Maple neck thoughts

[airborne1]

I began my guitar journey playing acoustic guitars only and became accustomed to “dark” neck woods. Due to shoulder issues, I switched to solid body electrics. My first purchase was a Fender Professional Strat, hss, 3 color sunburst, with rosewood neck. On a visit to Elderly’s, I came across a Fender Professional Tele, Mystic Seafoam, which of course had a maple neck. At first I didn’t care for the maple neck, but the feel and sound of the guitar was fantastic. I continued to wander the store trying various guitars but always ended up back at the Tele with the maple neck. Long story short, I bought that Tele and now I actually prefer maple necks over the darker woods. Have any of you experienced changes in your preference for neck woods?

[Bob Womack]

I've had guitars with most of the major fingerboard woods at this point. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't touch a guitar with a maple fingerboard but I've come to enjoy them for their contribution to the sound. There's a certain glassy pop that only happens on a maple-fingerboarded guitar.

Bob

[DukeX]

My '62 AVRI Tele has a maple neck. I like it just fine.

The fretboard, OTOH, is rosewood.

[ch willie]

Excepting my Strart, my Fenders have been maple fretboard guitars. Now, I like both and would like to have a rosewood neck Strat and Tele. I love the new AmPro Jazzmasters.

[ifret]

Most of mine have had mahogany necks, but a couple have had maple. Very stable for necks. I actually like them both, as long as they look good with the other woods on the guitar. Maple is a nice change.

[Steel and wood]

Both my Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster have a maple fretboard but I'm equally at home with rosewood. (Difference in sound/feel negligible for me).

[jwguitar]

Originally Posted by airborne1

I began my guitar journey playing acoustic guitars only and became accustomed to “dark” neck woods. Due to shoulder issues, I switched to solid body electrics. My first purchase was a Fender Professional Strat, hss, 3 color sunburst, with rosewood neck. On a visit to Elderly’s, I came across a Fender Professional Tele, Mystic Seafoam, which of course had a maple neck. At first I didn’t care for the maple neck, but the feel and sound of the guitar was fantastic. I continued to wander the store trying various guitars but always ended up back at the Tele with the maple neck. Long story short, I bought that Tele and now I actually prefer maple necks over the darker woods. Have any of you experienced changes in your preference for neck woods?

I have gone back and forth over the years but overall I prefer maple for its durability as well as tone on a solid body guitar. The guitar I currently play the most now which is an Aria Pro II PE has an ash body with a maple neck. I think it picks up the dynamics of my playing a bit better than a guitar with a mahogany neck does. I also think the extra density from maple adds to the over all sustain of the guitar which to me is important. Here is the guitar I am talking about below:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4IdDVWfj1Tk

[David Eastwood]

It might be helpful for posters to clarify whether you're referring to the neck material or the fretboard material. Some have, some haven't.

I own guitars with maple, rosewood, ebony and carbon fibre fretboards. I've never been able to attribute any sound characteristic of any of them to the fretboard material alone, and I can't tell the difference when I'm playing them.

Others' mileage clearly varies, considerably

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by airborne1

I began my guitar journey playing acoustic guitars only and became accustomed to “dark” neck woods. Due to shoulder issues, I switched to solid body electrics. My first purchase was a Fender Professional Strat, hss, 3 color sunburst, with rosewood neck. On a visit to Elderly’s, I came across a Fender Professional Tele, Mystic Seafoam, which of course had a maple neck. At first I didn’t care for the maple neck, but the feel and sound of the guitar was fantastic. I continued to wander the store trying various guitars but always ended up back at the Tele with the maple neck. Long story short, I bought that Tele and now I actually prefer maple necks over the darker woods. Have any of you experienced changes in your preference for neck woods?

My journey has been similar - I started with darker neck woods (mahogany derivatives) coupled with rosewood fretboard acoustic guitars. My first electric had a one piece maple neck, a “whiteboard” which I disliked for a long time, but it turned out to be a game changer by challenging my assumptions regarding tone, and taught me the importance of precise, light touch, touch sensitivity and brightness without a scooped midrange.

[3notes]

I have a hard time believing anyone could discern how the neck is contributing to the overall sound. I think to figure that out you would have to be working in a studio. And even then I think you have to remove the bolt on neck and replace it so that your getting the same pickups, same body wood, same settings, etc.

MAYBE the ear test on an acoustic could bare fruit but honestly, I think not.

[FrankHudson]

Best as I can figure the wood the neck proper is made with and how big it is probably impacts sound somewhat, just as body wood in solid body electrics probably effects sound a bit. I think this is easy to overstate given all the other thing that come into electric guitar timbre, but it's probably there to a slight degree.

I've never figured out how, theoretically, fretboard wood itself comes into play on a fretted guitar soundwise. The string is stopped at the fret or nut, and even if you're like me and have a gorilla grip on the strings that press the string unnecessarily beyond the point it's fretted, a nice fleshy chunk of meat is clamped down on top of that string to mute whatever minute resonance might be there in the fraction of a mm of string above the fret.

I think someone here posited recently that a one-piece neck (no separate fretboard) would have a different resonate property. This would of course be true with something other than maple too, but maple one piece necks are the only common examples people have experienced. I'd think that resonate property difference would be often lost in the "noise" of other things like different woods of different densities carved in different sizes/profiles, scale lengths and so on. The contribution of the smaller slice of an applied fretboard of one wood or another onto a neck would seem to have the same problem (or more so) producing a predictable significant difference.

The first time I played a varnished maple fretboard I thought I was trying to do the electric slide in new gym shoes on a gym floor. But I got used to it. I sort of prefer the texture of unfinished ebony or Richlite fretboard etc for finger feel, but it's no big thing. With proper technique and jumbo frets even that should be immaterial to the player.

[fazool]

I love maple necks

I do not like maple fretboards


But they are two different things

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by fazool

I love maple necks

I do not like maple fretboards


But they are two different things

The one piece maple neck was a big part of the genius of Leo Fender - what put his guitars on the map as distinguished from Gibson, Gretsch, Epiphone etc. - wasn’t this touched upon in the book “The Birth of Loud”

I’m starting to think I should write a book on the history of the electric guitar

[3notes]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Best as I can figure the wood the neck proper is made with and how big it is probably impacts sound somewhat, just as body wood in solid body electrics probably effects sound a bit. I think this is easy to overstate given all the other thing that come into electric guitar timbre, but it's probably there to a slight degree.

I've never figured out how, theoretically, fretboard wood itself comes into play on a fretted guitar soundwise. The string is stopped at the fret or nut, and even if you're like me and have a gorilla grip on the strings that press the string unnecessarily beyond the point it's fretted, a nice fleshy chunk of meat is clamped down on top of that string to mute whatever minute resonance might be there in the fraction of a mm of string above the fret.

I think someone here posited recently that a one-piece neck (no separate fretboard) would have a different resonate property. This would of course be true with something other than maple too, but maple one piece necks are the only common examples people have experienced. I'd think that resonate property difference would be often lost in the "noise" of other things like different woods of different densities carved in different sizes/profiles, scale lengths and so on. The contribution of the smaller slice of an applied fretboard of one wood or another onto a neck would seem to have the same problem (or more so) producing a predictable significant difference.

The first time I played a varnished maple fretboard I thought I was trying to do the electric slide in new gym shoes on a gym floor. But I got used to it. I sort of prefer the texture of unfinished ebony or Richlite fretboard etc for finger feel, but it's no big thing. With proper technique and jumbo frets even that should be immaterial to the player.

Nice post here. I agree with it all. Maple fretboards feel slippery as all get out. Oddly so, to me. I hate em. I had one on a true Strat years ago.