I guess I'm the odd man out. I bought my 72 Strat when it was new and chose it over a new rosewood fretboard Strat. My 72 has a solid maple neck. It was a little brighter and the low end seemed a little tighter. There was no real internet for the regular guy back then. So that influence was out. There was a definite difference for me. Played them both through the same amp too. I tried two of each. The maple necks sounded really close to each other and so did the rosewoods. The salesman also showed me the putting the pup switch between the settings trick. Strats didn't have 5 way switches back then LOL. The bigger difference was the feel. I actually like the feel of rosewood a little better. My 72 is the only maple neck Strat I own. Funny thing is, I really don't like the look of maple necks that much, just the sound of them.

As always, believe what you want, YMMV.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

dunno much about tone issues,but i just love maple fretboards...

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***God made men and men made guitar***

That is so true.

I could walk up on stage with BB King's band, have him hand me his guitar (through his rig), and I would sound nothing like BB King. Likewise, he could walk on stage with my band, take my guitar and sound nothing like me.

Having said that, the wood of the fretboard, body, etc. can affect the overall sound of a guitar. If you don't think so, take a set of electronics (pickup/potentiometers/pickguard assembly) from a Strat, put it in an alder body with a rosewood fretboard; then take the same electronics and put it in maple body with a maple fretboard...the sound will be somewhat brighter in the second guitar.

The body makes a bigger difference than the fingerboard, the pickups make a bigger difference than the type of nut, the type of bridge makes a bigger difference than the gauge of the strings, but all these variables add up to what "that particular guitar" or "this particular guitar" sounds like...

...but the biggest difference is the idiot playing the axe....

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

The only time mine sounded brittle was through my HRDlx, but that's a whole other story LOL.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I know that I can feel the difference blindfolded, done that trick before on a bet. made 14 out of 14 at the local GC when I bought my latest tele. I'm not going to say that I can hear the difference though. There is just too much going on with the body, pickups, strings, nut, bridge, etc, to pin anything on the neck alone. I like the way maple feels under my fingers and one less glue joint is a good thing IMNSHO.

Of course there's a tone difference between maple and rosewood. How could there not be? It's a part of the guitar, it has to have an influence. It would be foolish to think otherwise. The question is how much difference? In my experience the difference is perceivable only to the player and just barely at that. I used to own two basically identical Teles back when I was in a country (ew! Get it off me!) band for a very brief and confusing period. Both mid 90's AS models. Both stock. Both alder. One red with rw, one black with maple. Putting one down and picking up the other I was sure I could hear and feel a slight difference. I'm also sure nobody else could hear it at all because it wasn't their hands on the strings.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

BRILLIANT!!

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

When I was a kid my Uncle tried to get me to play in a Country band and I laughed at him. Well, those guys worked every week and made really decent money while I was still noodling away in the basement with my friends. Nothing wrong playing music you don't like to make a few bucks. I was one worse, a wedding band in 1970. Made a few bucks as a 14 year old but hated every minute of it.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Played in a Elvis impersonaltors band when I was a kid. Brilliant money and four gigs a week. By 17 I was earning from the band just shy of eleven times what I was earning from my plastering apprenticeship. Just for knocking out chords whilst some middle aged bloke in a wig and cape jumped around the place. a'huy'a'huh.

Oh to have them days back again. It's a wonder I aint dead.

I have played three weddings in my life (two with a country band, one with my normal band); each time we told them we play to make people dance, we don't take requests and unless the girl is really good looking, we won't allow people to sing with us ("This ain't karaoke, honey!").

Good money, but I just couldn't do it all the time.

I also refuse to play a girl's first wedding...she has been dreaming of this moment since she was three years old, and I'm not going to risk messing up her fantasy. Second wedding? No prob...by that time she realizes life sometimes sucks and she'll just have fun and not freak out over anything.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

...or was it really Elvis? He's not dead you know!

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

You might know my Ex. She went through three of us.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Was your Elvis fat? Ours was a little over weight. He would jiggle we he shook his hips. He was good however. It would confuse the crap out of me, same chords in each song but in different order. I had to use a cheat sheet.

I guess the weirdest thing about my previously mentioned pickup swapping excursion was how much of a difference it made in which body I stuck them in. The reason I was getting a headache from it is the pickups are mounted to a piece of plastic, then to the body.

Is there a relationship between the wood type in the pickup cavity and its reaction to the pickups? Is it a relationship of the wood type and strings? could it be slight differences of the makeup of the trem block material and strings? Saddle material and strings? I just quit asking myself the questions and came to a solution I was happy with.

All 3 guitars have the same cheap beginners guitar parts (Bridge/ trem/ tuners), they are all rosewood necks as well. The maple bodied guitar just wouldn't allow the clarity of the single coils to come through. Once I added higher output pickups, it seemed to make whatever property that was causing that issue irrelevant.

Over the past 6-months, I've come to my own personal conclusion. I love Basswood guitars. They can be extremely lightweight ( I have 2 now that weigh 5lbs fully assembled). And I haven't been disappointed by any sound or sustaining issues with any of them. I think I'm at about 5-6 basswood guitars total right now. How that wood type makes a difference, I'm not exactly sure. I just know it feels good to my back.

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HaleAmano- House Of Sharks (Now On iTunes)
http://www.reverbnation.com/haleamano
http://www.haleamano.com

I played a part in a movie pilot about Elvis,I was a guitar player on stage and while we were doing it I got to watching the girls in the audience and honestly,you would have thought from their reaction that the guy really was Elvis...he was a good impersonator and there were a couple of advisors who had actually worked for Elvis who were giving him tips on "being Elvis".
The project never got off the ground though I think.

I still vote for rosewood,although I own both!