Maple or Rosewood

[Memphis Soul]

There's hundreds of threads on this *and* we have a cool search function

But I wasn’t a part of those conversations and we all know what it’s thought of to resurrect a zombie thread. It’s getting a lot of responses so obviously we aren’t tired of discussing it.

 

[brookdalebill]

I prefer rosewood.
Ebony is great, too.
For some reason, though I like the appearance of maple, I never bond with all maple necks/fingerboards.

 

[willietheweirdo]

Maple everywhere!!!

Git me ta Cananada!!

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I love both Stratocasters and Telecasters,
but historically my sampling of guitars is very small- despite playing forever, I just don't have an opinion. Like both!

Let's just say that I'd like to have two of each, Rosewood and maple Strat,
and Rosewood and maple Telecaster.

. So I need one more Telecaster to fulfill my goal!
A '60's Telecaster Custom
( Squier CV) would be my choice for RW

* great values for poor guys like me ( own 2 CV's)

 

[Greenstreet]

I prefer rosewood.
Ebony is great, too.
For some reason, though I like the appearance of maple, I never bond with all maple necks/fingerboards.

I agree- for me, part of it is the feel of the raw wood vs the feel of the finished wood- I just like the feel of the wood. Throw a few coats of varnish over rosewood or ebony and I think I'd have the same issue with them.

 

[joebloggs13]

My 2 Strats are RW. I have 2 Teles, 1 Maple, the other, Ebony.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

This thread needs a poll.

I like maple...but would love to try rosewood.

 

[Nicko_Lps]

I both play and work on guitars. Personally I would never own a maple fretboard and I've stopped refretting them.

Here is the last one I refretted.

Refretting a lacquered fretboard

A couple of weeks ago a friend brought his Jazz Base over and asked if I would refret it for him. Altho I've fretted quite a few guitars, I had never done on with a lacquered maple fretboard. Had a couple of opportunities, turned them down. I actually asked here and on another forum what...

www.tdpri.com

They are a hassle to work on, look terrible when the finish starts to wear and I personally don't like the light color. Give me rosewood or ebony any day

I agree 100% with Mr. Keller.

Cant add anything more to this rather than the fretboard is the guitar part that takes the most abuse and it needs a really hard and dense hardwood.

Unless someone has "Paco De Lucia"(R.I.P.) right hand nails on his left hand... Rosewoods and specially Ebony is completely immune to wear over the years.

But hey... Some pay for relic-ing a finish, personally i get nautilus when i see a maple fretboard missing half of its finish.

 

[black_doug]

Ebony.

My very first Fender had an ebony board, in the 80s. I now have maple on both of my Telecasters because ebony hasn’t been available again til recently.

 

[Alaska Mike]

Of the 25 or so Telecasters I owned in the last 10 years, all but six had rosewood fingerboards. One maple, one ebony, two Indian laurel, and two pao ferro. The maple was a flipper Player, the ebony was on a Acoustasonic, the laurels were Squier Classic Vibes, and the pao ferros were my failed attempts to adjust to CITES.

I have been a rosewood fan since the mid-‘80s when I wore through the fretboard finish on my Ibanez Roadstar II and bought my first Tele. Indian Laurel when oiled gives a close look and feel, but it’s never quite the same. It’s mental more than anything else- which is still a valid reason for favoring something. Pao ferro looks and feels plastic to me. Ebony is ok on the right guitar, but has never seemed appropriate to me on a “utilitarian”Telecaster- kind of like multi-ply body binding or a bound fretboard. All subjective, of course.

On other brands I’ve had Richlite and a couple exotic woods, but they never did it for me.

 

[toanhunter]

maple is okay if it's finished with 2k poly but I'm not keen on nitro on maple fretboards, I prefer one piece necks when it's maple than a capped neck and quartersawn as well is worth the extra money.

 

[Memphis Soul]

Of the 25 or so Telecasters I owned in the last 10 years, all but six had rosewood fingerboards. One maple, one ebony, two Indian laurel, and two pao ferro. The maple was a flipper Player, the ebony was on a Acoustasonic, the laurels were Squier Classic Vibes, and the pao ferros were my failed attempts to adjust to CITES.

I have been a rosewood fan since the mid-‘80s when I wore through the fretboard finish on my Ibanez Roadstar II and bought my first Tele. Indian Laurel when oiled gives a close look and feel, but it’s never quite the same. It’s mental more than anything else- which is still a valid reason for favoring something. Pao ferro looks and feels plastic to me. Ebony is ok on the right guitar, but has never seemed appropriate to me on a “utilitarian”Telecaster- kind of like multi-ply body binding or a bound fretboard. All subjective, of course.

On other brands I’ve had Richlite and a couple exotic woods, but they never did it for me.

Check out this Indian laurel fretboard on this Classic Vibe 60s Custom Tele I recently sold. It is the darkest one I have ever seen. It was not treated with anything. It looked very much like rosewood. I hated selling this Tele and shouldn’t have. It had Fender Pure Vintage 64 pickups installed in it. It was a great guitar but had a flaw in the finish that I just couldn’t unsee.

 

[dougstrum]

I'm not too particular about fretboard material.
I have two teles with ebony and one with maple and another with rosewood.
Ebony and maple are probably most durable. I've worn divots in rosewood on an old Gibson I had for years.
It's cool the way maple shows your fretting patterns after years of playing.

 

[Fuggle]

I like the headstock to match the fretboard, so it's maple all day. Rosewood is for heathens (unless it's a painted headstock).

 

[MichaelD83]

Saw this and thought it was absolutely preposterous

 

[gwjensen]

I always end up with maple... I don't have anything against rosewood, and I think dark ones with clay dots look great, but I play them before I buy them, and the maple ones always seem to win out... probably because I like 50's U and V carves, and those tend to be maple, so it has more to do with the carve and not the material.

 

[sjtalon]

Rosewood, ftmp, (depeding on body color) just for the looks of it.

 

[43mmNut]

Maple - I like Rosewood too, but I can see the fretboard easier with a Maple board

 

[Alaska Mike]

Check out this Indian laurel fretboard on this Classic Vibe 60s Custom Tele I recently sold. It is the darkest one I have ever seen. It was not treated with anything. It looked very much like rosewood. I hated selling this Tele and shouldn’t have. It had Fender Pure Vintage 64 pickups installed in it. It was a great guitar but had a flaw in the finish that I just couldn’t unsee.

Laurel just looks dry compared to rosewood, probably because of a lower oil content. I think dark examples can be quite nice if treated.
I have let all of my Classic Vibe ‘60s go for weight (heavy), neck stability (humidity), and looks (grain pattern).

I'm not too particular about fretboard material.
I have two teles with ebony and one with maple and another with rosewood.
Ebony and maple are probably most durable. I've worn divots in rosewood on an old Gibson I had for years.
It's cool the way maple shows your fretting patterns after years of playing.

Most rosewood has a higher janka hardness than maple, although not as hard as ebony. I have always liked that in between look and feel.

Maple - I like Rosewood too, but I can see the fretboard easier with a Maple board

Funny, I can see polished frets against a dark fretboard easier.

 

[DanteNHK]

I love both, ebony too. It's a visual thing where you should choose with the final result already defined. BS really looks strange with Rosewood, but at least for me, that's the only exception.