It just occurred to me; why are maple fingerboards so much less popular these days?

[Jim C]

If you go back to the beginnings of Fender, the fingerboards were maple.
As I recall, they produced more rosewood boards in the 60’s but I think the 70’s brought back a resurgence in maple and perhaps was the most popular.

I like maple; I find it easier to locate hand position and it has less maintenance.
If I can hear a difference between the two, I think maple has slightly more clarity although I find that a particular bass has a lot more to do with this than the fingerboard material.
I own bases with both.

I don’t notice any tactile difference.
Wouldn’t it be less expensive to have a maple board as opposed to laminating rosewood on top?
For that matter, wouldn’t gluing another piece of lumber on top of the neck reduce resonance and sustain?

With all of this said, 95% of the basses for sale in the classifieds have non-maple boards.
Gibson, Rick, and a zillion other companies barely get involved with anything other than rosewood or exotic woods.
Curious to see what you guys think of the above.
Do you think that players just prefer the look of a darker board?

 

[Marial]

I certainly do (prefer the look of darker fingerboard wood). I've had one bass with a maple fingerboard, a '73 Precision with an 'A' neck. Couldn't get on with it.

 

[Double E]

The majority of basses I've owned have had dark wood FB's but the last 4 I have purchased have maple FB's... am I bucking the trend?

Aesthetically I go both ways, it really depends on the overall finish and design of the instrument.

I am in the camp that dismisses any significant sonic differences. Also, very many basses with maple FB's actually do have a separate maple fretboard glued on in the same fashion as a rosewood or other board. I doubt there is any discernable loss of sustain or resonance.

 

[bholder]

There are those who will swear that maple is brighter, and there are those who will swear it makes no difference. I think it does, slightly, more on a fretless. There is definitely a feel difference on fretless. But it's a subjective thing... I think folks generally just want the darker look.

 

[DDXdesign]

Maple is my favorite with frets! (Ebony, without)

 

[Doctor J]

I used to prefer rosewood or ebony but now I just don't care. I can't hear a difference in a mix between them. A P bass still sounds like a P bass, a Stingray still sounds like a Stingray, regardless of fretboard wood. Any perceived brightness can be dealt with by a miniscule tweak of the tone control. Once it works and plays well it could be made out of baked unicorn tears for all I care.

 

[lz4005]

Wouldn’t it be less expensive to have a maple board as opposed to laminating rosewood on top?

Depending on wood availability, it can be less expensive to manufacture, yes. But the trade off is that it's more expensive to re-fret. And they end up looking "bad" easier if the finish wears through. Both those contributed to Fender switching to rosewood. Leo didn't like seeing instruments with wear marks on the necks. Thought it made the company look bad.

It's more complicated than that, though. In the 50's they used a solid maple neck with the truss rod put in through a channel in the back. Later it was a separate maple board glued on and the rod put in through the front. Different tooling, etc.

The idea with Fender's original designs was that the necks would be more or less disposable. If there was a problem, just unscrew it and put on another one.
They weren't intended to outlive the frets.

With all of this said, 95% of the basses for sale in the classifieds have non-maple boards.

That just means that people aren't holding on to them. Not a great gauge of popularity.

 

[amusicalperson]

I used to prefer rosewood or ebony but now I just don't care. I can't hear a difference in a mix between them. A P bass still sounds like a P bass, a Stingray still sounds like a Stingray, regardless of fretboard wood. Any perceived brightness can be dealt with by a miniscule tweak of the tone control. Once it works and plays well it could be made out of baked unicorn tears for all I care.

I too find myself going for the "Well, it doesn't really matter if I can't hear a difference in the mix" attitude lately. Glad I'm not alone!

 

[thunderkyss]

It was SRV for me. He preferred Rosewood fingerboards on his guitars, then I started preferring rosewood fingerboards on my guitars, then I bought a bass & though I don't know that I hear or feel a difference, I prefer rosewood.

 

[TinIndian]

Actually , I always preferred rosewood necks until the last few years. Now it depends on the bass and what I want out of it. I hear a distinct difference between a maple board and a rosewood one. To my ears, Maple has more snap and Rosewood is more mellow.

 

[fjadams]

I think it must be because that the wood for making them is cheaper is why so many are released with rosewood.

I prefer maple/maple but most of mine are rosewood.

 

[mpdd]

i had an aversion to maple necks, because of my super sticky and stained grabber neck, however the oiled maple neck on my 90s LB100 is amazing and it's a little more caramel colored with a nice subtle grain pattern that i like to look at sometimes

 

[Solarmist]

I used to prefer rosewood or ebony but now I just don't care. I can't hear a difference in a mix between them. A P bass still sounds like a P bass, a Stingray still sounds like a Stingray, regardless of fretboard wood. Any perceived brightness can be dealt with by a miniscule tweak of the tone control. Once it works and plays well it could be made out of baked unicorn tears for all I care.

A fresh set of strings does wonders as well

 

[Laklandfan]

I like the looks of Rosewood/Ebony with most finishes. But sometimes Maple looks good; like the 51-56 Single coil P basses,natural ash Jazz, and fretless P basses in the 70's. Same for guitar; certain finishes match well. Love a blonde tele with maple.

 

[petrus61]

I never realized how much I liked maple until I was without a maple FB bass for so long. My next purchase will likely be a maple FB precision. Then I'll play it for 5yrs and start to wonder why I don't have a RW fingerboard and start to feel like I'm missing out on something. In all seriousness though, I'm definitely partial to maple board Precisions from a tone/feel standpoint (yep, I'm one of THOSE people) but it does seem to limit the aesthetic possibilities that I tend to favor.

 

[AltGrendel]

I'm pretty much in the same camp as @Double E.

Most of my basses have dark fingerboards because that's what they came with. I have a Warmoth fretless neck with an ebony board because it was on sale. I have a '77 Oly white Jazz with a maple neck, one piece with a skunk stripe. Love 'em all.

 

[Gougedeye]

I used to prefer rosewood over maple. Now it does not matter. A good bass is a good bass, regardless of what fingerboard is on it. There are certain combinations that look better, from a purely visual perspective, but generally I can get along with both in any combination.

 

[zisme]

maple is my preference for aesthetics and feel
ebony second
rosewood third

love the satin finish on my brute's maple neck

ironically, my #1 guitar (gibson sg morte) has none of the above. it has an obeche fingerboard which i would describe as being somewhere in between ebony and rosewood

 

[40Hz]

I think it's just 90% the current fashion preference, with the remaining 10% being driven by the people who are into the whole "wood" thing.

Funny, but back in the 50s/60s/70s there was very little (if any) mention of the actual woods used in all those 'vintage' basses now commanding top dollar. General consensus (by the makers and the players both back then) was that it didn't matter with a solidbody one way or another which wood you used for anything from a tonal perspective. Wood was all about looks and durability. Not sound.

I guess the human race evolved over the years, and has since developed additional hearing capabilities most humans didn't posses 30 to 40 years ago. And that's a wonderful thing, I think.

About the only difference I've noticed (on a fretted neck) is that rosewood feels a little less hard when you fret a note if you're the type of player that likes to press down hard on your strings.

On a fretless neck, the different types of wood do change the "mwah" characteristic. You get the same mwah, however you do have to adjust your playing slightly to get it. But since you need to do that when switching between different fretless basses anyway, I'm not 100% convinced that the actual wood makes that much difference, even there.

Or so says my own experience. Which is far from gospel. So just like with anything else concerning the electric bass, don't forget - YMMV.

 

[aaronious]

Because the darker the berry the sweeter the juice. And rosewood sound better, IMHO.