What are the differences between maple and rosewood...

[candid_x]

The more modern strat variants don't have the finish issue that the vintage models do. For me, anything with a gloss fretboard finish is a no-go.

Not to dwell on this, but the Custom Shop I referred to was brand-spanking-new. Pretty sure it was a thick nitro finish.

 

[Dante]

yeah, but you gotta have pride in your reissues!
if ya screw it once, then ya gotta do it twice!

 

[rlarino]

Actually, there are audible differences. But not unless you AB them side-by-side. I've got 2 very similar strats. The only difference is that the fretboards are different woods, and of a different radius. Even the pups are the same. And there is definately a very subtle difference, but it's there. Whether maple is brighter or not, is the point of contention. My RW strat seems brighter than the maple acoustically. I don't think its a question of brightness, but more that the maple seems to have a more focused tone. The RW has a lot of frequencies coming from it, and it's definately no less trebly than the maple. Just that the mids and bass are more pronounced.

When you AB both, even blind, there's a difference, and one can definately tell which is which. But on it's own, I think it's almost impossible to tell.

right, but even 2 guitars of the same woods, pickups, etc... are likely to sound slightly different...

like i said, even the variance in qualities between each piece of a single particular species of wood will cause differences in sound...


if they posted a short clean sound clip of each guitar that rolled out of the factory through the same amp, with the same player, playing the same riff, recorded in the same session with the same mic and console, etc... and told you this batch of sound clips are all [such and such] guitar model in [such and such] pickup position (the only difference between any of the guitars being the wood used on the fretboard) do you really believe that you or someone else could accurately and reliably (repeatably) be able to identify which type of fretboard each one had?

if someone could pull this off with any decent degree of accuracy and repeatability they would be my hero and i'd give him $100 and some cookies (we're talking nowhere in the vicinity of only 50%... not a coin toss or a lucky guess, a definitive decision based on describable audible properties that can be performed accurately and consistently multiple times on multiple samples and could be verified by spectrum analysis and other tools, etc)...

my point is, in reality, the sonic difference specifically between 2 general species of wood used for the fingerboard of a guitar (for example a rosewood fingerboard and a maple fingerboard) is not as consistent and obvious as people seem to believe it is... there are many other factors of varying degrees of influence that may contribute to inconsistencies in sound between similar guitars where the only obvious difference is the species of wood used for a particular part of the guitar

lets do the experiment... and see if someone out there has magical ears (not at all likely)

 

[leftyguitarblue]

right, but even 2 guitars of the same woods, pickups, etc... are likely to sound slightly different...

like i said, even the variance in qualities between each piece of a single particular species of wood will cause differences in sound...


if they posted a short clean sound clip of each guitar that rolled out of the factory through the same amp, with the same player, playing the same riff, recorded in the same session with the same mic and console, etc... and told you this batch of sound clips are all [such and such] guitar model in [such and such] pickup position (the only difference between any of the guitars being the wood used on the fretboard) do you really believe that you or someone else could accurately and reliably (repeatably) be able to identify which type of fretboard each one had?

if someone could pull this off with any decent degree of accuracy and repeatability they would be my hero and i'd give him $100 and some cookies (we're talking nowhere in the vicinity of only 50%... not a coin toss or a lucky guess, a definitive decision based on describable audible properties that can be performed accurately and consistently multiple times on multiple samples and could be verified by spectrum analysis and other tools, etc)...

my point is, in reality, the sonic difference specifically between 2 general species of wood used for the fingerboard of a guitar (for example a rosewood fingerboard and a maple fingerboard) is not as consistent and obvious as people seem to believe it is... there are many other factors of varying degrees of influence that may contribute to inconsistencies in sound between similar guitars where the only obvious difference is the species of wood used for a particular part of the guitar

lets do the experiment... and see if someone out there has magical ears (not at all likely)

wow and the only difference, i thought, was one is a pretty brown and one is a pretty beige. thanks!

 

[candid_x]

I have a lovely female friend who, for some odd reason, likes to hear me play. She can tell with 100% accuracy whether I'm playing my maple neck silo special (sundown) or my rosewood board silo special (blue), based primarily on the instrument's brightness and/or warmth. She's not even a musician, just someone with discriminating hearing.

Does this prove irrefutably that maple is brighter, all else being relatively equal? Of course not. But to someone who relies on good ears and plain old common sense, rather than impossibly reproducible double-blind A/B tests, it's obvious enough.

 

[roburado]

Okay, we've come to the conclusion that we can't come to a definitive answer re: sound.

Personally--and I could be totally wrong--I think that on the EBMM guitars I've tried with both rosewood and maple as options, I think the neck shapes feel a bit different. Call me crazy. I feel like the rosewood Silo Specs I've tried have a flatter feel to the neck than the maple ones. I don't really like the feel of the rosewood ones. So, I prefer the maple in a Silo Spec. I think the same thing about the ASS.

Also, I buy into the tonal difference belief. On the AL, I think I like the way the rosewood sounds with the SSS. I think I could go with maple on the MM90s. Feel-wise, well...I'd have to try them again. It's been a long time since I've tried the rosewood on a 2006LE.

So, am I totally wrong in all of this? Well, maybe.

 

[candid_x]

I feel like the rosewood Silo Specs I've tried have a flatter feel to the neck than the maple ones. I don't really like the feel of the rosewood ones. So, I prefer the maple in a Silo Spec.

Rob, not sure what you mean by flatter. My rosewood felt like the edges were cut a bit sharper, if that's what you mean? That's rounded out since playing it, cleaning it, etc. It's more broken in. My maple one felt broken in from the get-go.

 

[whitestrat]

right, but even 2 guitars of the same woods, pickups, etc... are likely to sound slightly different...

Heh... THAT'S true...

 

[rlarino]

Heh... THAT'S true...

i sense sarcasm [and ignorance]

 

[roburado]

Rob, not sure what you mean by flatter. My rosewood felt like the edges were cut a bit sharper, if that's what you mean? That's rounded out since playing it, cleaning it, etc. It's more broken in. My maple one felt broken in from the get-go.

Yeah. That's part of it. I also thought that the rosewood Silo Spec neck was a bit more oval than my maple one. I know it probably isn't a huge objective difference in any case, but it's enough that I notice it. I never expected a difference in shape. I expected them to feel exactly the same.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I have Axis guitars with maple and rosewood, and its a very subtle difference. The Rosewood sounds less snappy than the maple.