maple vs rosewood what's your choice?

[CHRISDABASS]

For years i'd convinced myself that i liked maple boards.....

...until i got my NYC Sadowsky with a Brazilian rosewood board! it sounds fantastic, lovely and smooth with a really sweet high end!

The Morado board on my Metro Sadowsky sounds very close to maple but without that awful clanky [b]GAWK[/b] sound that ive found some maple boarded basses to have

[mrcrow]

i like the fresh look of maple but its too bright for me

rosewood is my choice

[leonshelley01]

Having always had rosewood fretboards in the past, just got my first maple today on a P Bass and I have to say I love it! Personally, I think maple suits a P tonally and looks great, but rosewood is still the way to go on a Jazz.

[discreet]

[quote name='leonshelley01' post='758684' date='Feb 26 2010, 10:22 PM']I think maple suits a P tonally[/quote]

You are correct, sir. In my humble opinion.

[HMX]

I do love the look of maple. But maple on a jazz just doesn't seem to go... don't ask, I can't really explain it. But on a precision, maple fretboards look KILLER.

I love my current bass, with the rosewood and pearl inlays. I prefer rosewood for playability too.

[discreet]

[quote name='HMX' post='759663' date='Feb 28 2010, 11:40 AM']I do love the look of maple. But maple on a jazz just doesn't seem to go...[/quote]

I agree totally. But I don't know why.

[M4L666]

All my basses have rosewood (or ebonol on one ) , I have yet to play a bass with a maple fretboard.

[Schnozzalee]

I prefer Ebony but Rosewood definately has more depth in tone, maple sounds thin I feel.

[discreet]

[quote name='M4L666' post='759698' date='Feb 28 2010, 12:24 PM']I have yet to play a bass with a maple fretboard.[/quote]

Oooh, what a treat you have in store!

[Deep Thought]

In purely practical terms, I have found it far easier to see the position dots on a darkened stage on a maple board than a rosewood one.

[valere24]

Rosewood for tone - definitely warmer, less bright.

The look of maple is nice though, and I can understand why some bassist would prefer a maple neck for a brighter tone. It's just not for me.

[Telebass]

IMHO, there little tonally between any of them. On guitars, it seems to make more of a difference.
My choice? Maple. Although I take one of each out to every gig!
For me, the look of the Single Coil P Bass is simply 'it'.

[4 Strings]

The fingerboard material needs to be dense as it takes quite a pounding, especially from round wounds. Maple is a hard wood but not as dense as rosewood and less so than ebony - the only wood more dense than water. The string touches the fret and so slight differences in the density of the wood under the fret is going to have a very small influence on the sound especially when compared to the pickups, amps, speakers etc. Being less dense, why maple would sound brighter is beyond me and I have never been able to carry out an experiment with identical body, pickups etc to see if it really does. If it does, and there's plenty who say so, it must be marginal. I would suggest it LOOKS brighter and wonder if this influences the perceived sound.

Maple fingerboards tend to be lacquered which gives them a different feel to bare wood. There is clearly a preference here, my own opinion goes for bare wood such as rosewood, but actually most of the contact from your finger is on the string, not the fingerboard.

I would not deny the influence of the neck material on the sound, although, again, this must surely be marginal. A rosewood finger board would have to pass vibrations through the glued joint between the neck and fingerboard. These are usually pretty good joints, certainly better than the bolted Fender style neck to body joint. Few complain about those and, I would suggest, those bolt-on neck joints would have a greater influence on the sound than the fingerboard to neck joint. Many maple fingerboards are separate too and so would also have this joint.

In terms of shape there is no reason why a rosewood fingerboard should have a slimmer cross-section than an all maple neck. In fact, the opposite would be more likely. A rosewood fingerboard are mostly rectangular and so a cross-section of the assembly would show a flat section at the sides of the fingerboard before the curve of the neck. Necks of basses I have with no separate fingerboard curve all the way to the edge of the finger board. The maple neck on my Musicman is very slim, one of the reasons I bought it.

Placing the frets straight into the neck Fender style is the easiest and cheapest way as it cuts out the process of buying another type of wood and making a fretboard. With thousands of Fenders being made every week this economy is easily understood (although I recognise there's no price difference in the shops between the two). Should it become damaged or actually wear out, however, it can't be replaced like a separate fingerboard.

Regarding looks, clearly that's up to each one of us. The maple fingerboards are lacquered to keep them looking clean. Anyone with an old one will see how quickly the wood under chips in the lacquer goes grimy. The grime doesn't penetrate the denser woods and can be scrubbed off.

Choice for me, black 'n' maple every time!

Edited March 4, 2010 by 4 Strings

[Adrenochrome]

On a fretted bass it makes knack-all difference to the sound - but for looks, I do like maple (most of mine are rosewood though)

[51m0n]

Dont have a preference.

On certain basses one works, on others the other works.

Either looks stunning on the right instrument, both can sound either too bright or too dull dependant on a squillion other variables with so much more tonal influence that its not even an issue.

The Roscoe is maple the old Vester is Rosewood and the VMJ is ebonol, they all sound, look and play great to me

Edited March 4, 2010 by 51m0n

[Cat Burrito]

I like both and own both. I was a maple worshipper for years but recently have been acknowledging the joys of rosewood. If anything I lean more towards rosewood these days after 20yrs of shouting about maple but I prefer the maintainance free nature of maple to messing around with lemon oil

[craigonbass]

Has to be Maple for me.

[Davo-London]

Rosewood would always be my choice.

I have both, but the tone from rosewood is richer IMHO.

I have an epoxy'd rosewood fretless jazz neck, which is a tone monster. I was amazed that no tone was lost when the neck was epoxy'd.

Maple is cool for slapping though and Marcus Miller get's a stonking tone.

Horses for courses. There's no right or wrong.

Dave

[oldslapper]

Due to 12 months of bad GAS, I've gone through Wenge/ovankol (Warwick), Graphite (Status neck on a custom Jazz), Maple (G&L Fender P).

But always come back to Rosewood.

[OutToPlayJazz]

I love a glossed maple neck, but rosewood always seems to help with a fuller and richer, more balanced sound.

[Marvin]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='764519' date='Mar 4 2010, 09:51 PM']I love a glossed maple neck, [b]but rosewood always seems to help with a fuller and richer, more balanced sound.[/b][/quote]

That'll be your core tone then will it?

[sk8]

maple all the way

[4 Strings]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='764519' date='Mar 4 2010, 09:51 PM']I love a glossed maple neck, but rosewood always seems to help with a fuller and richer, more balanced sound.[/quote]

I must say, I can't see how this is the case, especially as maple is softer than rosewood. I certainly have not found it to be true with the (relatively few, I admit) basses I've played, although I've not been able to carry out a direct comparison.

Surely even the quality of the lead will have a greater effect than whether the fingerboard is glossed maple or not.

Edited March 5, 2010 by 4 Strings

[grumble]

I cant say that I have noticed a tonal difference, too many other factors involved, but personal visual choice is rosewood for fretted (and lined fretless) and maple for unlined fretless. Black coated strings on a bright maple neck just looks so good to me. Yeah shallow, I know

[WonderHorse]

For looks it has to be maple with black block inlays and black bniging ^_^

My main bass (MIA '75 reissue Jazz) has a maple board but I've also got a Yamaha RBX270X with Rosewood board and that is a superb instrument.

I've no idea if there's any tonal differences