Hiya, Mutt. How be shit? You still oiling your fretboards with the oil extracted from black rhino fat?
Not unless black Rhino fat has mineral oil scented with essence of lemon in it ..
Come on then, give us your two penneth?
Ok. Wont take long.
Wood does make a difference. How much depends on what wood, on what instrument, where it's used and how. The overriding factor on electrics is pickup placement, type, and what string alloy and windings you opt for. Any instrument is the sum of it's parts and some parts add more to the sum than others.
The guy in that video is an idiot with a some understanding of wave mechanics and acoustics from which he has selected certain known laws of physics but conveniently chosen to ignore a ton of others as well as draw conclusions that are incorrect. He is also wrong.
If you are worried about the tiny difference a fretboard may have on the eventual sound of an instrument you are focusing on the minutiae and will probably never truly be able to loosen up enough to play shit.
If you asked me which is best for tone purposes I'd just tell you to pick which one you like the look and feel of. If you asked me the same question of neck timber or body timber you'd get a different answer.
The issue of sustainability of timbers is a big one. If you left me to chose which one to use for you I would go with rosewood for sustainability reasons. Ebony is currently right near the top of all endangered timbers.
Gibson were guilty of breaching the CITES treaty and deserved to be punished. What they were doing was intended to give them a competitive advantage over other makers and industry's that use those woods. Anyone who uses those timbers or anything covered under CITES is oblidged to act under the terms of the agreement or face the consequences under the law in their own country. I do.
To say it's just wood is about as dumb as saying about the current VW sting that they are just cars. True they are just cars, but when compared to other cars they are different due to design and the fact that the drive and desirability are a result of them being the sum of their parts. What VW did is akin to Gibson in that they used deceit beyond the law to gain a competitive advantage.
Sustainability is a very pressing and real issue to our industry and many others. We can not be cavalier about it.
To finish I would just point out that spruce is not a hardwood..