Stevie Ray Vaughan, in an October 1984 interview with Guitar Player Magazine, responding to the question “Do any of your guitars have maple necks?”:
Lenny does. It has 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 fretboard, 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 clearer, but it’s fat, too.
I’ve previously expressed my preference for rosewood fretboards. It’s interesting to hear Stevie Ray’s opinion on the matter.
I play a Les Paul myself, and love the feel of my fretboard… but when my friend was shopping around for his Strat, we played several different types, American and Mexican, in different price ranges… and the rosewood fretboards always felt better to me. I’d never really played Strat’s before (I was mainly an acoustic player before I got my LP) and as I played several with maple necks, I began to wonder what the fuss was about… Each to their own, I guess.
Yep, each to their own. While some sound differences may be audible, I think it’s mostly a personal preference.
Compared to hard maple and rosewood, an ebony fretboard will provide the most bright sound. That’s because the specific gravity of ebony is higher, so it’s more dense.
@Stuart – Very interesting! I didn’t know that about Ebony fretboards. Thanks for stopping by!