Rosewood vs Maple necks?

Andrew Paul

Andrew Paul

The cat's meow
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Majority of my PRS guitars I’ve owned are the tried and true mahogany body/maple cap with mahogany neck. My MEV has a maple neck with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and seems to resonate brighter than my guitars with mahogany necks. I understand that pickups have a lot to do with it but, forum member, Permanent Waves, and his recent thread post “Guitar shoot out with PRS models in the 90s” reminded me of when I once owned a 90’s CE24 with Alder body/Maple cap, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, and how bright that guitar rang versus the normal CU24 with mahogany both I believe they had same pickups.

OK now my question, how does Rosewood neck vs maple neck (with rosewood fingerboard) sound tone wise? Anyone have both? I’d like to hear your experiences regarding tone comparisons.

Another question does anyone have the same model PRS one with a maple neck and one with a rosewood neck (with rosewood fingerboard)? How do they compare?

Thanks all !
 
Greywolf said:
Maple will inherently be a bit brighter , the rosewood fretboard helps to tame that . Rosewood has a warmer , fuller spectrum sound.

For reference here are the Janka scale numbers for a few of the popular options , the higher the number the denser the wood .​

African Mahogany 830​

Sapele 1410
Curly Hard Maple1450

Indian Rosewood 1660 ​

African Padauk 1970​

Ziricote2200​

Cocobolo 2960 ​

Macassar Ebony 3250​

Click to expand...
So higher the number doesn’t necessarily mean brighter sound does it? I didn’t realize Indian Rosewood was denser than maple.
 
Mahogany is warmer, maple is brighter. My experience has been that the neck wood makes more difference in tone than most think. I have a Cu22 with the typical mahogany neck, and a CE22 with a maple neck. The tones are exactly as one would think. The Cu22 is warmer and the CE22 is brighter.

Now I know some will say pickups and bolt on v set neck are going to make them different. Ok, but that maple neck sure makes a difference in tone, if you ask me. I have another Cu22 with a BRW neck, and its tone is different from the Cu22 with mahogany. Still warm, but darker with less highs. I hear a big difference.
 
Greywolf said:
Easiest sonic comparison .. .Clapton Blackie or Carlos .... Most of your tone comes from the neck
Click to expand...
This right here ^^^^

I experienced this first hand many years ago. I know that there are some differences like the exact cut of wood, pot variances, pickup variances and such but I could hear a difference. I was looking for a Tele and couldn't decide between the two fretboard materials, maple or rosewood. I did a lot of business in this shop and the guys knew me well. I told the guy I was talking to that I didn't know if I would really hear a difference. He told me that he knew my ear well enough that he could guarantee I would hear a difference. He dialed up a sound on an amp and he played when then they other. There was definitely a difference in the top end and upper mids of the guitars. We pulled a few other guitars down and did the same thing with them. The results were pretty consistent across all of the guitars. I have been a believer since then in tone woods. After enough years of experience, I have come to the same conclusion, the bulk of the tone differences come from the neck.
 
I have a couple of pretty close matches.

Best match is CU22: one mahogany/rosewood, one Indian/Indian, one Braz/Braz. All have maple capped mahogany bodies. The mahogany neck does have a term, the others are stop tail. But you didn’t really ask for that comparison, so I’ll carry on.

Best I can do with maple versus mahogany is a couple of SC. 245 is mahogany with Braz board, stop tail. 250 is maple with African Blackwood and a trem. Both sound really good. I find the mahogany Braz to be biased more to the mid range - what I consider a fairly traditional blues tone. The maple Blackwood favours the high end a bit more, and I find it a bit more articulate. By that I mean notes are more distinct, particularly with a distinct initiation. Both sustain well, but differ in the decay, most notably in that the maple Blackwood holds the higher harmonics longer.
 
JasonE said:
This right here ^^^^

I experienced this first hand many years ago. I know that there are some differences like the exact cut of wood, pot variances, pickup variances and such but I could hear a difference. I was looking for a Tele and couldn't decide between the two fretboard materials, maple or rosewood. I did a lot of business in this shop and the guys knew me well. I told the guy I was talking to that I didn't know if I would really hear a difference. He told me that he knew my ear well enough that he could guarantee I would hear a difference. He dialed up a sound on an amp and he played when then they other. There was definitely a difference in the top end and upper mids of the guitars. We pulled a few other guitars down and did the same thing with them. The results were pretty consistent across all of the guitars. I have been a believer since then in tone woods. After enough years of experience, I have come to the same conclusion, the bulk of the tone differences come from the neck.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that reply!
 
Greywolf said:
Click to expand...

Greywolf said:
Easiest sonic comparison .. .Clapton Blackie or Carlos .... Most of your tone comes from the neck
Click to expand...

I appreciate your replies! It's funny when I think of Carlos Santana his first PRS Guitars were mahogany body/maple cap with mahogany neck with Brazilian rosewood fretboard. Then it changed to Mahogany body/maple cap with Rosewood neck/fingerboard (Brazilian or Indian depending).

Yeah, Clapton and Santana, two tone monsters!
 
veinbuster said:
I have a couple of pretty close matches.

Best match is CU22: one mahogany/rosewood, one Indian/Indian, one Braz/Braz. All have maple capped mahogany bodies. The mahogany neck does have a term, the others are stop tail. But you didn’t really ask for that comparison, so I’ll carry on.

Best I can do with maple versus mahogany is a couple of SC. 245 is mahogany with Braz board, stop tail. 250 is maple with African Blackwood and a trem. Both sound really good. I find the mahogany Braz to be biased more to the mid range - what I consider a fairly traditional blues tone. The maple Blackwood favours the high end a bit more, and I find it a bit more articulate. By that I mean notes are more distinct, particularly with a distinct initiation. Both sustain well, but differ in the decay, most notably in that the maple Blackwood holds the higher harmonics longer.
Click to expand...
Thank you! very helpful
 
AP515 said:
Mahogany is warmer, maple is brighter. My experience has been that the neck wood makes more difference in tone than most think. I have a Cu22 with the typical mahogany neck, and a CE22 with a maple neck. The tones are exactly as one would think. The Cu22 is warmer and the CE22 is brighter.

Now I know some will say pickups and bolt on v set neck are going to make them different. Ok, but that maple neck sure makes a difference in tone, if you ask me. I have another Cu22 with a BRW neck, and its tone is different from the Cu22 with mahogany. Still warm, but darker with less highs. I hear a big difference.
Click to expand...
Excellent reply, thank you very much!
 
dmatthews said:
More gain, less grain?
Click to expand...
Lol, nice catch phrase Dave!

I've just noticed over the years that at some point along the tone super highway, gain seems to dominate the tone and while the different types of wood may provide subtle differences, they are just that, subtle. Now if we go to the opposite end of the guitar spectrum and look at acoustic guitars, I think the difference tone woods impart is readily apparent.

But then again, what do I know? I'm just here for the refreshments mostly :)
 
Andrew Paul said:
Majority of my PRS guitars I’ve owned are the tried and true mahogany body/maple cap with mahogany neck. My MEV has a maple neck with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and seems to resonate brighter than my guitars with mahogany necks. I understand that pickups have a lot to do with it but, forum member, Permanent Waves, and his recent thread post “Guitar shoot out with PRS models in the 90s” reminded me of when I once owned a 90’s CE24 with Alder body/Maple cap, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, and how bright that guitar rang versus the normal CU24 with mahogany both I believe they had same pickups.

OK now my question, how does Rosewood neck vs maple neck (with rosewood fingerboard) sound tone wise? Anyone have both? I’d like to hear your experiences regarding tone comparisons.

Another question does anyone have the same model PRS one with a maple neck and one with a rosewood neck (with rosewood fingerboard)? How do they compare?

Thanks all !
Click to expand...
I've had CU22 Soapbars with all-maple (fretboard and neck) and IRW and maple. I've had RW necks. I've had maple and BRW.

I think it's like subtractive synthesis. Different woods feed back vibrations to the string, canceling out certain frequencies and reinforcing others, and every different wood acts as its own resonant filter.

I find that maple necks, regardless of fretboard material, seem to have a more hollow, almost woodwind type sound on the neck pickup, and that for me is the main difference. A maple fretboard seems to accentuate pick attack a little more, rosewood has a slower attack and warms it up, but with a bit of sparkle, especially BRW.

Rosewood necks seem to be most resonant in the lower midrange.
 
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