rosewood or maple fingerboard?

[gaybear]

I'm surprised by the results.

me too! i suspect the results will change as the day goes on.

[dezb1]

MAPLE
MAPLE
MAPLE

I only have rosewood because its insanely expensive to swap out for maple on my weird guitars. (short scales and coronado)

Spot the Tele man...

[honeyiscool]

Yeah, I'm surprised, too. Someone posting a Squier and people calling the neck an ugly pasty unfinished piece of shit is a ritual on this site.

[johnnyseven]

Rosewood, 100% of the time it works all the time.

[Ankhanu]

I seem to have a rosewood preference; it's partially the look, partially the feel... Very little to do with tone I like the natural woody feel of rosewood versus the finished maple, and a rich dark rosewood with a strong grain can be pretty sexy. I wouldn't shy away from maple though.

Yeah, I'm surprised, too. Someone posting a Squier and people calling the neck an ugly pasty unfinished piece of shit is a ritual on this site.

That seems to be less about the maple than it is about the lack of amber tint in the finish... Short scale is anti-clear coat when it comes to maple necks . (personally, I barely notice the lack of tinting on those necks until Shortscale starts yelling, and then I still don't care)

[SKC Willie]

the lack of coloring can be a bit bleh. some guitars it's really noticeable and some not so much. I don't really dislike not having a tint . . .


but when you play a neck that is either naturally tinted OR has a really nice tint to it, it looks ace

[honeyiscool]

I'd rather have a clear satin finish than an orange SX finish, that's for sure. At least one's playable and natural.

[Haze]

ebony! looks better than rosewood, feels and sounds similar to maple. Of the two I suppose I prefer rosewood but I do enjoy the sound of maple. Played a SG w/ a maple board once and THAT was a great combo.

[JJLipton]

I really like the feel of an unfinished maple neck, particularly on my jem777lng and my charvel san dimas. The only problem is that they get dirty so fast!

[Will]

Pearloid!:

[AaronGuitarDude]

sorry for the dudes who love other type. cuz this two i think are the most common wood they used

[pumpkin]

Ebony....

[serfx]

rosewood.
just looks better imo though i have my fair share of pale necks that would look better if they were rosewood

[plaidbeer]

My main guitar (Tele) has a maple fretboard, but I actually prefer rosewood.

[lorez]

maple for me, I kind of think of it as having a rawness and not as refined as a rosewood or ebony even if there is a mass of vanish on there.

[Stan Kwervo]

I like the look of rosewood, it just looks so classy. Also every time I've gotten a maple necked guitar I ultimately been unhappy with them so I just stick to rosewood.

[Will]

Rosewood is much easier to work with than maple. And for steel-strings at least, I think anything which pulls some brightness out is good.

Do you think Rosewood will continue to be as common in the future? With Gibson getting raided, it seems there may be a movement towards woods that can be domestically sourced. There's no reason makers can't use oak, walnut, cherry, etc. I have an old banjo and guitar that have dyed Pearwood boards, and those are brilliant.

I was reading an article on this just recently. Going back hundreds of years, the standard was maple for fingerboards, and perhaps fruit woods for things with frets. Rosewood and ebony entered due to trade between the Spanish and South America making them insanely cheap, and in Spain and France they were often considered qualities of a lesser instrument. When standard styles started to emerge in the late 19th century, makers looked back to Spanish builders like Torres, who used the cheaper South American woods because they simply couldn't afford better.
So it's really a fluke of history that we use rosewood to begin with.

[Dannymec]

Rosewood always.

[SKC Willie]

Rosewood is much easier to work with than maple. And for steel-strings at least, I think anything which pulls some brightness out is good.

Do you think Rosewood will continue to be as common in the future? With Gibson getting raided, it seems there may be a movement towards woods that can be domestically sourced. There's no reason makers can't use oak, walnut, cherry, etc. I have an old banjo and guitar that have dyed Pearwood boards, and those are brilliant.

I was reading an article on this just recently. Going back hundreds of years, the standard was maple for fingerboards, and perhaps fruit woods for things with frets. Rosewood and ebony entered due to trade between the Spanish and South America making them insanely cheap, and in Spain and France they were often considered qualities of a lesser instrument. When standard styles started to emerge in the late 19th century, makers looked back to Spanish builders like Torres, who used the cheaper South American woods because they simply couldn't afford better.
So it's really a fluke of history that we use rosewood to begin with.

really interesting. I've always wondered why we don't use more pine, oak, or even walnut. They seem to be every where around the United States, just seemed logical to me. It's like the new Modern Player series, on one of the guitars, they're using Koto. I'm sure it's because it's close and cheap.


really interesting about rosewood though. where did you find that out? you said "an article" but do you remember where it came from?

[Ankhanu]

really interesting. I've always wondered why we don't use more pine, oak, or even walnut. They seem to be every where around the United States, just seemed logical to me. It's like the new Modern Player series, on one of the guitars, they're using Koto. I'm sure it's because it's close and cheap.


really interesting about rosewood though. where did you find that out? you said "an article" but do you remember where it came from?

Here's an article about it: http://www.guitaraficionado.com/from-th ... g-jam.html

As for American woods, pine is really soft (softwood tree and all), but it has been used in a few guitars through the years. I'm not sure it would really catch on large scale.
As for oak and walnut; oak is dense/heavy, which is a major issue when talking about bodies and such... not so much an issue for fingerboards or veneers. Walnut is, IIRC, also kinda heavy, but is a gorgeous wood. Both are slow growing, however, and I'm not really sure about their sustainability in large scale instrument building. There's a reason why it's getting really hard to get solid wood furniture and flooring... even boards.