Maple Fretboard vs Pau Ferro

[soulstar89]

8 minutes ago, iconic said:

Or that the pups were brighter due to less windings....?

That is another factor most definitely 

[xgsjx]

30 minutes ago, soulstar89 said:

That is another factor most definitely 

Probably the most likely factor. 

[BigRedX]

On 13/05/2023 at 05:30, Ralf1e said:

Is that neck hollow or solid ally?

 

The neck is an aluminium T-section where the top of the T forms the fingerboard and the stem is the centre of the neck. There are then two wooden pieces either side shaped to form a typical neck profile. The wood is nothing special, it has the feel of the sort of wood used for pallets only not quite as coarse. The whole back of the neck has then been painted silver. If you look carefully at the original photo I posted you should be able to see the "T" shape and these two additional photos should make the construction a bit clearer:

 

 

[BigRedX]

On 12/05/2023 at 21:49, LukeFRC said:

It looks amazing. 
there is a little be of me that is sad that it just sounds like a P bass when it looks like that. I want it to sound like the future

 

But it is great for illustrating just how important the pickup and electronics are and how little the material used to make it is.

[acidbass]

There is quite simply no way the fingerboard wood on a fretted bass could possibly make a difference to tone IMO.

 

The strings never touch the fingerboard wood along the entire speaking length of the string i.e. from nut (or fret) to bridge.

 

Metal strings touch metal frets and vibrate in the pickups' magnetic field, and that's it.

 

I can see how fretless boards possibly might affect tone or sustain, but certainly not on fretted instruments.

Edited May 16, 2023 by acidbass

[Killerfridge]

15 hours ago, acidbass said:

There is quite simply no way the fingerboard wood on a fretted bass could possibly make a difference to tone IMO.

 

The strings never touch the fingerboard wood along the entire speaking length of the string i.e. from nut (or fret) to bridge.

 

Metal strings touch metal frets and vibrate in the pickups' magnetic field, and that's it.

 

I can see how fretless boards possibly might affect tone or sustain, but certainly not on fretted instruments.

 

There is an argument that the frets vibration would be affected by the wood they are embedded in, but surely this would be too small to be discernible (in my opinion) compared to all the other variables that make up the sound. Hell, I don't know why one wouldn't consider something like "room humidity" to be a important variable to sound!

[xgsjx]

3 minutes ago, Killerfridge said:

Hell, I don't know why one wouldn't consider something like "room humidity" to be a important variable to sound!

For acoustic instruments, humidity makes a big difference. But for electric instruments it has no effect (unless it’s an old analogue synth).

Though if it’s too humid, you could risk electrocution 🤣

[jazzyvee]

I cannot convince my ears that 1/4" strip of wood makes a significant difference to the overall sound of a fretted electric bass. A fretless maybe? All my electric basses are fretted and have ebony boards, not because i made that choice for to sonic reasons, it's an aesthetic preference. I like the look of maple fretboards too. Not seen any pau ferro fretboards.