The Bass Fretboard Poll - Maple / Rosewood / Pau Ferro / Ebony

[djaxup]

I would LOVE to buy a neck with an ebony fretboard for my stealth bongo, only way to get it even more black. Ok and nylon flats

Ontopic: can't decide, both have their merits. I like the look of rosewood more though.

 

[Bart B]

Ebony looks really nice, and it gives a very tight sound i.m.o., I played a mayones bass with ebony fretboard once and it really had this amazing punch

 

[Grand Wazoo]

It's Interesting that after so many months after this thread was started ebony has been introduced in the DD2 and the stealth models

 

[oli@bass]

yeah... and I'd like to move my vote towards Ebony...

 

[bovinehost]

There is something going on with the ebony on my DD2. I like to think that fretboards make very little difference to the overall tone, but this thing is at least a little different. In a good way.

Let me get some flats on it and I'll have a more informed opinion.

(Nothing wrong with the rounds on it now, but it's hard for me to hear anything but the strings.)

 

[danny-79]

Rosewood, but like maple aswell.

 

[T Alan]

I'd give my left nut for my fretless EBMMs to be fitted with ebony fretboards.

 

[danny-79]

I'd give my left nut for my fretless EBMMs to be fitted with ebony fretboards.

On a fretless yeah that makes total sense, the thought of the look of it sounds great, can imagen that would give it a harsher sound ??

 

[Grand Wazoo]

I'd give my left nut for my fretless EBMMs to be fitted with ebony fretboards.

T Alan, I am sure you probably prefer ebony for its dark look, but let me assure you that when applied to guitar making, both ebony and pau ferro depsite the different colors, share similar tensile strenght and resonance and in fact one can say pau ferro is actually harder that ebony, hence the name "ferro" which in some european countries can be translated as steel or metal.

Pao Ferro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[sitonmybass]

There's been two times when I've simultaneously owned the same EBMM models except for their respective fretboards.

1. Two Sterling 4s, one maple, one rosewood. These were both finished in black, so they were reasonably similar except for the fretboards.

2. Two StingRay 5s, one maple, and one rosewood. The rosewood was sunburst, the maple was natural. Even finish contributes to tone, that's why I've mentioned it in both cases.

Also, each "pair" of the above mentioned basses were from the same production periods and were purchased new.

This ultimately convinced me that of these two fretboard woods, I preferred the sound of rosewood. I recall that to my ear there was a big loss in the warmth (low mids?) with the maple fretboards.

I also own two C****n basses which have ebony fretboards which I quite like.

 

[2ndBassGuitar]

all my basses and guitars sport rosewood............but i'm dying for a maple board.........

so i can't poll as of yet.


.......need more time,and money too

From Abby? You a member of the UN Gang? Seriously... I have many maple and rosewood boards. I like a deep sound, I am tending to prefer rosewood. But really, I think certain colours (the real way of spelling this word) look better with rosewood and certain colours look better with maple

 

[T Alan]

On a fretless yeah that makes total sense, the thought of the look of it sounds great, can imagen that would give it a harsher sound ??

Nah, not harsh, but possibly more like maple.

T Alan, I am sure you probably prefer ebony for its dark look, but let me assure you that when applied to guitar making, both ebony and pau ferro depsite the different colors, share similar tensile strenght and resonance and in fact one can say pau ferro is actually harder that ebony, hence the name "ferro" which in some european countries can be translated as steel or metal.

Pao Ferro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for the detail. Yeah, it's more about aesthetics for me. I find that the audible difference is too minimal to get excited about. So aesthetics and performance(in this case, density/resilience) for me.

 

[DaddyFlip]

Definitely rosewood for fretted.

I just recently decided that fretless was the bomb and I was right. Tried lined ebony on a Dargie Stingray and unlined Pau Ferro on a Sterling. Pau wins hands down for looks, feel and sound. Unlined wins too, but I'm nervous about taking the plunge.