The following are GENERAL tonal characteristics of maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards: Maple--this is a bright, tight-sounding wood with a defined bottom end, a tighter midrange, and a crisp, detailed top end. maple requires a finish, so a lot of guys tend to think the fingerboard feels a bit "sticky." however, the use of satin finishes as of late has been a big step towards improving the feel of a maple board. maple is often favored by cats who want a bit more top end or definition in their tone or for brightening up a warmer-sounding guitar. Rosewood--this is the most popular fingerboard wood and has a warm, rich tone with less top end than maple. rosewood doesn't require a finish, and lots of players like the feel of it because of its slightly oily nature. rosewood fingerboards are often favored by players who want to warm up a guitar further or for attenuating the highs on a particularly bright guitar. Ebony--this is the hardest and densest of the three woods and has a tight, crisp tone which is even brighter than maple. ebony doesn't require a finish and has a very tight grain-because of this, people often refer to ebony as "fast playing" or "slick." it's easily distinguishable from dyed rosewood by its closed grain pattern as opposed to rosewood's open grain pattern. ebony fingerboards are often favored by players who want a very glassy and crystalline top end or a lot more definition and tightness in their low end. for this reason, it's often preferred by bass makers. :rockon:
great assesment 6string, but in regards to the maples it depends on how its been finished. I played a '57 reissue mexican strat and the maple fretboard had a completely different as you said sticky feel to it compared to my '96 usa strat which feels more slippery. If anything for sliding the slippery maple is the easiest since on the rosewood you can really feel the wood when you slide your fingertips.
thnx rabi i did mention it .. c.. n man u do have sum gud guitars! n do ppl even check other forums except the chit chat lounge??? :annoyed: i dun mind if u dun like it n abuse it...but atleast chk the stuff out!!!! :shock:
i don't care i'll keep posting what i know and i'll keep handing out good reputation to people who i think are saying the right things. i only know this much about Fenders and certain things about guitar because i researched like mad before deciding what electrical guitar to get, was a funny moment the whole of it as i was bouncing in between a Epiphone Les Paul and Fender Squire Strat which are cheap and not amazing or a full out blown Fender USA which was about 5-6 times more in price than the other two. glad i went for the USA model though its a huge difference especially on the fretboards. I'd like to hear essi's opinion on fretboards in terms of the manufacturers that he knows more about as I only know as far as Fender is concerned.
yeah, i got a Fender telecaster and the maple neck is awesome it doesnt feel sticky, and its a dream to play
Assasin can u Tell a way to distinguish these fret bords ?? I mean how can we tell that a local made guitar got MAple ..... Fret bord ??
the first thing that sets them apart is colour. rosewood is like a reddish brown to dark brown ebony is almost always black and maple is the really light colour sorta light coffee brown colour Then in maple you have two finishes, a satin finish and a high gloss finish. I know Ibanez do a rosewood fretboard guitar that has a gloss finish on it. Play the different available types of fretboard, you will know yourself which one you prefer, i personally prefer the new satin maple necks then the rosewood and then the glossy maple. Never tried ebony
thx rabi n j for answering for me, just missed out. i usually distinguish by colour n feel btw rosewood n maple, never played ebony myself.
