Fretboards

There is so much discussion on guitar forums re: fretboard wood.

While ebony is way more slippery and feels different than rosewood when bending strings, and some wood is more durable than others, I doubt there is any perceptible difference in the tone of a guitar based on the fretboard wood.

One way fretboard wood is definitely important is in figuring which model a guitar is. Tokai would often specify fretboard wood which can be one way to differentiate say an LC60 and an LC100.

So figuring out the fretboard wood helps me in trying to figure out what model a guitar might be, which then can give me clues as to how a guitar, that is across the planet, might sound.

A Brazilian rosewood fretboard won’t make a guitar sound better, but it may give us a clue as to what care was used in building it and what is under the hood.

My two cents. 8)

Noticeable difference in tone between a maple and rosewood board on similar guitars (strat, tele)

there is an ole saying; "tone is in the hands" but tone is also in the ears :wink:

marcusnieman said:

Noticeable difference in tone between a maple and rosewood board on similar guitars (strat, tele)

Click to expand...

Really? I’ve never noticed a difference.

I have a maple neck Fender Strat, a maple neck ST100, and a rosewood ST80, etc. They are all different guitars with different woods for the bodies, etc., so I don’t have "apples" to compare with "apples".

But I don’t see how a fretboard would perceptibly influence tone. The strings are stopped by the fret wire. The sound comes from the string vibrating primarily.

I know the vibration goes down into the wood of the body, and perhaps the wood holding the frets (the fretboard) and affects the vibration through the neck (versus the vibration of the strings) that the pickups capture? I dunno.

Anyway, that’s a surprise to me. I always thought of fretboards as passive.

I fully admit that different neck materials feel different, which affects how my fretting fingers move and bend notes.

So let's assume that the fretboard wood affects tone, then it’s not a stretch to say that the glue holding the board to the neck could as well since any sound traveling through the fretboard makes a sort of circuit through the neck to the body, the bridge, the strings and to the pickups. And any voids in the glue holding the fretboard to the neck, which would be a conductor, would influence tone as well it seems, as a seller suggested a while back in a post I linked in another thread.

And to take it a step further, how about your hand on the back of the neck, or the back of the guitar resting against your body? Would those things absorb/affect tone as well?

The question I guess becomes is it noticeable? Is it relevant?

Think I’ll see if anyone has done side by side comparisons.

https://youtu.be/GRuk0vdoeeg

I hate to say it, but they sound the same to me. If there is a difference it is not perceptible to my ears.

Of course they definitely feel different, which I said in my original post, and that then affects how you as the one playing the guitar experience it and how you then play, but that’s not the wood directly affecting the tone.

Oh, and if you want some entertainment, read the comments on the video I linked. :lol:

Good video .... to my ears, there was a perceptible difference on the neck pickup and the lower strings being used for the chords and double stops. The maple board sounded brighter than the rosewood board. As for the middle and bridge pickups, he was playing more single note riffs on the high strings and they sounded pretty much the same.

I have done an A/B comparison between my two twin 1980 ST80's - one maple and one rosewood. Same pickups, same set up, same everything - played both at the same vol/tone levels on the guitar and on the amp. Again, to my ears the maple sounded brighter with a bit more snap.

Cool. Any chance you recorded it and can share?

I have some mild hearing loss and have no idea what I’m not hearing, so this is interesting.

Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately I didn't record it ..... should probably do that.

It occurred to me that the age and cleanliness of the strings can also add to tonal variances - obviously new or newish strings are much brighter and snappy than strings that have been played for awhile. That can also affect how any fingerboard type sounds

Yeah, I liked the video I posted because it was the same strings and everything else except the necks.