Wood used in guitar neck/fingerboard

Randy Shafter

Hello again folks. A quick question out of curiosity. The wood used on guitars neck/fingerboard is usually rosewood or maple. Is there any differences in sound or feel associated with each type of wood?

brownacid

There is a definate feel difference, as far as tone would go you would get a darker tone using a rosewood fretboard as opposed to the bright tone you would generally get from maple. But as with anything you should try everything out and go with what you think feels right for you.

ball ox

They certainly feel different, rosewood is harder. I think you can hear a clear difference too although other people would say otherwise. The best example would be to play a rosewood strat against a maple strat with pickups at the 2nd position and you'll see straight away. Maple always reminds me of Hendrix's tone, mellow, while rosewood reminds me of Rory Gallagher's, a bit more bite.

Randy Shafter

Just letting ye's know, im not thinking of buying a guitar with a rosewood/maple fingerboard. I was just curious to see if there was any difference between them when it comes to sound and feel etc.

Eoin Madsen

Maple is a denser wood, which generally lends to a brighter tone. Maple has to be finished so it tends to feel harder and less woody than rosewood.