pretty much wrapped that one up )

[Lfalex v1.1]

I think there's [i]something[/i] in it, probably to do with rigidity and resonance (as already stated).

If there were nothing in it, why do some manufacturers (I'm thinking Warwick, here) largely use one fretboard wood, Wenge, and have the same sound characteristics used to describe many of their instruments.

"The Warwick growl"

Which may be due to other factors common to Warwick basses (MEC pick-ups & EQs..?)

Also of interest with regard to neck & fretboard material choices;

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=16840&hl=phenolic&st=20"]Basschat Wood vs. Graphite necks thread.[/url]

[Jobiebass]

I dont think there is [i]much[/i] tonal diffrence but I know very little about anything.

I still prefer Maple boards though, just something about rosewood I really dont get on with.

[paul, the]

I've heard Santana owes quite a lot to his Indian rosewood fb.

It's worth keeping in mind that pre-CBS Fenders had Brazilian rosewood FBs.

[clauster]

I am in the "subtle difference" camp. Same as Eric Johnson used to claim he could hear a difference between different guitar leads.

+1 to the biggest differences being pickups and electronids (oh, and playing style).

[birdy]

I am pretty sure there is a difference. How else do you explain the noticeable difference in carbon necks? Willing to have my mind changed however.

Steve

[Stewart]

I'd have thought that the lacquer finish over the entire fretboard and frets (invariably used with maple 'boards) might have as much influence as the wood itself...

[Hit&Run]

[quote name='clauster' post='202185' date='May 19 2008, 03:22 PM']Same as Eric Johnson used to claim he could hear a difference between different guitar leads.[/quote]
I'm sure I read somwhere that Johnson can tell what brand/type of PP3 battery is in a pedal from the sound it makes. I hope it was a joke.

As an aside (but keeping on with the fretboard theme) has anyone got, or heard of, a fretboard made from [i]Lignum vitae[/i]? It's meant to be pretty hardwearing. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignum_vitae"][i]Lignum vitae[/i][/url] Fretless applications?

[wateroftyne]

I'll relent and say...

If it [i]does[/i] make a difference, it's [i]minute[/i] compared to other factors.

[stevebasshead]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='201810' date='May 18 2008, 10:50 PM']I don't think it makes a difference. One day, I will swap the necks of my two P's around and prove it...[/quote]

Best suggestion yet IMHO. That's probably the closest we'd ever come to confirming if there's any difference because it eliminates (as far as is practical) all other variables.

And if there WAS a difference in sound noted it'd be just as interesting to swap the necks back afterwards and make a 3rd recording to confirm everything had reverted back to the way the 1st recording sounded. That would eliminate differences introduced by unbolting and bolting the necks and torqueing the bolts together slightly differently each time. Just to be utterly scientific and absolute in the test results

Steve.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='stevebasshead' post='202350' date='May 19 2008, 06:18 PM']Best suggestion yet IMHO. That's probably the closest we'd ever come to confirming if there's any difference because it eliminates (as far as is practical) all other variables.

And if there WAS a difference in sound noted it'd be just as interesting to swap the necks back afterwards and make a 3rd recording to confirm everything had reverted back to the way the 1st recording sounded. That would eliminate differences introduced by unbolting and bolting the necks and torqueing the bolts together slightly differently each time. Just to be utterly scientific and absolute in the test results

Steve.[/quote]

Out with the torque wrench, vernier callipers and micrometer for you then, mister...