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Post subject: What are the differences between rosewood and maple?
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:22 pm
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What are the differences between a rosewood and maple fingerboard on a guitar neck? In sound :?


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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:25 pm
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some will say that maple is "brighter" and rosewood is "darker" sounding but there is no actual difference in sound. Just whichever looks better to you.

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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:25 pm
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Some people hear a difference, some don't. Some say the whole things a myth. The story goes that rosewood has a darker, fatter tone then the brighter sounding maple. Personally I don't think a slab of rosewood on a maple neck does much to tone at all.

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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:26 pm
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Rosewood has a warmer sound
Maple has a brighter sound


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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:06 pm
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Hello Javierfk,

I'm with cryingstrat on this one.

Cheers.


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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:31 pm
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Supposedly, rosewood is much harder than maple and mills better... this is why Leo chose to "upgrade" the strat many years ago with the rosewood fingerboard.

Originally, strats and teles had (can you imagine!... disposable) maple necks.


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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 7:42 pm
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Maple is usually a brighter sounding wood, however that tonal quality may not be heard from a fretboard. You have to decide for yourself if you can hear a difference.

They do have a different feel to me.

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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 7:51 pm
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That's interesting. Would have thought maple to be harder than rosewood due to rosewood's porous nature (nice absorbtion of lemon oil and such). Maybe it is harder but more porous? :)

I see that rosewoods come in at nearly three times the hardness of maple. Average 4 to 12 between - in kn Janka hardness test (related to Brinell hardness test for metals which is something that I am familiar with) - vely intelesting. :)

But, I agree that the difference does not provide a significant difference in tone. Feel, yes. Tone, no. Again, the difference in portion of entire guitar changed by going from solid maple to glued-on rosewood is about 5% of the entire guitar (I mean, look at the amount of wood in the body alone). The metal parts almost have more influence.


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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 3:54 pm
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The reason Leo started using rosewood fingerboards was because he didn't like the look of the worn maple necks he was seeing on TV. Rosewood won't let you get that vintage distressed look that many people like (and Leo didn't) So from Leo Fender's point of the view the difference is/was aesthetic.

As to the sound myth; CryingStrat nailed it. I think that there are many more salient variables that affect your tone than the neck material. Check some earlier threads on this subject and you'll find some interesting mathematical evaluations.


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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 4:06 pm
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rose wood is darker wood maple is lighter like classic strats have maple like jimmy hendrix


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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 4:20 pm
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uteowl wrote:
The reason Leo started using rosewood fingerboards was because he didn't like the look of the worn maple necks he was seeing on TV. Rosewood won't let you get that vintage distressed look that many people like (and Leo didn't) So from Leo Fender's point of the view the difference is/was aesthetic.

As to the sound myth; CryingStrat nailed it. I think that there are many more salient variables that affect your tone than the neck material. Check some earlier threads on this subject and you'll find some interesting mathematical evaluations.


There is something of an objective way to test the myth (where are Jamie and Adam when you need them) - record the sound of the same guitar switching out the neck each time. And then do analysis to see if there is a significant tonal difference (within humanly differential parameters). A bit of work to do the test and the variables here would be difficult to remove completely (e.g.: were both necks screwed down with insignificant difference in torque, are the environmental conditions the same/moderated, and so on). The reason to change out the neck is that this removes the variability of the guitar body, pickups, electronics, yadda, yadda. The only difference would be the necks (even the strings can be reused) - and a certain amount of error could be given to this whose noise is hopefully less than the expected range of change.

Even though Musical Acoustic Theory is complex and more an art than science, that doesn't preclude actually testing something. The variability of the air between the guitar and microphone in as statically maintained environment as possible can be made insignificant enough to make the test viable.


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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 5:45 pm
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Ones darker than the other.


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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 3:50 pm
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I can definitely hear a difference between the same model/year strat with the same pickups, and different necks.

There is a big factor of feel as well. Some love the unfinished rosewood feel of the neck, others prefer the finished maple neck feel.

Then, there's aesthetics. If you can't hear or feel any difference that you'd prefer, which looks better to you?


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Post subject: Thx another question...
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 4:45 pm
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OK, now I understand the sound thing... some people say that there's a difference in "feeling". How's that?.
I don't have a Guitar Center or a store like that near my house, so i can't find out the answer for my question.
Can you help me?


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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 7:28 pm
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Rosewood is denser and more expensive because it's supplied from overseas (Africa, South America). Rosewood and Maple most likely differ in heat expansion/contraction which is why the maker chooses one over the other. You're not going to hear any sound difference. The wood type doesn't do anything to the string length, etc. The string vibrates the same way no matter what type of fingerboard wood is used.


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