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Thread: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

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    Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    How much can a rosewood neck influence the tone of a Stratocaster? Will a rosewood neck noticeably darken and enrich the tone?

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    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    It can noticeably darken the shade of the neck.

    Individual necks do sound different from each other, though I don't think you can attribute much to one particular fingerboard wood or another.
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    Forum Member rudutch's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    as much as you want to hear
    do I look like I know what I'm doing?

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

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    Forum Member concert410's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    FWIW, here's what I've noticed....
    Rosewood- Harder on the note's attack and fatter bottom end or lower mids
    Maple -Softer attack and brighter
    I like the feel of Maple, but ultimately, I like the sound of rosewood a little better.
    A good, screaming Strat just might be the greatest guitar sound of all..... -Slash

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    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    If it's something you're spec'ing from Warmoth or USACG, or a new Fender product, I would say the choice is aesthetic. If you're a sweaty type, rosewood might be practical, as far as feel goes, (esp if you have small vintage type fretwire).

    If you're considering a CBS-era Fender, the finish on the maple boards ridiculous. Plastic feel, slippery. Ick. You might forget it's a piece of wood in your hands.

    Like Kap'n said, a good neck will help your guitar function and sound better.
    I don't believe the species of the wood that's laminated onto the front of the maple neck, (with metal frets hammered into it for the strings to vibrate against), is the determining factor.
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    Forum Member phantomman's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

    Using a vintage BF Fender amp set for "clean" I can sometimes perceive a slight increase in brightness with a maple fretboard. However, under conditions of heavy OD - high volume with a few stomp box effects, most people couldn't tell the difference in tone between a Firebird V with mini-buckers and a Fender Jazzmaster. Thus, the nuanced differences between fretboard lumbers is usually moot. Rosewood, maple, pau ferro, and ebony undeniably each have a different "feel" which is important to the interface between a guitarist and his instrument. But the effect on the guitar's tone is less significant than other factors (IMO).

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    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    The way you use your pick (or fingertips) is FAR more important to the tone.

    I tend to like maple boards on Fenders because that's what I'm used to and I like the look of it. I love the rosewood boards on my Les Paul and my Ibanez Artcore.
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    I don't have a Strat with a rosewood board anymore, so I can't give you direct comparisons with guitars that I own.

    But, I did just try out two deluxe american strats this weekend, one maple, one rosewood. Through the same Blues Jr amp, I absolutely heard a difference in sound. The one with the rosewood board was warmer and had a less edgy pick attack.

    Was it just the board? Were there other differences in the make-up of the guitars that contributed to the differences? Who knows?

    In my experience, however, given all other factors being the same, rosewood boards do contribute warmth and cut brightness and edge.

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    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    I guess the real question is if that subtle difference is something that can be then compensated for with a slight change to your EQ settings.
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by curtisstetka View Post
    I guess the real question is if that subtle difference is something that can be then compensated for with a slight change to your EQ settings.
    Obviously you can change the EQ to get a different sound, but changing the EQ on the amp doesn't change the signal coming out of the guitar - it amplifies it. So if one aspect of the guitar lends it a particular snap, that snap will still be there if you roll off the treble.

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    Forum Member hudpucker's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    I'm still to this day surprised when people honestly state they do not or cannot hear general tonal differences between maple and rosewood boards.

    There is some tonal overlap, of course, but the brighter sounding necks generally have maple boards and the warmest ones have rosewood.

    I'm really surprised that this is honestly debated, FWIW.

    And yes sometimes there are noticeable differences between the two even when OD or distortion is used.

    YMMV, but don't tell me what I hear is non-existent.
    Tone is in the fingers, eh? Let's hear your Vox, Marshall and Fender fingerings then...

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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    You know, I've been playing for 30 years, but I sometimes find myself being surprised that sometimes I can't even identify what kind of guitar was used on a particular record, much less what the fingerboard is. Often times it's obvious what the guitar is, if it is a "classic" Strat, Tele, LP, etc. sound. Other times you think you know until you find out it is something totally different than what you thought. Amps are the same way. I've been fooled by them as well. And since both of these factors have more influence on the tone than fingerboard wood, I'd be kidding myself if I thought I could identify the difference between maple and rosewood. I'm not saying that there aren't people who can tell the difference, but among those who can probably most of them would have to have an A/B comparison to pick them out. To just hear a guitar at random and identify the fingerboard wood correctly on a consistent basis is beyond most of us. I tell myself if the difference in fingerboards is that subtle, I'm better off to concentrate on other things that make more profound differences. To me, tonal differences between individual identical-model guitars are more apparent than fingerboard wood differences. Some just sing, while most are average, and a very few just don't cut it. To those who truly can (and those who just think they can) tell the difference between rosewood and maple, it is probably a reality that the vast majority of players (and virtually all non-players, who make up most of our intended audiences) will never hear the difference, so your choice is mostly for your own satisfaction. But that's good, too, because a guitar has to inspire you for you to play it with inspiration, and inspired playing IS identifiable by most of our audiences.

    For much of my playing career, I preferred all maple boards for their feel (which is obviously different than rosewood) as well as their look. I was also picky about neck shape. But later on I learned that if I played any guitar with a decent setup for a day or two, I could adapt to it and the difference in feel seemed to become ignored. That was a liberating discovery, because it opened up a whole new world of guitars that I could play and enjoy without having to be so specific. About the only place it really affects me is on the thumb-over-the-top Hendrix-style stuff because I don't have long fingers. I like a fat neck, but if it is too fat I can't do that technique as well because I can't reach everything, but it has to be pretty extreme for that to come into play. So nowadays I usually pick between maple or rosewood based entirely on what I want the guitar to look like. I have both, and ebony (not Strats) as well. I don't notice the difference anymore because I learned to ignore it. If I purposefully think about it, then I can still tell the difference, but I choose to ignore it and find that it doesn't inhibit my playing anymore.

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    Forum Member phantomman's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    That's a pretty inspired dissertation, JHW.

    I too own and play both types of necks, and I enjoy them all. Generally I prefer a beefier tone and usually go with the rosewood based on the commonly-held perception that the darker wood yields a sonically-fatter instrument. That said, my current "hottie du jour" is a custom-built ash-bodied hardtail Strat with Fat 50s pickups and maple furniture. It's not a combination that Fender offers (but it should be).
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    To answer the OP: Not enough. To echo JHW's sentiments I don't think it matters if you can or think you can hear the difference. To me that's like whether dark or light hardwood floors feel nicer to walk on.

    In short, there are much more important things to worry about when it comes to getting the sound you want.

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    Forum Member bluespckr's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Are there tonal differences? I'd say yes. But to what degree is the bigger question. I think once you crank the amps up to 14 and the guitar's volume full up, is it really going to matter? Or be that noticeable? Doubt it.

    But I will say a maple fretboard will generally sound "snappier" than rosewood, and rosewood softens that bite a bit. I prefer rosewood, but mostly because that's what I'm used to, familiar with, and like the feel of.

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    *Yawn*
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    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    A couple of months ago I replaced the neck on my Strat with a new one with a noticeable change in tone.

    The guitar was very bright, maybe a bit shrill and thin (though very responsive) with the original neck.
    It's warmer and fatter sounding with a softer attack with the new neck.

    They're both solid, 1 piece maple necks!

    The old neck was thinner with what Fender calls medium jumbo frets. It was a 2005 Hwy1 neck (small headstock). I don't know what they use for a truss rod in those.

    The new neck is a USACG boat neck (almost 1" thick) with what USACG calls 6105 frets (.055" tall by .095" wide- way taller than the medium jumbos on the Fender neck. It has a vintage style 1-wat truss rod.

    My point is that the difference in tone between these two 1-piece maple necks is greater than the difference that I'd expect between an otherwise similar 1-piece maple neck and one with a rosewood fretboard.

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    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Isn't anyone going to bring up the differences in sound between a red guitar and a black one?
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    . Maple has a very fast attack, bright and snappy, and has an lovely, very pronounced lush and euphonic substructure; more so than even Rosewood right off the note, but the beauty of that initial attack of the note decays very quickly . Rosewood is warm round and has a soft decay with rich , warm and subtle complex harmonic overtones and you can get a lovely ring and sustain for days.
    I just don't get people who don't hear a very pronounced and noticeable difference between the two fretboards. The difference is huge and very very obvious( all things being equal of course).
    I could pick the difference out in a double blind test 10 times out of 9.
    Of course, if you run all this through some super-high gain signal, youll still probably want a Rosewood board for a good reason, even though you couldn't tell some of the subtleties of difference in the shades of tone as with a cleaner more revealing and natural sounding vintage amp.
    Van Halen tricked out his guitar and his signal over 60's Marshall Superleads ( a damn bright amp to begin with)to where he had a very articualte and bright tone, but he acknowleged that he had to take drastic precautions to prevent an overly bright sound.
    Thats why most Jacksons are rosewood board IMO, and most Charvells that are EVH style rigs are maple neck.
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    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    I think the question is more the construction. As we know, the first Stratocasters had a one piece maple neck with a rear loaded truss rod. These necks for some people have a different sound because the vibrations are always going directly through wood.

    Now, on the rosewoods of the 60's, there is no rear loaded truss - it is done from the top and the truss is covered by rosewood (or by maple as a custom order which then became a regular pricelist item by the later 60's) and here there are two pieces of wood separated by glue......the vibrations are different.

    Now, to see the difference between maple and rosewood, I think you need to compare similar construction neck with the two materials.... a couple of months ago, having nothing better to do, I had the chance to play around a bit. We took the body of a CS 1969 RI with a maple laminated board and had a neck from a 1960 CS reissue which has a laminated rosewood board. Same body, same pickups, same string gage etc. and we A/B and guess what......there was really no audible difference....at least to us.....

    Being somewhat annoyed, we took a MIM 50s one piece maple neck and put it on the body. Was there a difference? Yep. Brighter and somewhat more direct. Big difference? Not really.

    Now the American Standards have a mix of this construction - rear loaded truss.....one piece maple and two piece rosewood (with rear loaded truss rod). May be an interesting comparison but not quite 1:1 as in the lam maple vs. lam rosewood IMHO.

    I think in the end, it is the feel. I have both maple and rosewood. Right now I like the rosewood but I have gone back and forth through my close to 30 years of playing.
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    The type of wood on the neck affects the tone *this* much.

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    Forum Member Fripperton's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Maryann.
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    Forum Member bluespckr's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    *Yawn*
    I agree the question comes up periodically in just about every music forum I visit, but for someone, somewhere, this is the first time they will see this question and read the various opinions about it. It's how we all learn. People come to places like this with questions and the least we can do is try to answer those questions without a smart-... remark.

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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Thank you all for your input. Some have been very helpful. Others haven't. It wasn't as arcane a question as some think, especially if you look at and consider my other post regarding pickups.

    I had to have my guitar replaced in October because of a service tech's mistake. I hypothesized that the change in tone of the guitar from the original - which was unexpected but serendipitous - could have been from either a change in wood used on the neck (maple vs. rosewood), or from an Enforcer humbucker pickup being installed where a DH-1 should have been, or a combination of both.

    From what you have told me and other information I have gathered on the way the change in tone of the guitar (which is deep, rich and resonant now instead of thin and bright) is more than likely from the wood and not, I said NOT the pickup.

    Those who added their voice and valuable information and experience along the way helped to prevent needlessly tearing the guitar apart to check out the humbucker. I like things as they are, do not wish to experiment with pickups and so will leave it alone.

    Those who saw this as a boring, repetitious question of neck vs. neck (e.g. "Yawn") and couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say ... well, why did you waste MY time in replying?

    P.S. I always digged MaryAnn much more than Ginger, too.

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    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    BluesDisciple, I was one of those who joked about the topic. Didn't mean to offend you. It's one of those questions that can never get a definitive answer.
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    Forum Member redb's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    most of the mass in a rosewood neck on a strat is maple.

    some guitars have full rosewood necks. there is a big sound difference there imo.
    Mitch Mitchell talking about Jimi and strats in general.
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    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
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    i0pk
    My thoughts exactly!!! CSAOK!
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    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by redb View Post
    most of the mass in a rosewood neck on a strat is maple.

    some guitars have full rosewood necks. there is a big sound difference there imo.
    Yep, but I think it is again the construction. A full rosewood lam neck would sound different from a solid rosewood neck. AFAIK, the rosewood necks that were made in the Teles (like George Harrison's) were rosewood laminated necks (back piece solid, truss loaded in the top and then rosewood board on top). These have no skunk stripes AFAIK......
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    Forum Member sting7777's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Biggest difference for me is that fret height is lower on a maple board because of the finish. Depending on how thick - this can be a big difference vs. a rosewood board.


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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by sting7777 View Post
    Biggest difference for me is that fret height is lower on a maple board because of the finish. Depending on how thick - this can be a big difference vs. a rosewood board.
    Oh, wow, I hadn't thought of that either. It does stand to reason though, doesn't it? Something else to ponder over my morning cup of joe.

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    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by sting7777 View Post
    Biggest difference for me is that fret height is lower on a maple board because of the finish. Depending on how thick - this can be a big difference vs. a rosewood board.
    It's not an issue on modern maple neck Fenders.
    Some reissues, ones with the heavy dose of amber tint, may unfortunately emulate that thick, pooled along the frets, finish.
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    Forum Member sting7777's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by NeoFauve View Post
    It's not an issue on modern maple neck Fenders.
    Some reissues, ones with the heavy dose of amber tint, may unfortunately emulate that thick, pooled along the frets, finish.
    All recent Fender nitro necks have this issue for me.


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    Forum Member Doc W's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by BluesDisciple View Post
    Those who saw this as a boring, repetitious question of neck vs. neck (e.g. "Yawn") and couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say ... well, why did you waste MY time in replying?
    When I was in Strat pursuit last year, after playing Gibsons for years, I AGONIZED over this question and I think I posted here to see what folks had to say. Most said the wood made no difference to tone although a few said "possibly."

    Having played the guitar for almost a year, with the maple neck, after years of playing rosewood boards, I can say that I don't think it makes any difference.

    But it still bugs me. I would really love to see a serious test done. I would like to see someone record a Strat with a maple neck then swap for a rosewood board neck on the same guitar - use the same amp and settings, same licks, same everything. Do some blind tests with guitarists (i.e., don't tell them which is which) and settle this damn thing once and for all.
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Doc W View Post
    Most said the wood made no difference to tone although a few said "possibly."
    Not picking you out personally Doc W.

    Food for thought - People will argue over the weight of tuners, the benefit of cloth covered wire and the type of battery you put in your Tubescreamer-clone-of-the-Month... and the actual wood that a guitar is made of doesn't affect tone?

    Further food for thought - the string does not directly vibrate against the fretboard wood (short of a fretless, I guess) - but it does vibrate against the fret, which is fastened to the fretboard. Same way the string doesn't vibrate against the body, it does so against the bridge which is fastened to the body. I posit that the wood to which the fret and the bridge are fastened will affect the tone.

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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by grandturk View Post
    Not picking you out personally Doc W.

    Food for thought - People will argue over the weight of tuners, the benefit of cloth covered wire and the type of battery you put in your Tubescreamer-clone-of-the-Month... and the actual wood that a guitar is made of doesn't affect tone?

    Further food for thought - the string does not directly vibrate against the fretboard wood (short of a fretless, I guess) - but it does vibrate against the fret, which is fastened to the fretboard. Same way the string doesn't vibrate against the body, it does so against the bridge which is fastened to the body. I posit that the wood to which the fret and the bridge are fastened will affect the tone.
    I think this has merit in theory. The question is can we HEAR the difference. I for one am a victim of the 80s of playing full blown 100 watt amps, loud studio headsets, loud stereos and headsets, chainsaws and competitive clay target shooting and not using ear protection (well except for clay target shooting but that was just rubber plugs in the ears)......I will tend to believe that the difference this makes can not be heard by my ears and many others....

    As stated before, I CAN hear the difference in necks of similar woods but of different construction......
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    Forum Member Doc W's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Erock_Germany View Post
    ... I for one am a victim of the 80s of playing full blown 100 watt amps, loud studio headsets, loud stereos and headsets
    PARDON? YOURE GONNA HAVE TO SPEAK UP.

    I have 20 years of ear abuse on you, beginning with a 1965 Bassman cranked most of the time, moving up to 100-200 watt amps.

    But seriously folks. There is SO much mojo, folklore, and just play bull**** flying around about guitar sound, and there always was. My favourite example was brass in the early 80s, for more sustain. It got used in everything from nuts to pickguards. "Listen to the sustain!"

    A few months ago some guy in a music store tried to embarrass me into buying a 150 buck jack cord. "If I really cared about tone...." he suggested. I laughed in his face. I couldn't help it. If you ain't got any tone with a regular jack cord, the extra 125 bucks ain't gonna help.

    I would like to see serious tests on some of this. I would like to see someone record exactly the same thing with two different jack cords for example, and then see if ANYONE can tell the difference. If there is a difference, is it worth the extra money or is it so miniscule that no one cares? Things like nitro vs poly finish are probably impossible to test, but there are many things that are definitely testable.

    Playability is a different issue. I am talking pure sound.
    "The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."

  38. #38
    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Doc W View Post
    A few months ago some guy in a music store tried to embarrass me into buying a 150 buck jack cord. "If I really cared about tone...." he suggested. I laughed in his face. I couldn't help it. If you ain't got any tone with a regular jack cord, the extra 125 bucks ain't gonna help.
    Funny how tone and shotgun marketing/sales tactics tend to go hand in hand today. Now good plugs and low Z cable is a good thing of moden times that help us more with reliability and the abilty to have a bit longer cord without losing the gumption from the guitar but these 150 US Dollar guitar cords are just a bunch of money making ho hum......
    "Sorry" - John Belushi as he smashed a guitar in Animal House

  39. #39
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    I'm with jerryjg on this one who said,

    "I just don't get people who don't hear a very pronounced and noticeable difference between the two fretboards. The difference is huge and very very obvious (all things being equal of course)."


    The difference is very definite and defined to me ears. I absolutely love the sound of a maple board for clean or slightly overdriven tones but I can't stand the maple for overdriven lead sounds. To me it gives chord work a real nice definition (thinking of Hendrix's sound on Castles Made Of Sand, and many others), but leaves my lead tone a little thin......no amount of eq can compensate for it to satisfy my taste. For an all around guitar I'll choose rosewood but if recording clean sounds it's hard to beat the sound of a strat with a maple board.

  40. #40
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: Maple vs. Rosewood neck - How much can it really influence tone?

    OK Jerry, and svaiman, maple or rosewood?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv-WN...rom=PL&index=3
    Several guitars in different colors
    Things to make them fuzzy
    Things to make them louder
    orange picks

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