Im not in a position to test all those variables Jay and as you said the sound could be manipulated by mixing software. All i can say is that i got the 2 closest matching guitars i could and tested them against each other. Hardware bar locking tuners on the deluxe (lending to a deeper tone is the current one atrributed to those), is exactly the same including the pickups and the wiring. The price difference is mainly due to origin and woods used. As far as outboard manipulation of sound what else can i do? Put a clock in the frame next time maybe to show theres no time slip.

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Time keeps on slippin,slippin, into the Future. Good test Niki!

Seems to me we learned what we all suspected before. A maple neck has a brighter, snappier sound than the rosewood . The rosewood has a tone with more bass. So it is up to the individual what he or she prefers. Along with the fact that there are all kinds of variables to the total tonal sound of a particular guitar.

Jay as you well know i take no offence at anything thats exploring a subject close to me. I perfectly see your point of how do we hear the difference between mim/mia or deluxe/amstd. The only way i can think to do it is to equip a MIM with a vintage reissue pickguard and trem and a deluxe with a amstd pickguard and trem. Anything less would pollute the test because hardware does colour tone.

Now to attain the quintessential strat tone.
The only thing i can think is to have OrvilleOwner fly over with his 54,64 and 70's strats and i could record him playing the same Amaj chord.

Now thats a test i want to perform. 54 versus customshop 54relic. Yep i reckon i'd sleep with a smile on my face after that test. The outcome wouldnt matter just the fact that i'd done it.

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I'd have to referee that fight i love both and would certainly like to check my homebuilt clapton against a fmic one, having never played one.
Theres test after test we could perform. perhaps we should establish some kind of standard testing parameter and all post audio of our guitars without effects added so we can compare.

Gotta say the mention of a bunch of americans coming over armed with beer and comparing their pieces has the mother inlaw all afluster. Just dont bring any chewing-gum or nylon stockings with you ok (ask someone stationed here during ww2).

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That was a very good try. But this test does not provide any evidence that fingerboard material changes the sound of the guitar in an appreciable way. You haven't compared two different fingerboard woods... you've compared two different guitars.

To even come close to any kind of real comparison, you would have to take two neck of precisely the same weight, resonant frequency and construction - two virtually identical Warmoth necks, for example - with the only difference being the fingerboard material. Then you would have to set up a guitar with the rosewood board, record it, then remove the rosewood neck, screw on the maple neck, set the guitar up to the same specs, and then record it again, with the same player playing exactly the same part.

If this were done, I suspect that no one would hear any difference between the two recordings.

No one needs any further proof of this than to simply compare two Strats off the wall at Guitar Center, both with maple or both with rosewood boards. one of those two guitars will soun ds brighter than the other, will it not?

The difference will mostly be the set-up and body resonance. You would have to remove these much-more important variables before you can judge whether fingerboard wood is making a difference.

You'll also notice that the biggest difference between Niki's guitars isn't "brightness:" The Blackie is louder... a good 3db to my ear.

But I applaud Niki's efforts to put this ancient question to bed. Hats off, sir.

Good points, especially about bodies. Two different bodies with who knows how many pieces of wood and at what density. Even the same species can vary from tree to tree. And than you have the joints, how well are they glued etc...
I don't think this can truly be answered unless you test two necks on the same body as you have said.

Sorry for the wrose-than-usual typing. I'm just back from the othalmologist and the dilation hasn't work off yet. I'm about half blind.

An interesting part of an artical about this subject of woods used in instruments which I would applyto both bodies and necks.


WOOD FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: SCIENCE AND ART

By Gila Eban



In accordance with tradition, woods used for tops have material properties which fall within a certain range (almost always softwoods), and woods used for backs have properties within a somewhat different range, usually hardwoods. The rosewoods used for guitars have lower damping than the maples used in violin-family construction. These choices, according to Haines, may be a result of the different mechanisms involved in the way the instrument is vibrated by the bowed vs. plucked string. It might also suggest the desirability of using different woods, or at least different ranges of properties within a given species, for steel string vs. nylon string guitars. Mahogany is widely used on many excellent steel string guitars, but is scarcely found on classical guitars. Conversely, we might speculate that there is still considerable latitude for varying the bracing and overall design within one type of guitar, so that it is not mandatory to use the same design on different wood species.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Its about as close as your going to get mate. Both 2piece bodies (yes i see the sinklines in the red one) hardware the same, same neck profile. Same fret size, same nut material even. I really cant see maple of the same grade, from the same tree even having more effect than fingerboard material, to the point that i went out of my way to prove the theory. I'm absolved now the onus is on someone else to prove me wrong.

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Interesting info, but you can't apply what they've learned about wood in acoustic instruments to electric instruments. They just don't produce sound in anything like the same manner.

In an acoustic stringed instrument, the wood is the amplifier.