Rosewood vs maple fretboard on bass: Is there a sound difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- The difference in sound between a rosewood and a maple fretboard is a topic that is often debated. To bring some clarity to the issue I decided to make a reasonably scientific test. In this video I played the same stuff two times with the exact same gear except for the neck on the bass. The bass i a Squier Classic Vibe 60s Precision with a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 pickup and D'Addario nickel wound 45-105 strings. The replacement neck is from Hosco in Japan. The bass was recorded straight in to a Focusrite Scarlett audio interface and in to Logic Pro. No EQ has been added to the sound, just a bit of compression.
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God bless you for doing an ACTUAL comparison.
0:12 ROSEWOOD TRIGGER FINGER
1:10 MAPLE TRIGGER FINGER
1:54 PICKY ROSEWOOD
2:31 PICKY MAPLE
3:09 ROSEWOOD SLAP DOMESTIC ABUSE I'M CALLING THE POLICE
3:43 MAPLE SLAP DOMESTIC ABUSE I'M CALLING THE POLICE
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE TIMESTAMPS AND FOR SAYING THEM OUT LOUD LIKE THIS, I'M NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER SO MY HEARING'S NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
lptomtom DID YOU FORGET TO WEAR PROPER HEARING PROTECTION WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? MY PARENTS ALWAYS TOLD ME TO USE PROTECTION BUT I NEVER LISTENED.
I THINK THE DOMESTIC ABUSE COMPARISON SHOWS SOME BRIGHTNESS IN THE MAPLE BUT THAT COULD BE A RESULT OF LOOSENING AND RE-TIGHTENING THE STRINGS
subschool5 z
Such a subtle difference that you'd probably never notice it in a mix. Been going back and forth. I like the look of maple necks better but I (think) I like the rosewood tone more. Could all be in my head.
When i look at it, yes. But when i listen to it, i cannot even tell the difference
Between a career as a Jet Engine Mechanic in the US Navy, my love of Guns and top it off with Rock and Country cranked to full volume my hearing ain't what it used to be. That being said I do believe the Maple sounded brighter than the Rosewood. I would have to pick the Rosewood for its sound, but I love the look of the Maple. I would say play what you like because if your playing a gig at a bar or night club the people listening won't be able to tell the difference.
they probably wouldn't know the difference between a Squire and a pre CBS P-bass, but what they would notice is a player more engaged and enthused because they are one with the instrument instead of wrestling with the instruments shortcomings.
That’s a beautiful sounding squire.
most of them sound great but people only buy items to legitimize themselves, not musical instruments
Maple neck on the P Bass Rosewood on the J bass
Quest Cowboyz 6 Haha I literally go for the exact opposite. Maple on Jazz bass and Rosewood on P bass.
I slap alot on my Jazz though, and in my honest opinion a Fender Jazz bass with a maple fretboard used for slapping is prime.
The rosewood neck has a slightly fuller tone than the maple imo.
It sounds punchy, brighter and rounder with the maple fretboard. More clarity and precision coming out of the bass as you play it. Thank you! Good job!
Thanks, you're welcome.
it's really hard to tell the difference, for me it's always just been a feel and cosmetic issue more than a tone one. thanks for the video
Very good comparison
Thanks!
With the exception of one minute detail, this is a comparison done right. Same pickup, body, electronics, tuners... same strings... But Whenever the strings that sit on a bass for some time and get taken off and put back on - the strings winding contracts and moves the gunk aside. That gives a noticeable treble increase. If you would nice to see a reverse - maple first, rosewood second - with maple + 2 week strings, and maple + same strings reapplied. The later assembly will still sound ''brighter''. Also, with freshly strung strings, even same set on both necks, the tone difference is invisible. The looks differ though
Yes, it's true that removing the strings gives them a little more brightness. Before I recorded the rosewood parts though, I released the tension on the strings completely and tuned them up to pitch again to counteract this phenomenon.
Spot on mate!
Andreas Brink
releasing the strings tension huh. does that brighten the sound? can I get the sane results on any neck
Oh, the difference is so subtle, got to be crazy to really care about it.
By the way, I loved the video. I missed some quick comparing, like editing the video so we could hear a 1s lick one right after the other.
These groves you are playing serve as super good bass lessons! Thank you.
I'm glad they are of use to you.
the maple neck looks so good on that bass! nice groove too!
I think there a difference although very slight. Any discernible difference would be utterly lost when played alongside two guitars, drums and vocals.I like maple for no other reason than it's easier to see the neck in low light conditions.
thank you for doing this video, me personally I could not tell the difference
I think it s all down to player preference, I've got a 2012 fender P bass with
maple neck. just love it.
You're welcome!
I have a 1989 Fender Squier 2 Pbass with a maple neck and I love the way a maple neck feels!
I love theese Maple vs Rosewood stuff on electric instrument... You'll hear bigger difference with different strings, pickup height, string height, pickups, room, eq, basically everything will make bigger difference than wood when it comes to an electric instrument, specially fretboard wood, and even if it makes any difference - as soon as you start playing with drums or guitar you won't be able to tell a difference even if you're super human, also that "i can hear that maple is brighter" can be simply because of completely loosing your strings then tuning them again after changing neck. That usually happens, you can try it.
I agree with you. While there seem to be some slight differences between the rosewood and maple, it's hardly noticeable. I'm not the best judge, perhaps, as my old ears have lost a lot of the high frequency range. But as you point out, once you put this in a live band context, I doubt anyone could tell the difference in a blind test. My takeaway: play whichever one feels the best and looks the best to you.
Sorry dude but anybody can hear blatantly that the slapping on the rosewood fretboard is substantially fuller than on the maple fretboard, now whether or not to you that matters is only for you to decide, but the truth is that it makes a noticeable difference: i could do a blind test with ease and tell the difference from each section depending on whether the slapping is happening on rosewood or maple. On top of this you're hearing an instrument that is amplified through a cheapo Squier P pickup as opposed to a jazz pick up setup which is not exactly the best to "reveal" or make the differences more obvious, and i'm not even sure his tone knob is fully open either.
For information, as is stated in the video description, this bass has a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 pickup. Both volume and tone are turned all the way up.
i wish i had an unrefined ear like you!! would save me a lot of money. if you cant hear the difference you either havent trained your ear, or are deaf. if everything makes a difference, than everything makes a difference.
Klaus Smooth get over yourself dude
Have you done the blind test of telling which is which? Knowing a bit about how our perception works, I suspect we project a lot of those differences we supposedly perceive...
I always do blind tests on this videos, so far never failed lol
Rosewood has deeper warmer tones. Maple is thinner and has more pop. I myself love the warmer tones of rosewood. That's the reason I play bass.I love the tones. They get down in my soul.
I’d challenge you (if it was at all possible) to do a blind test as a way of seeing if there was genuinely a sound difference. I say there is not. The reason why rosewood was first introduced was due to maple showing visible wear after a few years...before vintage look was a thing. Classy gig players wanted to look clean and polished. There was no a sound component. I think it’s all in our heads. I’ve had rosewood and maple necks and couldn’t tell you which was which if I was blindfolded.
That’s what people say but I don’t hear that in this demo.
It's simple. For a brighter tone get maple. For a warmer tone get rosewood. Great demo!
Dee Dee Ramone was a friend of mine (I'm a bassist as well). I like the 'feel' of a rosewood fretboard, and he told me he does to - but, if you play hard and you're touring for a long time (playing nearly every night) he said his rosewood fretboards would just get torn up, and eventually nearly fall apart. He said the maple holds up much better, and isn't nearly as affected as much by water/sweat. So, he advised me to use maple - so I do! I advised him to put the instrumental song 'Durango 95' on an album (they didn't have plans to do anything with the song at all), which he did (Too Tough To Die).
how does it feel to have to put somebody else in front of anything you say so that people don´t discredit you immediately? I know this famous person so hear me out, he agrees so IM RIGHT. how sad.
Your Squire with rosewood sounds superb...it makes me buy one:)
the classic vibe Squier p bass, I love it too.
Strings,frets,and pickup location is the determining factor.Fender made a start out of compressed cardboard (video on TH-cam)and even the employees said it sounded like a strat.The point being is regardless of the materials employed in the build the character mainly came down to pickups frets and strings on this Strat.
no. cardboard sounds like a cardboard strat. maple neck strat sounds like a maple neck strat, etc.
Can you demonstrate your claim?
I own several variations of P and J basses with either maple or rosewood necks. Yes, I hear the differences, and even more so on a Jazz bass. One element nobody's mentioned with regard to tone and the differences between the woods is the tactile difference. How you "feel" your instrument also effects the tone(s) you try to manipulate out of it. I may be playing the same notes on my rosewood/maple basses, but I don't necessarily approach them the same way. Since I prefer the rounder warmer attack that rosewood gives a P bass, I find myself dialing back the tone knob and plucking/angling my finger attack differently to closer approximate rosewood tones out of my maple P basses when needed.
slightly more focused attack with the maple neck, a bit more bloom with the rosewood. Both are wonderful, IMHO. Gotta have both!
Great video! Very helpful.
Usually we see comparisons with two or more different axes. Thank you for the effort, trying to leave out most of the biases and basically changing the object on analysis. I believe they're different, don't know wich I prefer.
excellent comparison! And a pleasure to listen to. Not to be taken for granted in demos hah. Thank you
Thank you!
Now that was a dope video! Straight to the point and entertaining.
Thanks!
The maple gives move of a high end sound and adds almost a little buzz to every note. Rosewood is easily identified for me but maple always has some different twist to it.
I’m curious how the truss rod is setup on both necks. If the truss rod tension is different, then the action would be different and that would drastically affect the tone in my opinion.
They sound very similar when played finger style but, when you switched to the pick and the slap style, I noticed that the maple neck sounded a little brighter where as the rosewood was a little deeper and warmer. Both sounds are quite nice though. Thanks for doing this btw. I've always has rosewood basses until I got a Schecter Hellcat bassVI but, I use it more like a guitar so I never really took note of the tone differences in this manner.
I agree, on the slap segment you can really hear the added high end sizzle that the maple board has.
You can also tell the difference very clearly if you play fingerstyle with a low action, especially if you dig in when you play.
^^ that sizzle that you hear when the action is low isn't due to the maple board. That's called "fret buzz" :p
maple and rw sound different regardless of fret buzz, that's a dumb comment. i swapped a fretless rw neck for a maple one because of the tone difference.
I would be happy with either style neck. To me the difference is more about aesthetics, especially with older instruments, maple necks get a really grungier look, whereas rosewood seems to age better, but is more susceptible to wear. I find sonic textures are more pronounced with Jazz Bass, however it is there with P-Bass.
The consensus of bass players (for those unfamiliar) is that maple resonates more than rosewood which gives it a more unique tone. Maple would be better for funk and r&b, rosewood for jazz and rock. I think this video proves it quite well! It's good to know I've been buying the right basses for the right tones, lol
Excellent points, I agree!
You really hear a difference? I don't.
Steve Harris of Iron Maiden and Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse have both made great use of P basses with maple fretboards. And Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath fame has used one with a rosewood fretboard. I think any difference between the two fretboard woods is pretty subtle. Certainly having a bass with a maple or rosewood fretboard will not impede one from playing their chosen style, whatever it may be.
Maple is harder and punchier, rosewood is warmer and well just warmer. Heard the difference is minimal, but it feels different when played. Maple is just zingier.
If I convinced myself there was a difference then I would say the rosewood sounded fuller. Necks aside you play very well and make that Squier sound great. I suppose it is what feels best.
Thanks for the video. There is no difference if you ask me. It all comes to the personal preference of what you like and how it actually feels under the fingers. Any sound change can be done with the preamp, of course within a range of an instrument.
For 95% of the ears out there, the difference is unnoticeable.
Thanks for the video. A very straightforward comparison. It underlines the old truth: The SOUND is from you, only the TONE is from your instrument.
Thanks! I think you're on to something there.
This is the comparison I was looking for, very well done, everything is the same except for the neck, very well done!
I'm glad you find it helpful!
Thank you for an excellent video.... So subtly different that those not hearing a difference can be forgiven! No need to insult them, saying they're deaf or stupid and is true that in a band situation any slight difference would virtually disappear! Biggest difference is on the slap demo, I've been back over the fingerstyle demo again and again (blind) and can hardly hear a discernible difference! Plus, as someone said, when you loosen and retune the strings, they ALWAYS brighten back up so that could actually be the biggest reason for hearing a difference!!!
I would say the rosewood for pick and slap, the maple for finger playing.. nice vid showing the subtleties
Wow! Take a look at my comment! I promise I didn't see your comment before I left mine. lol! XD
I love your comparison by the way, very well executed!
Started to play bass at 15, I am now 68 I have now a 78 Fender Pre with a maple neck. Why? because it was there when I rented it new and ended up buying it. I have had other basses but always gravitated to the Pre, with maple neck. I think the pick play with maple neck" may" have sounded a little more reverby. The other plays, the same. Then again thanks and this was so interesting. I listened to it a few times. To my old abused ears It basically sounds the same to me. I use bass boomers round wounds, they are a bright sounds, I feel, and I like, Trust me I think I have tried them all .. Then again it's all rock and roll and I like it . Thank you for taking the time to load this on.
I couldn't hear much of a difference but I think (IMHO) that the maple neck maybe easier to bend the strings where as rosewood can bite or be a wee bit grippy.
Very small difference less than I thought it would be
Thanks for doing this
I liked the playing a lot and the bass sounds great with both necks.
Thank you!
Scientifically speaking, Rosewood is a harder wood than Maple is, in any variety. Normally, the harder the wood on a guitar, the crisper highs it will have, as is the case with acoustic guitars. For example, Cedar is softer than Spruce. Both are excellent woods for a guitar, but Cedar sounds warmer because it is a softer wood.
www.workshoppages.com/ws/misc/wood-hardness-chart.pdf
If Rosewood is harder than Maple in any of its varieties, then, if the fretboard has any influence in sound (which is understandable in fretless basses, but not so much in fretted ones), then rosewood necks should increase brightness.
I believe that the sound difference on an electric bass is psychological. We see Rosewood as darker, and therefore we imagine a darker sound.
Scientifically and logically you are correct sir, the rosewood should be the "brighter" fretboard. However, the tonal difference is due perception and preconceived notions, not science and logic. The marketing materials have been saying, "rosewood = warmer" for many years, so that is what our brains try to hear. Marketing is powerful. Diamond engagement rings are a great example. Also, there's still some people that don't believe fossil fuels causes global warming, and killed half the coral reefs. Businesses have brainwashing down to a science.
Or you can just do a blind test and judge for yourself instead of being suggested...
Too many people listen with their eyes not ears when it comes to this sort of stuff. These comments are pretty amusing. The difference is so extremely negligible to the point of who really cares? Just about any other modification from amp, cab, strings, pickups, preamp, or other electronics would make a bigger difference in sound. Good luck hearing any of the differences in wood in a mix anyway.
Lachlan Jadezak What about blind tests? Are you freaking kidding me? You're right about the other stuff but "listen with the eyes" is a stupid point if people aren't always doing it.
scientifically speaking, you should just stop.
The Maple neck is like turning up a presence knob a smidge.
The feel is also something to consider.
Waiting for the moment you reveal it was all actually recorded with the same neck and that slight difference is all in our mind
With the slap style, the maple has more mojo. Otherwise, I really can't tell a difference.
That intro is frightening and beautiful all at once..
Thanks for this comparison. It's interesting to see such a cool side by side. And dude, you can groove. Really digging some of these lines.
Thank you!
Thanks for this demo. I don't know whether one is superior to the other but sonically speaking, I like both of 'em. One preference for maple is that it's coated and after experiencing some neck problems with my old G&L L-2000 (rosewood) I simply bought a Modulus Graphite 6 string and ALL my neck issues vanished. Sort of an expensive fix but way less frustrating. I have played countless bass guitars with both woods and do love both of 'em !! One local bassist here in AZ fixed his rosewood board by having it coated with some kind of finish. looked great, sounded great (guy is a monster) and as far as I know, it's eliminated any issues he's had with an uncoated board. He also owns maple & graphite neck instruments and they ALL sound wonderful !!! I don't think any are an incorrect choice. I will say I CAN hear a TINY bit of extra brightness on a maple board with brand new strings, but that wears off after a few days then I hear no difference. More demos like this please !!
Thanks! There are more demos coming up!
My opinion as the bassist is both the rosewood and maple-wood both look nice, but the difference in sound I thought the maple sounded a little wider and fatter sounding where the rosewood was more clarity in the sound. Either way rosewood and maple-wood are both nice looking woods and comfortable bass neck woods. I played a maple neck Fender Jazz bass and I love it for someone who has only played rosewood it sure is a new difference and I love something new. I think it looks nice and its comfortable to play.
This is the way to do a comparison! Only changing the one thing you are comparing! Most of the other comparisons have completely different pickups, strings etc. between the two basses they compare. It would be fun to do it blind without revealing which bass is which and then let these people pick out the maple by sound alone. I'd be surprised if they guessed right better than 50% of the time.
The maple has more overtones. Waaaay more.
Nice playing, dude.
Thanks for your time and doing this test
Great looking bass and nice playing
Thanks for the test, Andreas. I think choosing one or the other depends 99.999999999% on esthetics.
You're welcome!
i prefer maple fretboards.
not because i hear any difference, but because i think they look good.
besides, they arent restricted by CITIES
0:20 cool simple fill. Great comparison.
As I said in your other video, you've got great control playing lightly and keeping your bass quiet. These things are overlooked all the time. Playing lightly allows the instrument to ring much truer and maximizes the fundamental and sustain. It's also, of course, easier on the hands. Sometimes the attack will be slightly less strong but that's a worthwhile trade off.
I love the SPB-1 pickup. I've tried them all. It's so simple and overlooked. It sounds the most vintage-correct.
Thanks! I agree completely about playing lightly.
Thanks. I could hear a little more round warmth in the Rosewood. The Maple was actually a little Thinner at times. Kind of glad I am looking a a couple of Rosewood fingerboards here in my office.
slapping sounds the biggest difference brighter on maple. fingerstyle better on rosewood. maybe? what do you think?
Churchbass3 NTG yeah. that's what I was thinking
I agree. There were less out of place relative frequencies on the low E when he was slapping with the maple fingerboard. However, I did think that while there was a brighter overall tone, that high pluck on the G string sounded like it had less high end to me than on the rosewood fingerboard. But yeah, slap was way better on maple.
I agree!
The maple fretboard sounds 'brighter' (or 'thinner' and 'colder') to my ear. It's more obvious with pick than fingers, and more obvious with slap than with pick.
However, there are different ways you could obtain that effect: 1) the maple board retains more highs than the rosewood; 2) the maple board loses some lows and low mids; or 3) some mixture of the two. It's not clear to me which it is.
The obvious culprit would be the greater density of the rosewood. Hard maple is around 705kg/m3. Rosewood varies between 830 and over 1000kg/m3. A rosewood fretboard of the same size and thickness could be anything between 15-45% heavier than a maple fingerboard of the same dimensions: so the whole neck would be heavier, and so would the instrument as a whole. Whether this difference in weight would be enough to produce audible effects is an open question.
There would also be the question of sound vibrations having to travel through two woods of different densities with the rosewood fingerboard/maple neck combination, which might affect the relative strength of different frequencies. The fact that the maple board has a finish, while the rosewood board does not, might also make a slight difference.
I'm guessing that the most likely cause of any perceived difference is that the denser rosewood resonates at a lower fundamental frequency than the less dense maple: or that it damps low frequencies more slowly than the maple, giving an impression of greater 'weight' and 'warmth' as the note develops.
On headphones, the difference is obvious, but small. Unless you play solo and in quiet environments, you may genuinely hear no difference. In a live band context, I would expect the difference to be almost inaudible, and in any case smaller than the differences produced by a change to new strings, or a different brand of strings, or of EQ changes.
Thinner and colder to your eye.
@@chrysr7773 I think the difference is real - assuming that you have normal hearing, and are listening on decent headphones or good speakers. The only way to be certain would be a blind test, and this isn't a blind test. But I've heard this difference too many times, across many different instruments, to doubt it. As I said, it's a small difference that tends to disappear in real-world situations.
I think most players decide on feel, anyway. Some just don't like the slick feel of varnished maple: others think that the unvarnished rosewood slows them down.
Fingerpicked it's nigh-on identical, but Picked and Slapped there's a definite difference, and while I prefer the sound of the Rosewood, the difference isn't enough for me to change the fact that I'd still opt for Maple purely for the superior aesthetics.
good demonstration , the word is rosewood is warmer, maple is brighter, maybe true but i think either can do the job just depends on preference
Sounds pretty much the same to my ears. If there is a difference, it is really subtle and it may also have to do with the fact that you can't play the same thing exactly the same way twice.
This is by far the best comparison I have seen on this topic. All of the others I have seen have been comparisons between different basses and the differences have been due to the fact that they are different instruments, not due to the different fretboard materials.
i hear little difference, it's kinda brighter with the maple board. but just ever so slightly
The Maple fretboard sounds a weeee bit brighter than the Rosewood, but the difference is very small.
I have 2 P basses, one with maple and the other with rosewood and can definitely hear a difference with roundwounds. After putting flats on the maple it really warmed up and the difference is less noticeable to my ears.
I couldn't really tell until the slap. I think I like the maple more. Good video
I think , maple neck has the sound which is more round and clear than rosewood one.
Some people do the same attempt on TH-cam movie, and I was able to check a little bit defference between roundness and cleary.
I've always been the maple guy and will stay there, because it's perfect for both punk and funk - but I would be happy to make the nice rosewood sounds as well. They're so warm and cosy! But, you know... at the end of the day - will the ninetyseven out of a hundred ones you play for hear the difference at all...? This is mostly for your own self esteem, isn't it? As important as that could be. Good show, Andreas, love it!
There's a slight difference in the attack. I don't think I'd pick it out on a recording where I didn't already know two different configurations were being played.
Great demo,great playing, much effort! I am not sure if I can hear a big difference....but for sure now I am craving for a P-bass. Cheers!
Thanks a lot for correct review! IMO rosewood sounds better, except fingerstyle.
Couldn't really tell the difference as much until the slap comparison was made. The rosewood fingerboard had a definite warmer tone than the maple, which was a little more bright and almost compressed (could be a finish difference on the woods as well)...
Fun video! There is a bit of a difference in the lows and low mids between rosewood and maple. I think I still prefer the rosewood neck, it's got a nice low, and round sound to it. The maple neck sounds good for slapping, but my slapping needs some work, so I'm not too keen on the maple neck.
The brightness on the maple shines most with the finger style. It's less noticeable on the picked, and pretty indistinguishable on the slap. To my ears at least.
seemed lit the maple had a little more ''bite'' ..slightly sharper, but man it'd be really hard to tell if you did a blindfold test, especailly in a band situation. Glad to find this video becasue I make a big deal over it in my head deciding sometimes.
I can't tell you how many of these "Is there a difference/Which sounds better?" videos I've watched and I think this is probably the best thought out of them all. Did it settle the eternal debate? No, Some days I prefer Rosewood over maple, it depends how I feel when I wake up. Good job setting up the comparison.
If I could only decide between a Jazz and P-Bass
Thanks! Yes, it is not a matter that will ever be settled. And really, it's not a question about picking one as better thatn the other objectively, it's a question about preferences. I think the difference in feel is more important than the sound difference. It's just hard to illustrate that in a video...
Read it and weep!
Do any of your Strats have maple necks?
“Yeah, Lenny does. It's got a real clear tone, and the pickups are microphonic - you can hear it when you hit the pickguard. But when you play it soft, it sounds great. When I first got the guitar, it had a rosewood fingerboard, but it was thinner, and that bothered me. So I put a copy of a Fender maple neck on there that Billy Gibbons gave me…..I like the rosewood necks usually, because for one thing, when you sweat, you don't get blisters. It seems like the finish on a maple neck gets hotter and there's more friction. As hard as I play and as much as I sweat, I get sore enough as it is. There's a fatter sound on the rosewood, as far as I can tell; it's not as bright. The ebony fretboard seems a little bit clearer, but it's fat, too.” (Interview with Dan Forte, winner of the ASCAP/Deems Tayor award / photo credit unknown)
The main difference is for fingers, not for ears :). I've got guitars with both types of fretboard (but my only bass has rosewood one). Well, my fingers prefer maple fretboard. Maybe maple is little bit brighter.
Thank you for video, Andreas! Good job!
You need to be listening with headphones or speakers that don't roll off the high end to really hear the difference. Most consumer audio equipment is biased towards a bassy sound. Maple has more high end zing that is most noticeable when the string buzzes against a fret, such as during a slide.
To me they sound very close. If I had to pick, I would say the maple has a little more depth. Cool video!
Not much difference in LIVE performance, but in studio the choice would be which tone is best for the song.
I would like to conduct this exact same experiment under the same conditions with my OWN playing style. I think there might be a noticeable difference - but I can't be certain at this point. I honestly cannot hear a difference between the two fingerboard woods in this particular video. There are so many variables that need to be considered - and one of them is the players style. I found this video VERY interesting as I've always found maple necks to produce a much brighter tone - even with the same knob/tone/volume settings....... but especially with older strings while slapping. Provided that the same strings were used - and the same tone settings thru the same recording equipment, and on the same instrument - I'm pretty impressed to find that I cannot tell the difference - even subtle differences! Maybe I need to start using headphones!?!?! LOL
As the versions were not recorded simultaneously, and were recorded outdoors at that, fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field due to sunspot activity, as well as minor variations in gravity-wave intensity, will probably account for any perceived difference. In my experience, bass players who wear glasses tend to have a more concentrated, focussed sound, but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course, the colour of the paint job also has an impact on tone colour. Stands to reason dunnit!
OK, I listened to this the first time without looking, so I relied on my ears and didn't know which order he played them in. I consistently preferred the second one, which turned out to be maple. To my ears, the the maple sounded more "buttery," "smooth", and "punchy." The rosewood sounded more "detailed" and "crisp." Maple seemed to emphasize a slightly higher band of the midrange, which put it in the "punchy" sweet spot for me, while the rosewood had lower mids and more highs.
They are both good of course, and work well with different styles. And I agree that you'd be very challenged to tell them apart in the mix.
Minor critique, it would be nice to hear more long notes to evaluate how they sustain on the different necks.
Thanks
I can hear a very small about of increased presence with the maple neck, a tiny bit more top end.
I'm currently swaying on rosewood vs maple on a new neck, so this has been a bit of a help.
I like the rosewood one more.
Anyway, the difference is small...
Oh, this Squier sound great!
I think the rosewood neck had better sustain and richer low end... Maybe it could be the way it was set up? To my ears the maple one had a brighter, more focused sound with nice attack as well. Loved both... Also, nice playing!
Lovely playing and thanks for the video. I'm hearing a smoother top end on the rosewood and more solid lows. More high overtones on the MN. Reminds me of the dif between muffled vs unmuffled snare drums.
Thanks!
huge difference, i prefer the rosewood for the rounder, more nuanced warmth. In some scenarios id prefer the maple though.
So in summation: there is a difference, but honestly just get whatever is available to you or whatever you would otherwise pick, because the difference apparently isn't even noticable to some people in the comments, and can be readily fixed with eq
Definitely. TX 4 the demo.
I only choose a maple neck with my G&L as it was advertised to withstand humility changes and the "durability" effect. Change the strings and it really doesn't matter which wood type you choose.
There are so many variables that make up for the tone of the bass, that the fretboard being of one wood or other it’s the least contributing one (if at all). Good video, nonetheless!
I have a good pair of headphones and there was a significant difference. "Better" is subjective, but there was a big difference in bottom end. The rosewood neck had more, but wasn't as clear sounding as the maple. The maple neck had better tone, but did not carry the low frequencies as well as the rosewood neck.
The real question should be "can you make one sound just like the other?" is there a good reason except for look to buy maple or rosewood? You can change the eq on your amp, so even if maple is a bit brighter, you can still add a bit of treble on amp to rosewood and they will be the same.
Definitely the maple is more crisp and defined , while the Rosewood is a little deeper and slightly softer
On that particular bass, imo the maple sounded better when straight up finger playing and the rosewood sounded better when picking and slappin/pluckin. I think I prefer the rosewood for the tiny edge is warm sound, BUT basses l@@k better with maple necks!