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Posted by: PlayAllDay Dec 20 2007, 12:11 AM

I normally play on rosewood - have once or twice played a friends guitar with maple, and have been playing my White Falcon a lot recently which has ebony. I'm starting to think I prefer the feel of ebony, wondering what others think regarding fingerboard woods. It would be great if some instructors would chime in with some opinions....

Posted by: Smikey2006 Dec 20 2007, 12:16 AM

Rosewood .. Its what im putting on my custom guitar.. i never even considerred the others

Posted by: jeff Dec 20 2007, 12:17 AM

I have both, but I prefer maple because it seems to be easier to slide - which fits my style.

Posted by: Smells Dec 20 2007, 12:30 AM

hmm, I have both, I really like the maple fingerboard but rosewood is harder wearing and all my guitars previously apart from the strat has had rosewood so its really my preference.

Posted by: Muris Dec 20 2007, 12:39 AM

I have Maple and Rosewood too,both are great in specific way,
hard to decide which one I like more
Must get another custom,with Maple this time

Posted by: PlayAllDay Dec 20 2007, 12:55 AM

Muris what is it you prefer about each wood - if you don't mind being more specific?
And Smells what qualities is it you prefer about playing on maple? Also Smells I like your avatar - groovy

Posted by: Muris Dec 20 2007, 12:59 AM

Well Maple is surely more bright,and I like both bright and "unbright"

Posted by: Xranthoius Dec 20 2007, 01:05 AM

I dont know the difference at all!

Posted by: swingline Dec 20 2007, 01:31 AM

Maple feel a bit easier to slide on not to mentions how cool it looks.

Posted by: Smells Dec 20 2007, 01:37 AM

As Muris says, the sound is brighter, also the maple finish is a little smoother, strange really, sometimes when I`m playing something on my Jackson (rosewood) and its just not coming together I pick up my Strat (maple) and I play it straight off, I dont know if its all in the mind, but to me there is a big difference between the two, I experience the same thing the other way around too, it depends on what I`m playing, the two guitars have such different sounds.

Posted by: PlayAllDay Dec 20 2007, 08:51 AM

In a wierd fortuitous coincidence I went by a friends today who got me to play his new toy - a Blade with a solid maple body.
So bright I had to wear sunglasses
But I liked it very much.

Posted by: MickeM Dec 20 2007, 09:28 AM

Maple fretboard together with a fat humbucker sounds nice but I prefer Rosewood, seems more balanced while maple gets too bright.

I never played Ebony.

Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Dec 20 2007, 10:07 AM

I like the sound of a rosewood, but feel of a maple.

Posted by: bricktop Dec 20 2007, 05:06 PM

Well for acoustic guitars I only like ebony, I guess it's no coincedence all three of mine have ebony boards. I think after the first one I was looking more for aesthetics other than saying " I have to have an ebony board."
As far as electric, I just picked rosewood to go with my 3 tone sunburst strat, again mostly just on what I liked to look at. In the end there's not much differnence, only in your mind...

Pau ferro is on the SRV signature strat, well the first runs had brazillian rosewood, but that was before the crackdown on limiting the exotic wood...

Posted by: David.C.Bond Dec 20 2007, 07:08 PM

Ebony all the way! I just love the feel of it, and in my opinion it looks far better than the other woods, especially when combined with white binding!

Although I must say maple does look awesome on strats and the like.

Posted by: McGoo Dec 20 2007, 09:08 PM

I think the rosewood looks the best but I prefer the maple to play.
It's probably all in my head though

Posted by: kevin-riff-after-riff Dec 21 2007, 10:28 PM

rosewood looks bit crummy and so does ebony (which they use for violin fingerboard as well!) maple looks the nicest although im sure there is something about rosewood thats better than maple (anyone know?) coz they use rosewood for shred guitars so it must have some connection,
but the favourite i ever played is my tc-90 it is glossy rosewood which is gd coz it has both maple feel whilst being rosewood

Posted by: stratman33 Dec 21 2007, 11:39 PM

id go with maple, it's easier to slide and looks cooler IMO