Hey everybody!

I'm the happy owner of a US strat from 2008 with maple neck. It plays great it sounds great and it feels great. It's a great guitar but im starting doubt whether i should exchange it to a more "heavy" sounding strat with rosewood neck, since RW in my opinion is warmer sounding.
Have any of you been in the same situation? And can i do something to my guitar to make it sound more like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpXZhqR6wRA&feature=related

btw, im running it through Laney gh50l so plenty of drive and bottom there.

Have you tried it through a Fender Amp? Such as one of the 65 Deluxe or 57 Deluxe Re-issues? I have one maple and one rosewood neck guitar (both American). Can't tell a bit of difference between the warmth or brightness of either. The only thing that effects the tone on them are the tone switches. They can both sparkle or moan, depending on what you do with the tone nobs.

What pickups are you running? Vintage? Noiseless?

I think you'll be sorry if you sell it. Seems American made guitars are hard to come by these days judging from the post on this forum.

The rosewood definitely gives a darker tone. I have both rosewood and maple. Make sure the rosewood is good quality, you should be able to see this by naked eye.

My theory is that its not only the type of wood, but the mechanics of the assembly of a rosewood fretboard. Instead of a solid peice of wood, it hads two layers of wood, resulting in a loss of energy at the interface.

I like both types of wood. I would say keep one maple and one rosewood, you will never get bored. I do the same with blondes and brunette women.

If i may, when you talk about rosewood vs. Maple, the early one (The early 60's ones) use a rosewood slab that the frets do not go through. those ones will darken the tone a bit, but the newer one use a rosewood veneer, and the frets go though it to the maple, so the difference is far less notable.

There are far more things that will cause a guitar to be bright of dark, the body wood, the tremolo (You said it was a strat, I assume it has a tremolo) and let us not forget the pick ups.


You love this guitar and this it's great, that is 99% of the battle, the rest is adjustable.

I would start by replacing the tremolo string block with a shallow drilled Brass unit, this will darken the tone some over the stock one.
If that is not dark enough, then looking at the pick-ups would be next.

Finding a guitar that fits you is like buying a suit of cloths, the same brand and model may or may not fit as well. The last guitar I bought was a MIM strat with a maple board, and i darkened it was the tremolo string block swap.

_________________
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At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

OK 2008 strat ???? but which version is it ? Deluxe, Standard?
Pups are??

There are too many questions, personally I would take your strat and play it through as many amps as possible.
Fender Hot Rod's, Reverb, Bassman. Marshalls, 15 watts, 40 watts, Vox.

You may just find that the amp is what you need to change.

I play a CS 56 NOS thru a Hot rod Deluxe, a Champ 600 or an old 1950's Magnatone, as well as a Blues Junior. I have no problem finding a George Lynch sound or a Clapton sound or a Knopfler sound. No pedals, straight into the amps.
It's all about adjusting the dials.