Rosewood VS Ebony Fingerboard

[snowaie]

What are characteristics on each? What do YOU like better and why?

[the_bleeding]

rosewood - bit softer, tends to be more open grained, warmer sound

ebony - harder, smooth and tight grained, brighter sound

 

i like ebony better because it is more consistently smooth feeling under my fingers because the grain is so tight. Much faster feeling to play. Yes you can find tight grained and smooth rosewood, but those are 1 in a million chances.

Oh and ebony looks good too.

[the_gunslinger]

 

rosewood - bit softer, tends to be more open grained, warmer sound ebony - harder, smooth and tight grained, brighter sound i like ebony better because it is more consistently smooth feeling under my fingers because the grain is so tight. Much faster feeling to play. Yes you can find tight grained and smooth rosewood, but those are 1 in a million chances. Oh and ebony looks good too.

 

 

I agree. I think you hit the nail on the head, I can't say it any better.

[xStonr]

rosewood - bit softer, tends to be more open grained, warmer sound ebony - harder, smooth and tight grained, brighter sound i like ebony better because it is more consistently smooth feeling under my fingers because the grain is so tight. Much faster feeling to play. Yes you can find tight grained and smooth rosewood, but those are 1 in a million chances. Oh and ebony looks good too.

 

What he said. I recently changed the neck on my Strat from a rosewood to a ebony neck and the difference to me was staggering. I for one like a brighter tone and ebony does that in spades . With the tighter grain, it's smoother and faster.

[aenemated]

 

i like ebony better because it is more consistently smooth feeling under my fingers because the grain is so tight. Much faster feeling to play. Yes you can find tight grained and smooth rosewood, but those are 1 in a million chances. Oh and ebony looks good too.

 

 

this.

[funbnme]

So...if you're going to build a tele style guitar and use a piece of maple for the body, would a rosewood neck give you a nice balanced sound?

 

I'm thinking of buying a full rosewood neck (not just a rosewood fingerboard) for a project I'm starting to plan (I already have the wood for the body.

[Jim_Soloway]

Ebony has a really fast attack. Too fast for my taste. It's also one of the least stable fingerboard woods with a lot of shrinkage in dry climate and a fairly high incidence of cracking. On the other hand, it feels great. If you like the feel of ebony but want something that sounds closer to rosewood, then pau ferro is a good alternative. It doesn't look great, but it feels really nice. Another alternative is Cocobolo. It can give you the best of all worlds: smooth waxy feel, great tone and great look. The down side is that it's hard to work with and not all that commonly available.

[Brewski]

depends on the style you play and the guitar you put it on whether you want a warmer or brighter tighter sound.

 

as far ass playability - nothing i as fast as an ebony fretboard. Except maybe the lucite fretbaord on the Switch guitars.

[snowaie]

Great posts everyone. Thanks.

[jamdogg]

 

Ebony has a really fast attack. Too fast for my taste. It's also one of the least stable fingerboard woods with a lot of shrinkage in dry climate and a fairly high incidence of cracking. On the other hand, it feels great. If you like the feel of ebony but want something that sounds closer to rosewood, then pau ferro is a good alternative. It doesn't look great, but it feels really nice. Another alternative is Cocobolo. It can give you the best of all worlds: smooth waxy feel, great tone and great look. The down side is that it's hard to work with and not all that commonly available.

 

 

I concur.

[Elazul]

I really like Ebony's tonal properties on Les Pauls, but overall I probably prefer rosewood.

[GAS Man]

I guess it's all been said already, so I'll just say "yeah"

 

But it really is more of a significant affect on tone than I would have guessed.

 

I have ebony on three Les Pauls, one SG and on one Strat and it's really significant how much the tone varies from their maple or rosewood brothers and sisters.

 

Definitely think of the fretboard (and neck) material as being a tone compliment to the body wood.

 

My a fore mentioned strat is ash + ebony. I'm actually considering getting a rosewood neck for it to calm its ass down a bit. But it's a Deluxe Strat with S-1 Switching so I usually just engage the series settings to warm that particular strat up.

 

I recently got a Sienna Sunburst Strat (ash) for my stepson and we balanced that out with a rosewood fretboard. It's like you can really hear the two aspects singing in harmony, i.e the warmer neck in conjunction with the sharper brighter punch from the ash body. It's almost like listening to two voices in stereo.

[bsman]

I prefer ebony on acoustics, and maple or mahogany on electrics.

[Bob411]

What everybody else said. Only other difference I can think of is, Gibson has never been raided for illegal ebony.

[sk8centilli]

Bunch of jokers - how often do your fingers really slather across the fretboard?

 

'ats what I thought.

[dres_x]

what about maple compared to ebony? I'm gassing for a maple board badly these days

[PancakeBunny]

Let it also be said that ebony is also very reactive to temperature and humidity. How you store your guitars and the climate of where you live and keep your guitars should be taken into consideration.

 

My personal favorite fretboard wood is Cocobolo. Look at the cocobolo fretboard on this Soloway.

 

[bdubbs]

I like how smooth ebony feels under the fingers. I feel it balances out my LP well. The darker sounding guitar with the maple top and ebony board IMO give it a best of both worlds sound.

[goldsparkletop]

Since the dawn of time (or at least HCGF), guitarists have been told that ebony is smoother, faster, and brighter than rosewood. My personal experience is that the difference between the two is somewhat exaggerated.

 

I own 13 electrics...several with rosewood, several with ebony. When switching back and forth, I don't feel or hear a consistent difference between the two. And I am ultra picky about how my guitars are set up.

 

Case in point: I have two Gibby LPs. The one with the rosewood board feels faster & sounds brighter to me than the one with the ebony board.

 

When looking at new guitars, I don't sweat the ebony vs rosewood variable at all these days.

[the_gunslinger]

what about maple compared to ebony? I'm gassing for a maple board badly these days

 

I personally find maple fret boards to be sticky. I can't play them, my fingers stick all over the place.

 

Ebony, as stated above, has a slicker feel. For me its a night and day difference between ebony and maple.

[Guitarone]

Ebony seems to have less resistance.

I think in general it is a faster fingerboard.

 

Although rosewood sounds really nice for tone specifically.

Especially on Les Pauls....

[docjeffrey]

I like 'em all, but for me, variety is the name of the game.

 

My Gretsch guitars have ebony boards and they are sweet! My Gibsons have rosewood and I love the feel and the sound. The nicest fretboard that I have is on my ESP Eclipse. It's a really dark rosewood that looks like Brazilian (it's not, obviously), but great quality. Feels and sounds amazing. And look at that fretwork! Best I've ever seen on a production line guitar.

 

[Spike Li]

Loove ebony - its just so smooth and slick that it feels like its not there! Plus it looks awesome too

[soundcreation]

Yeah I'm with Doc...I love both for different reasons. I have two rosewood one black ebony and one stripped ebony. I love the smoothness of the ebony boards but it's not quite a finished maple smooth (which I also love). But I also love the feel of rosewood under my fingers as well. There is just a nice quality to feeling a little grain, like you can dig into it.

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

. It's a really dark rosewood that looks like Brazilian

 

Brazilian Rosewood is not dark Doc. I'd expect to see chestnuts and browns and reddish hues in Brazilian.

 

What you see on that ESP is classic good quality Indian rosewood

 

The below are a good mix of whats best about Brazilian

 

 

Spiderwebbing