Fretboard Materials... Maple, Rosewoo...

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Author Message   Lionel Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    I have 2 Ibanez Guitars. One with a Rosewood fretboard, one with Ebony. I dunno... maybe it's me, but they just feel different. The neck raduis and materials are exactly the same, but the ebony somehow just feels "softer"? (for want of a better term.) Anybody agree with me?   John Shanley (Johns) Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    It's intereting how everybody is different. For me, the most important aspect about fretboard material is the variety of different colors and how that affects the overall look of the guitar. As far as "feel", I immediately notice neck thickness/shape and the fret size/shape. These things cause me to modify my playing much more than the fretboard material.   Lionel Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    What about sound? Some say a maple fretboard gives a much brighter tone than a rosewood. And ebony... ahhh I dunno... Any comments?   John Shanley (Johns) Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    Lionel: I've heard the same. But have never had the exact same guitar with different fretboards to say from personal experience. I've also heard some say that the exact same model guitar can be "dead" tone-wise from the next one on the production line. How are you going to know that unless you have lots of experience playing many different but similar guitars? I wonder if there aren't too many factors that make up a whole guitar's sound to make a definitive judgment about one item's overall importance. BTW, I would hedge my statements considerably if we were talking about acoustic guitars.   Elliott Kim Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    My current #1 axe has a rosewood fretboard. My last #1 has a rosewood fretboard. The #1 before that... (see a pattern) It works great for me. To me, rosewood is sort of a middle ground; most players would be happy with it. You can get away with using rosewood on a fingerboard on guitars intened for widely different applications. It's tonal response is even, balanced, and warm. Maple and ebony have some "out there" characteristics that limit their appeal to those who are specifically seeking that feel or sound. Maple is harder, brighter and denser than rosewood. Ebony is even harder, brighter, and denser than maple. It offers tons of attack (great for tapping).   Renato Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    A nice and easy way to see (feel) the difference is to go to a Shop and try out Fender's Strats and Teles, these guitars can be found with Maple and Rosewood fretboards without changes on body, pickup, etc... There's a noticeable difference. And my opinion on dead tone guitars made in series: if you're buying a new guitar, try out at least three before making a decision. Ebony... it's becoming very, very rare. It is harder an denser than Maple but I wouldn't agree with brighter. There's also the quality issue. Some companies die the wood in order to create richer wood tones or replicate the "ebony look". The whole "feel" thing is indeed curious. I had a student who sworn that he could play faster on a rosewood neck... go figure! ®   Jeff Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    a maple will get dirty and turn grey after lots of playing. To get back the original look you would have to have the neck planed and refretted   Daniel Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    Here is a quick term used for the ebony fingerboard. It is said to be just like the Roles Royce of fingerboards. It is the best feeling and has the best balance of tones.   jester Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    Actually, I prefer the feel of rosewood to ebony. And you don't have to care (as much!) for it to avoid cracking. But I think it does wear a bit faster. Still, by the time that matters, it's time to replace the neck (or board); how many refrets can a fretboard take? I can't hear the sound diff, as I've never played identical guitars with the 2 different woods. Even companies that offer 2 choices offer Maple or EITHER rosewood or ebony...   Ray Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    On the fingerboard issue, I have to sway to Ebony. I have lots of Ibanez's from older Artists, Destroyer II's, Jem's, and my fav a '85 PR1660 Rhoads styled V! But my main instrument is (about) a 1988 ESP Custom with a ebony board. I loved this guitar's sound so much, that when I found another ESP Custom neck-thru like mine (but it was the Queensyrche Chaos model) I purchased it quickly! However, I failed to look at the neck and it was not Ebony. I played it and compared, but the ESP with the ebony neck still somehow plays and sounds better...I have no clue if it's the ebony..but i really can tell them apart! The ebony neck one I mainly use for my rythym playing, and the rosewood neck on my Jem 77Uv is great for some of the lead stuff...I dunno...i like 'em all!   sdace Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    Maple: Adds "brightness" to the sound of the guitar. Some like the "glassy" feel of a laquered maple neck and others feel it is to "sticky". Rosewood: Most common fretboard material. Adds a "warmth" to the sound of the guitar. I personally am not a fan of rosewood unless it is a high quality, tight grained piece. Cheap rosewood always feels like the neck needs cleaning, and too porous to play comfortably Ebony: A perfect combination of the two IMO. Very closed grained and dense, it adds the "brightness" of maple with the "warmth" of rosewood. Very smooth feeling and great for fast playing. Hope this helps some of you.   andrew Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    ebony is the best. the reason its rare is its hard to make things out of . and they put it on a lot of violins ocestra instruments ect and u know how expensive that stuff is   Bradley LeVan Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 11:04 am:    Wood, just like people comes in different forms. That is to say, just because it's maple, doesn't mean it's a good piece of maple. The same is true for ebony and rosewood. I've owned and played guitars with all three woods in the neck and always found that amp settings, tone controls and pickups had more to do with sound than the wood in the fretboard... at least on electrics. I've also seen some ebony that was ligher in color than most and looked more like rosewood. Hence, some builders actually stain their ebony to make it a uniform color. I know that on my Taylor acoustic they did not stain the ebony... you can see the grain and it's quite lovely. Finally...... one thing I do hate is a thick coating of any finish on a maple neck. It dosen't have to be this way. I've got a G&L ASAT that has no finish and it plays and sounds like a dream.   Jesse G. Posted on Monday, June 04, 2001 - 9:07 am:    I've had all 3, and like rosewood best nowadays. But I actually preferred the maple at one point. The one I never DID prefer is ebony, so it's definitely not a "best" issue. It's a "feel" issue. Orchestral instruments have different needs. The hardness of ebony gives better longevity on fretless instruments. On a fretless bass, this is a valid concern; much less so on a fretted instrument.   Wayno (Wayno) Posted on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 8:28 pm:    In addition to the above, I would add: Maple- quick tonal response, bright, slightly compresses bass tones Rosewood- even and articulate tonal response, naturally oily, less dense of the 3 because of the porosity Ebony- one of the densest woods, period. Gives very full, tight, rich, compressed bass and mid tones. Last night I had the priveledge of playing a Breedlove custom acoustic made with ebony fretboard and bridge, Engleman spruce top, mahonany neck and solid striped ebony back and sides. Yes, striped ebony. I played it in comparison to top-end brazilian rosewood acoustics. The rosewood-bodied guitar's harmonics sounded somewhat ragged against the rich, full, and very tight sound of a guitar with that much ebony. My understanding is that ebony is so dense that if the fretboard gets saturated with water, it has been known to swell itself right off the neck - frets and all.   Aki.Rintamaki Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 8:09 am:    These are tase issues, and only know what I like best. Maple: Bright, short sustain, rockabilly/surf style. Rosewood: Good uni-purpose. Ebony: Attack and dynamics. Jazz, pro instruments. Ever wondered why almost all of the best instruments has an ebony fretboard, and why the maple is seen most rarely? It's simple, Ebony goood, maple baaad, m'kay? ;o) Even though a finger hardly really feels the wood, the feeling comes thru the strings, singe string will react differently on a different wood. Everyone knows that different frets feel different, how often do you touch the frets while playing?! I think different materials in the fretboard as well as in the body or neck support different kind of wholenesses. By saying this I mostly mean the aspects I found in my Bill Lawrence Strat. It has one piece maple neck, and had very dark sounding single coils. It was the way best strat in the price range I had ever tried. I changed the pickups, and later realised that the Kinman pickups do not serve the guitar as much as the originals did. I like the Kinman pickups more, but the guitar doesn't. I tried a rosewood boarded neck on the guitar, and liked it far more. The neck didn't fit well, so I put the original back. I think I will put the original pu's back too, and let the guitar do the vintage stuff it suits and likes best. -Aki.   Jorgen (Jorgen) Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 10:22 am:    I think that certain pickups works best in a certain kind of wood. For example: I find that Super 58´s sound great in a mahogany body with a maple top. I usually play with a distorted sound since I play rock/fusion. I am very fond of the Super 80´s which possess great dynamics, and have found that it performs best in ash bodied guitars such as my ´76 Artist 2617 for instance, where it responds best to my touch and preserves the tone while you roll off the volume, and get a nice cleaner sound while not loosing treble, which is common normally when you roll off the volume some. /Jörgen   Jorgen (Jorgen) Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 3:51 pm:    Just noticed that my message didnt really fit into the topic...a minor missunderstanding on my part. My apologies. Regards Jörgen   Paddy_F (Paddy_F) Posted on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 1:38 pm:    Hope every one had a merry christmas,( ate and drank in moderation this year,----learnt that one nights merryment cost you the next two days) --- just trawling the site picking up info, I would agree with Jorgen about the combination of ash body, super 80s and ebony board, combined they definately produce a rich unique tone, although plinking the 2617 acoustically in front of the t.v. it feels dense and quiet. I dont know whether there are variations on tone circuitry within the same models, because when I roll the volume off, there is a small loss of top which I personally find useful. I like rosewood boards on semi's for their mid range warmth although the quality of rosewood seems to vary, especially over the later years, its seems to be getting lighter in colour, and dryer. When I bought the AS100 the first thing I noticed was how clean it was, so I asked the owner which polish he used. It turned out to be Johnson's sparkle,(available from sainsburys) which is what I now use. It appears to be non greasy and although I dont use it on the fingerboard directly, I just give it a wipe with the residue on the cloth after Ive finished cleaning the guitar, and I find it plays better than any of the branded stuff, and its a lot cheaper. There doesnt appear to be anything harmful to guitars in this polish. But if anybody knows different, please let me know.--PRONTO!!! Happy new year, Paddy.   Craigjc (Craigjc) Posted on Sunday, December 29, 2002 - 9:05 am:    It has always been recommended to me to use natural oil-based products on non-finished wood. Rosewood does dry out and gets lighter as it does. Linseed oil is supposedly great for restoring oil to the wood. The bad thing about linseed oil is that it is thick and can leave a nasty residue. I, therefore, have switched to lemon oil many years ago and still use it. Finished parts of the guitar should be trated differently; I do not recommend any oils be used on the rest of the guitar. The polish you use here is up to personal preference.

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