Maple or Rosewood

[glenlivet]

Tele's - maple all the way.
Strats - I can go either way.

 

[daddyplaysbass]

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

When I played Honky Tonks in the "60's -- "70' that's the reason my Jazz Bass had a maple fingerboard, plus it looks nicer ! Both of my Fender basses have maple, the Epi Semihollow has a dark fingerboard.

 

[Maguchi]

Yes!

 

[TeleBluesMan]

Rosewood. I have an Esquire with maple just because. For some reason, I really don’t like ebony.

 

[FRETCOM]

Rosewood fretboards (and brass vs. steel saddles on the bridge). I’m more of a rock player than country.

 

[Gene O.]

No preference.

 

[Obelisk]

I probably prefer maple fingerboard, but I own three Telecasters with rosewood boards. I will play whatever works.

 

[20Fred11]

I prefer rosewood but my Telecaster has a maple neck…..

 

[THX1139]

Ebony, RW, Maple in that order. Some other fretboards here as well, but those are the main ones. Love to have a Tele with Ebony board, but would probably only buy a used one.cause I'm a cheap bastard.

 

[Bob Womack]

For some reason I always seem to come home with rosewood.

Perhaps the best explanation might be that i grew up in the heart of Country Music/Bluegrass/Olde Tyme Music but didn't particularly like it. The Tele "cluck" was forced down my throat with a plunger. So, whenever I'm looking at a Tele I'm thinking Joe Walsh and David Gilmour. Joe uses maple but it sounds like rosewood.

Bob

 

[Vermoulian]

In almost all cases I prefer rosewood, all other things being equal, but my three Fender Teles all have maple necks. One is the AVRI ‘52 in my avatar photo: it’s the best-playing Tele I’ve ever held and it happened to be maple. Two others were FSR limited colors that were only offered with maple necks (an orange sparkle Custom and a Player Series in Electron Green). But I have a rosewood board Warmoth partscaster Tele, and a neck to build another one.

 

[Haolemon]

Which do you prefer on a Tele. I like both equally depending on color . On a Stratocaster I definitely like rosewood better but certain colors of Tele’s look good with either/or. Like 3 color sunburst, I think it looks great with either but I couldn’t imagine a butterscotch blonde with a rosewood board. I just got a 3 color sunburst with a dark chocolaty color pau ferro fretboard and I think it’s beautiful but I had a Player Plus in the same color with maple and it was just as beautiful. Not something that’s overly important but it was just something I had on my mind.

I prefer the rosewood board, as the maple can get slippery when wet While I like ebony on acoustics, I had a G&L Legacy (S-type) made with an ebony board and a satin finish on the neck. It almost too fast, so I prefer rosewood on electrics.

 

[musicmasterfuzz]

Rosewood for me.

 

[zencat]

They say that’s why Leo Fender went to rosewood. He saw one of his maple board guitars on tv with its worn out finish and was disgusted with it. I always liked the worn out look as long as it comes naturally.

If Leo only knew you would be paying $$$$ for that look nowadays!

 

[fowlermike54]

Non-bound Daphne Blue Tele with a RW board hanging on my wall gives me a chubby every time I look at it. Yes, I’m weird like that.

 

[JBurton]

I’ve always been a maple guy be it Tele or Strat, but after all these past decades something clicked within me and I finally fell in love with rosewood necks. So just this year I bought a honey burst American Performer Telecaster. It’s so perty.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

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

Nice work and nicely documented.

I believe that I would understand the possible consequences to the finish on a maple board during a refret. I have one that was refretted and it was far from perfect. I'm ok with that. By the time it needs a refret the board has likely taken on some wear anyway.

I feel that a cosmetically perfect maple refret would probably require finish work most of the time and should be quoted accordingly?

Anyway, enjoyed the read.

 

[helmiriffs]

Rosewood (on everything)

 

[Freeman Keller]

Nice work and nicely documented.

I believe that I would understand the possible consequences to the finish on a maple board during a refret. I have one that was refretted and it was far from perfect. I'm ok with that. By the time it needs a refret the board has likely taken on some wear anyway.

I feel that a cosmetically perfect maple refret would probably require finish work most of the time and should be quoted accordingly?

Anyway, enjoyed the read.

I think that should be discussed with the tech doing the work. I've heard of some people pulling the old frets and replacing without doing any finish work, some doing minimal work, and some like me doing the whole thing. At the time I did that bass the going rate for a maple refret was close to 400 bucks, I have no idea what it is now.

The whole thing can be complicated by binding, frets that are pressed in from the side, compound radius boards, yadda yadda. My friend was very happy with his bass and I might consider doing another for a friend but in general I would probably not.

ps - a roasted neck with no finish might be an exception, I haven't been asked to refret one yet, I would want to look at it closely.

 

[Terrygh1949]

Which do you prefer on a Tele. I like both equally depending on color . On a Stratocaster I definitely like rosewood better but certain colors of Tele’s look good with either/or. Like 3 color sunburst, I think it looks great with either but I couldn’t imagine a butterscotch blonde with a rosewood board. I just got a 3 color sunburst with a dark chocolaty color pau ferro fretboard and I think it’s beautiful but I had a Player Plus in the same color with maple and it was just as beautiful. Not something that’s overly important but it was just something I had on my mind.

Maple