Maple or rosewood - Which & why?

[johncowan]

Jeremy,

It's really wierd that you say that, but I could tell the difference between the necks with my eyes closed. *It's probably mostly from a bending/vibrato where I feel the biggest difference. *Lord knows I'm no VAI so maybe I'm white knuckling the neck a bit much!

As for the tone I have to disagree. *I notice significant tone differences between stock JEMS using the same preset effects sounds/processing tools. *Maybe you are right, maybe it's not attributed to fingerboard material as much as I'd like to think. *This topic always intrigues me, because I'm amazed at the tonal differences across the JEM and Ibanez RG line. *Any further insight from other forum members would be appreciated and probably useful for those doing custom projects.

[littlegreenman]

Quote: from johncowan on 1:01 pm on Mar. 22, 2001
Jeremy,

It's really wierd that you say that, but I could tell the difference between the necks with my eyes closed. *It's probably mostly from a bending/vibrato where I feel the biggest difference. *Lord knows I'm no VAI so maybe I'm white knuckling the neck a bit much!

Oh yeah, I can definitly tell the difference with feel, but only if I was to sit there and feel them. *When I play, I don't notice it though. *Between my DY (maple) FP (rosewood) and VWH (ebony) if it wasn't for the neck profiles being slightly different from each other and the different sounds, playing, I probably couldn't tell you what guitar it was based on the fretboard. *As far as the white knuckling thing goes, I can feel the fretboard a little when chording, but when doing runs, or bends, I don't use much pressure towards the fretboard. *I've always looked at it as, if I can see a line in my finger from the string, I'm pushing to hard. *I just think it's faster that way.
As far as tonal differences go. *I personally think most of the other factors I already mentioned would affect tone more than the fretboard. *I guess the only way to check would be to remove the fretboard off of a guitar, change nothing else, and replace it with a different type of wood, but I'm not willing to try it :biggrin:
Jeremy

[Purplehaze]

Those opinions were really appriciated, guys. *After much deliberating I sent of my cheque and confirmed the order of my new Jem.

What did I get? *Was it maple, was it rosewood?....

I couldnt help myself...it was ebony! *The 7VWH won my heart over, and now I've got to play the long, lonely waiting game till I take delivery next week *My only consolation in the meantime is all that chocolate over the easter weekend! :silly:

[jemsite]

[mushroomheadrg7]

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[stevencarpenter666]

To me maple seems to make my fingers stick to the strings. I was elixers and still have my fingers stick. I also think maple is to bright of a wood. Rosewood sounds darker and you can oil the fingerboard and fly.