Difference in tone between African Blackwood vs. Brazilian Rosewood vs. Indian Rosewood fingerboards?

[Rod/]

My Inquiring mind would like to know

 

[Greywolf]

African blackwood is in the same family as Ebony and has a Janka hardess of 4050! compare that to some popular rosewood variants.
(The higher the number the harder the wood , the glassier the tone) . NOTE : The typical caveat , each piece of wood is different .

1210 Nicaraguan Rosewood 1960 Bolivian Rosewood 2200 Honduras Rosewood 2430 Cochen Rosewood 2440 E. Indian Rosewood 2620 Amazon Rosewood
2720 Madagascar Rosewood

2960 Cocobolo



4050 African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon)

 

[veinbuster]

There are so many variables in a guitar that it is hard to pin it down, but here is my summary based on 3 African Blackwood, 3 Braz and some Indian.

I feel African Blackwood is most articulate and very well balanced across the 4 octaves.

My Brazilian is the earthiest and strongly favours lower harmonics. If I want dark and stormy, that’s what I go with.

Indian: less extreme, a good baseline.

 

[21Hemispheres12]

It’s hard to comment on the tone but it definitely feels really glassy under the fingers. My 594 has an African Blackwood board and overall it’s a very articulate sounding guitar with great string clarity and presence, how much of that is due to the African Blackwood I don’t know.

 

[VHTStark]

Small sample size, as I have only ever played two PRS'S with African Blackwood boards. But compared to numerous similar PRS'S that had the more common East Indian Rosewood or Ebony, I would say that the AB board guitars had a smooth feel like ebony, a response/attack more like ebony and tone signature somewhere between rosewood and ebony.

What I mean is, the attack/fundamental is loud and immediate like ebony, but it is a bit warmer/darker.

It is also apparently less brittle and more stable than ebony. Again, small sample size (probably for most players), but the couple guitars I tried with AB boards, I really liked the tone/response/feel. Absolutely a premier fretboard wood, no doubts about that!

 

[Rod/]

Thank you all.. very informative
@Greywolf . Would you happen to know the rating hardness of Brazilian Rosewood? 2 of my PRS’s have this as well as my Corsa Manaleshi LP.. Just curious

 

[VHTStark]

Thank you all.. very informative
@Greywolf . Would you happen to know the rating hardness of Brazilian Rosewood? 2 of my PRS’s have this as well as my Corsa Manaleshi LP.. Just curious

Brazilian Rosewood has a Janka hardness rating of 2790. For reference, Gaboon ebony is rated at 3080.

 

[11top]

I’ll wager in a blind hearing test, most of us couldn’t discern a significant difference.

 

[Greywolf]

there are several sites with the Janka list , for reference : https://www.advantagelumber.com/janka.htm

Hardness aside , as a Luthier I will always chose ebony as long as it is available . It is the traditional material , plays great , superior wear and accents inlays well . Rosewood on the other hand has a warmth that is great especially if the other woods are on the bright side ,and is easier to work .

It all comes down to what feels and plays the best to you and for that instrument

 

[11top]

NOTE : The typical caveat , each piece of wood is different .

Hardness aside , as a Luthier I will always chose ebony as long as it is available ………..

It all comes down to what feels and plays the best to you and for that instrument

This

 

[andy474x]

I haven’t found my 594 w/AB board to be excessively snappy or bright, which is the thing one might be concerned about with a very hard, dense wood. In fact, the attack is a little warmer, more bloom than my ebony board PRS, but there are other variables there too, so take with a grain of salt. Perhaps more bite than rosewood, but hard to say without a direct apples to apples comparison.

I’m not a lover of maple necks (at least not in place of where mahogany would usually be), because it’s the epitome of the effect described above, so I don’t think an AB board would take a guitar to a bad extreme. The feel is superb!

 

[JasonE]

I’ll wager in a blind hearing test, most of us couldn’t discern a significant difference.

I know there could have been other differences in the density of other woods in the guitar that could have affected things, however, I was in the market for a Tele years ago. I wanted a deluxe Tele. The shop I used to buy all of my stuff from back then had the exact guitar I was looking for with both a rosewood and maple fretboards. I told the guy I was discussing the differences with that I didn't know if I would really hear a difference. He knew me fairly well and my playing level. He told me that I would absolutely hear the difference. He pulled both guitars off the wall and we went over to the amps. He picked an amp and dialed it up and plated the two guitars for me. I heard the difference right away. The maple had more snap and better response on the top end.

If the difference is anything like that, most of us would probably hear it if you had the two guitars in the same place and played them back to back. In a band context where the player has his rig dialed up to how he likes it would probably not produce that same result. I would also say that if you ran an EQ pedal you could make up any difference you heard when compared back to back.

 

[Tonart]

For what it’s worth, one of my top 3 sounding PRS guitars has a full African Blackwood neck (neck + FB). I can’t describe tone meaningfully other than with perception based terms like woody, full ranged, slick. At its birth Paul Reed Smith proclaimed it a magic guitar. So I have nothing but good respect for the wood!

 

[Rod/]

Brazilian Rosewood has a Janka hardness rating of 2790. For reference, Gaboon ebony is rated at 3080.

Thanks @VHTStark … so it’s harder than Indian Rosewood… Interesting…..

 

[andy474x]

For what it’s worth, one of my top 3 sounding PRS guitars has a full African Blackwood neck (neck + FB). I can’t describe tone meaningfully other than with perception based terms like woody, full ranged, slick. At its birth Paul Reed Smith proclaimed it a magic guitar. So I have nothing but good respect for the wood!

I would love to try that! You lucky dog!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I’ll wager in a blind test, most of us couldn’t discern a significant difference when hit on the napper with either!

Giggle

 

[shinksma]

I’ll wager in a blind hearing test, most of us couldn’t discern a significant difference.

Especially when you throw in all the other variables like the amp, the rest of the guitar, and most importantly to me: how I start to play differently due to the feel of the wood under my fingertips. I swear I play differently, whether it is because of the level of friction from the various woods, or whether I can (barely) feel any grain like you might get with IRWs, or something else (quite possibly based on what my eyes expect).

I mean, I like to think I prefer the sound of ebony in certain cases, but also enjoy maple and rosewoods (especially brazzy), and I would love to experience African Blackwood and all the other lovely woods used for fretboards, but I wonder if I really could discern anything. If you handed me, blindfolded, various otherwise identical guitars that had different fretboard woods, I wonder whether I'd be able to tell...

 

[ViperDoc]

I notice the difference more as a player than a listener. Generally, as it’s been said already, higher density and hardness makes for higher frequency harmonics. I like all three, but my personal gold medal favorite is Brazilian. That said, most every violin on the planet has an ebony fingerboard, so there you go.

 

[T3mp]

I doubt I could tell the difference between my maple neck and rosewood necks, so likely not between different rosewood varieties. On an electric guitar playing through overdriven application? On an acoustic guitar or perhaps a very clear amplified electric then I might be able to distinguish a difference.

 

[Tonart]

I evaluate electric guitar tone by playing them acoustically. Sounds counter intuitive but it’s not.

Whether its air molecules or pickups that are aping the string vibration, both apes eventually deliver the same result.

One ape occurs naturally and directly, while the other ape was designed by man to take a more convoluted route for the sake of higher volume. But both do basically the same thing - mimic string movement and send it to our ears.

If the string vibration is inherently unpalatable, it will not sound nice no matter what ape is assigned to the job. I’m sure you’ve heard Paul by now: “No matter what mic you put on Barbara Streisand she’s not gonna sound like Paul Rodgers”. It’s true.

That inherent tone can vary widely in individual guitars built to exactly the same design but different woods.

Cataloging and communicating those differences according to wood species however, is mission impossible.

Find a guitar with the best inherent tone by acoustic evaluation, then assign the best pickup to it. Can’t go wrong.