I'm hoping to get a MIM strat soon, and arctic white looks pretty good to me. However, I cannot decide on what neck to get because a rich yellow maple neck would look nice on white, but a pale one might not. In the same sense, a rich dark rosewood would look better than pale and dry rosewood on white...
Right now I do not have a preferred "fretboard sound," but I do have a maple neck strat, which makes rosewood seem more desirable for me (I like trying new things).

So...in short, how to MIM necks look? Do they tend to have richer colors or is it just different in every guitar?

You might want to have a look in the Telecaster Forum then look for the thread on the 1st page...MIM Tele Club. You`ll see some MIM maple necks and that might give you an idea on what they look like.

Before I had to switch to lefty I had an Artic White MIM strat with a maple neck and I loved it. I would say get the maple neck.

-Tagg

my new strat has a maple neck. i love the way it looks and plays. i chose maple because the strat i owned back in the 60's had a maple neck. i guess i'm just sentimental.....

Look at the roadhouse and lonestar strats. I think rosewood with a brown tortose shell pickguard looks awesome with a white body.

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I love maple.
no offense but rosewood makes me gag unless its on an acoustic.

LOL I like maple necks too, and I think all Strats look better with a maple neck no matter what color they are. JMHO

I have two MIM guitars bought in two separate years, both with Maple necks.
Black Strat with white pg and Butterscotch Blonde Tele with black pg.
Both are stunning!

-T

I have a 3 color Sunburst Strat and a Black Tele with maple necks and they look awesome. I think the color contrast does a lot for them.

I'm with oldfart....

I just don;t like the RW FB's on strat's or tele's

I love them on my other guitars though....I have nothing against RW, and I like the way RW ages better. But Fenders just never look right to me with RW....

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

I could be mistaken but I don't think the OP is asking about RW vs. Maple fret board.

I think he's referring to the tinted maple neck vs. the non-tinted (natural?) maple neck.

I just got a new 2009 MIM standard strat (Lake Placid Blue ) this summer. I was also looking at the white one. The white one the shop had was a 2008 and didn't have the tinted neck. My 2009 has the tinted neck. The guy told me they started that in the 2009 MIM standards to give it a pre-aged look since the varnish (or whatever it is they use) now doesn't really let the maple neck get that aged look. I'm sure some the experts here know more about this than me but that's the info I got from the local shop.

Anyway if you're deciding between the tinted or natural, I'd go tinted all the way. I'm really happy with mine.

I bought an 09' MIM arctic white tele with the tinted neck. I read in a guitar center ad that all the new 09' MIM Strats and teles have tinted necks.

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