Custom order: Neck profile

[Patrick]

I am not going to go overboard on this, but a quick search will reveal.....

Fretboard Woods:

 

Perhaps more significant than neck wood, the fretboard is the place your string launches from. It is the “bridge” on the other side. Fretboard differences are as dramatic as those between a hardtail and a tremolo.

 

Maple:

Very bright and dense, Maple is highly reflective. When used on a fretboard, Maple encourages tremendous amounts of higher overtones and its tight, almost filtered away bass favors harmonics and variations in pick attack.

 

Rosewood:

The most common fretboard, Rosewood is naturally oily, and works well for any surface that sees frequent human contact. The sound is richer in fundamental than Maple because the stray overtones are absorbed into the oily pores

 

Ebony:

Ebony has a snappy, crisp attack with the density of Maple, but with more brittle grains, oilier pores, and a stronger fundamental tone than Maple. It has a tremendous amount of percussive overtones in the pick attack, that mute out shortly thereafter to foster great, long, sustain.

 

PLUS for the neck comparisons...

 

Necks - maple or mahogany

bmetelits

01-16-2009, 11:20 AM

Some electrics have maple necks and some have mahogany necks. Sometimes this is the biggest difference between vintages of the same model or between similar models of the same brand.

 

If you have two similar guitars side-by-side and the only difference between the two is the neck wood - one guitar has maple neck and the other guitar has a mahogany neck - how big a difference in tone and sustain could be expected?

elkym

01-16-2009, 11:23 AM

Mahogany seems to get a less brittle tone, softer, warmer...

 

But Maple gives you a brighter, punchier sound...

 

Not sure what the difference is sustain-wise...

 

As for how big the differences are? hmm... good question. I feel like the difference is fairly subtle.

Phoebe

01-16-2009, 11:24 AM

If all other things were equal, which is impossible, you'd notice in a side-by-side that mahogany is warmer and maple is brighter. In terms of sustain, I doubt there's difference between the two.

cvansickle

 

The next to the last sentence says it all for me . . . "If all things were equal, which is impossible .. . " Virtually everyone's opinion on this matter is exactly that . . . opinion and conjecture. Unfortunately, there is really no qualitative or conclusive scientific evidence in any of this. So, it all comes down to the individual guitar . .. .which is what makes our quest so wonderful. Pick it up.. . play it. If it's what you want .. . buy it. If you find a guitar in a music store and play it and love the tone, the feel, the sustain .. . etc. then you take that guitar to Parsons Street and tell them to duplicate it . . . chances are that it's going to sound and feel different.

[Assumer]

So they will even do different nut sizes? I would love to have a less chunky neck with a 1&5/8th nut.