Thin vs. thick fingerboards?

[kraftwer1]

My 30yr old Fender Jazz fretless needs a fretboard leveling, so I brought it to my luthier today. After analyzing it, he concluded that previous owners have already leveled it a number of times and he said that soon, there won‘t be much wood left. In my case, it‘s rosewood.

He explained that the resonance between the two woods (the fingerboard and the neck) have a huge imact on the sound, especially on the sustain, and that a too thin fingerboard can have a negative impact.

Interestingly, though, he also mentioned that many players prefer thin fingerboards.

Please note that I‘m not talking about neck profile here (though the thickness of the fingerboard obviously has an impact on it).

Now I‘m wondering:
What do you prefer? And why is it better?

 

[Slidlow]

Not as much of an impact as your luthier thinks.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Well I’m pretty sure I’ve heard some builders say in respect to fender slab vs curved/veneer boards is that slab is warmer and veneer is brighter due to the thickness of rosewood compared to the maple neck.

I don’t know if I buy that, but my preference is to have a nice sized slab for the exact reason you mentioned - more material available to level down the line.

I also don’t like too thin a board for side dot location.

As a builder I’d feel bad up charging a customer for an exotic fretboard to then give them a 1/16” veneer board.

 

[Raoul_Duke]

I’ve actually thought about this a bit. My favorite bass has a round laminate board, and I’ve toyed with the idea of putting together a parts bass with similar specs. The like the -idea- of the slab fingerboard, but I also can’t argue with the fact that my favorite bass has a veneer.

Truthfully, I doubt that it matters that much, and I’d probably go with a slab board for practical reasons listed above. The veneer can be an upcharge as well.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

It's not really about resonance between woods or anything like that. It's about the overall stiffness of the neck. When you trim thickness off the fingerboard, the neck gets thinner in cross-section and becomes softer; it bends easier under load. This can change the sound on the strings, reducing sustain, reducing clarity of the bottom end, etc. Maybe you like that change in the sound, or maybe not.

Putting on a new thicker fingerboard, of any wood, will make the neck stiffer.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I think Bruce is on to something here. I mean, with modern electronics I hesitate any time someone says "the wood sounds different". If I crank my pre-amp to the treble side, feed it through all my pedals and then tweak my amp to the treble side, I can make any wood cut through a mix.