Maple vs Rosewood fretboard... which do you like?

I like them both, and I also like ebony fretboards as well.

The ones I like the most are the ones that stay in tune.

 

maple -- blonde
rosewood -- brunette
ebony -- raven haired beauty

 

Maple, but only in a satin finish. Gloss finish feels too sticky. Satin wears smooth over time and feels really nice.

 

I like 'em both. For no particular reason. My Strat rings like a [emoji348] w/ maple and my Teles twang like nobody's business with rosewood. Depends on your preference I guess...

 

Maple on my Fenders. But now that I've owned a couple Gibbys over the last 5 years or so I'm more open to rosewood on Fenders also

 

Gotta have both. No particular favorite. OK, throw in a couple of ebony boards just to keep things interesting.

 

In this order of goodness:
Ebony
Maple
Rosewood

Yet I don't know if I could tell the difference blindfolded, so it may just be that I prefer the aesthetics of ebony followed by maple and followed by rosewood. But it also depends on the color of the rest of the guitar. So really I'll take whatever and like it.

 

I'm nowhere near good enough to be able to tell the difference as a player. However, aesthetically, I do seem to prefer darker woods - if my guitar collection is anything to go by.

 

I think telecasters should have maple fretboards. If it doesn't have a maple board it should be called something else. ;-)

That said, the Daphne Blue Nashville "telecaster" with rosewood board is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

 

We've been calling them the wrong thing since 1959! Mistakes for 58 years!

 

Maple on tele's just feel right to me... something simple about the look that just adds to the charm of a tele, which is a model of genius in simplicity.

 

I like (and have) both... depending on the color of the guitar.

 

Hmmm, what wood would a redhead be, I wonder?

 

I have a one piece Indian Rosewood neck on my Tele... It plays wonderfully, sounds great, and looks even better. I have two other Teles with Maple necks. Fine guitars and the sound fine but the one with the Rosewood neck is the go-to guitar and the only one I perform with. As important as tone is, I don't notice any appreciable difference... the feel of the neck, the looks, and the "soul" of the guitar... the experience of playing it is just different. Admittedly, it is probably more sentimental than anything else, but it is something I "hear" and expereience.

 

Redwood, of course.

 

I read somewhere maple boards are more difficult and expensive for fret replacement work. Rosewood is easier therefore cheaper for the job.

For sound quality - maple supposed to be brighter and rosewood darker. It would be good to have both.

 

I wonder how much people hear with their eyes. I've listened to YouTube demos where I heard the opposite: a neck was swapped and the rosewood fretboard had more high mids.

What would be cool would be a split fretboard: one wood for EAD, one for GBE. We could argue which wood for what side!

 

Having done the blindfold test, my hands genuinely can't tell the difference. I think a lot of that is a psychological thing. However. I prefer rosewood these days because it's easier to refret.

 

I’m of the same opinion as you. Rosewood feels better to me, but Maple sounds better. I even went to the trouble of changing fretwire on my rosewood fretboard neck from a medium to more of a jumbo or medium-jumbo. StewMacs 149 wire. And it did not change the thin sound of the rosewood fretboard. So, unfortunately I am putting the Maple fretboard neck back on and I will try to live with that.


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Wow, this thread's been dormant for a while. But since we're on the subject, I usually have a slight preference for the look and feel of maple. But I don't have a problem with rosewood and I think it looks better on a light color guitar. In fact my new sonic blue Tele, that I will be picking up in a few days, has a rosewood fretboard.