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  #16  
Old 01-17-2018, 10:28 AM
Mr Fingers Mr Fingers is offline
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Certainly, the consensus of builders and players over time is that ebony is marginally brighter, as one would expect from a denser material. However, as some of the posts above indicate, the degree to which this is audible in actual practice, particularly given other more "macro" factors affecting tone, may be slight enough to be inconsequential to individuals. But if you wanted to do everything possible to enhance a guitar's capabilities at the high end, ebony would be a better pick than RW. Similarly, if you wanted to do everything possible to control high end, you would pick rosewood. Most of us are fine with either. Additionally, ebony is finer grained and harder than RW, both of which make it more durable. Playing, our fingers absolutely do press against and for some of us, feel the fretboard. Look at any old guitar and you'll see the scallops behind the most-fretted frets. Again, though, this is a slight thing that can, for many, be disregarded, since both woods are hard and feel great. But there is a difference. It's just not one that every individual needs to care about or even register. Personally, I find ebony and RW boards to generally be distinguishable in effect and feel. However, for me it's also a matter of liking them both -- not considering one or another to be superior.
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  #17  
Old 01-17-2018, 11:24 AM
redir redir is offline
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I've used many different woods for fretboards including ebony and rosewoods of differing species and I could not make the claim that it has anything to do with tone, or better said that I can use it to control certain aspects of tone. I'm sure on paper one can spec out the science behind it to 'prove' there is a difference but then a responsive guitar might sound different in the morning then it does in the evening too. I like both ebony and rosewood. Rosewood has character to it's look, especially BRW or cocobolo and it's also more stable then ebony. But then that nice jet back color or the striped textured ebony is beautiful too and ebony holds frets very well. So I mostly suggest to people that they make the choice of fretboard based on appearance and cost first.
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  #18  
Old 01-17-2018, 01:31 PM
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Bruce Sexauer Bruce Sexauer is offline
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For the purpose of this discussion, there is no such thing as Ebony or Rosewood. There are over 30 discrete species of both general types and each has its specific characteristics as far as weight, hardness, damping, and other factors, Even within a given species there is fantastic variability. I do not weigh my fingerboards, but using bridges as a scale, my typical ebony bridge can weigh between 32 grams and 42 grams. Rosewood bridges (of the same design) I have weighed vary from 29 grams to 40 grams. To have a meaningful discussion, we must talk about not only specific species of both geneses, but also where they fall in their spectrum as far as technical attributes are concerned. Bridges affect tone only where their weight is concerned, In My Experience.

Where the fingerboard is concerned, there are compelling reasons to choose Ebony over Rosewood or the opposite, but if tone is one of them it has completely escaped my notice. I am quite surprised to read that there has ever been a consensus to the contrary of my own experience, at least among builders.
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  #19  
Old 01-17-2018, 01:36 PM
LouieAtienza LouieAtienza is offline
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I noticed this phenomenon back in my 80s "shred" days.. I loved the look of rosewood board Strats, couldn't play one to save my life. Always gravitated toward a maple or ebony board neck. As I segued to more bluesy stuff, I found I liked the rosewood boards better... I felt the notes came off faster, and I could get to the next one faster as well. Maybe doesn't apply as much for a fingerstyle situation. Might be of benefit to a chickin' picker.
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  #20  
Old 01-17-2018, 01:57 PM
jessupe jessupe is offline
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My gosh it's like the world is one big rumor!
the weight , damping and radiation of whatever that particular piece of material is will dictate whatever tonal effects it has much more so than the species.

The only real differences to me would be based in "feel", obviously there is more pronounced grain in Rosewood, which those who really dive into the fingerboard may not like,that can be mitigated with certain grain fill methods however.

And then I suppose the Janka hardness factor may come in a bit related to longevity,but not really too much, as it does have frets.

Janka hardness for those who do not know,is a test used to identify a species resistance to denting or hardness

A 1/4" ball bearing has 1000 lbs {something like that} set on it, the amount the ball bearing depresses into the wood {how deep is the divet} tells you how hard the material is. Ebony is way harder than even the hardest Rosewood species in general.As Bruce pointed out, there are many species of Rosewood.

Much of this data will have variation in the results.

Related to fingerboards, and necks in general. Without getting into all the ugly acoustic science and principles related to structural building. What really matters is weight distribution.

Basically we want the weight to mathematically taper a gradient from the body end being heavier moving to the headstock which we want to be lighter.

What I look for are pieces of material that do not have equal volumetric mass, and or a stick of wood that when balanced at the center point will like a teeter totter tilt to one side or the other....the heavy end gets installed towards the body, the light end goes up near the headstock. And the same goes for the neck material.

To me, this will dictate "tone" related to this particular aspect more than anything else.

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/info/janka-hardness/

Last edited by jessupe; 01-17-2018 at 02:06 PM.
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  #21  
Old 01-17-2018, 03:58 PM
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Mark Hatcher Mark Hatcher is offline
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Default Those little differences

Of course it makes a difference. Is it perceptible? Maybe, maybe only sometimes, maybe only for players that play a certain way and maybe for only one part of that one song. Sometimes the circumstances make the smallest difference shine.
Yesterday we had just a dusting of snow. Later the sun popped for just a minute. In five minutes this snow shadow in front of my shop was gone.



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  #22  
Old 01-17-2018, 04:47 PM
Tony Done Tony Done is offline
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Ebony has nice feel, and doesn't wear as fast as fast as rosewood, but the only boards with which I have had stability and cracking problems have been black ebony, so if I wanted black I would choose richlite.

I don't know about tone, it would be very hard to test objectively, but I chose a macassar (brown ebony) board as a replacement based on its tap tone.
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