Tele Neck - Rosewood or Maple???

  • Thread starter Thread starter gvarko
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gvarko

gvarko

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Please help recommend a neck. I am building a tele from parts and have an African Mahogany body that needs a neck. I like the look of maple, but prefer the feel of Rosewood.

Which would be more suited to the Mahogany body? Is one better for a paticular style of playing?

Thanks
 
My 71 is maple so I have a little bias. I admit rosewood fingerboards are a LITTLE faster but I don't do much of the neutron finger dance anymore so it's not an issue for me. I just love the look of the maple.
 
Well, as always with these kinds of questions, it's ultimately going to come down to just a matter of personal preference. There's no "right or wrong" choice, and neither will be particularly better suited for a particular type of music. It's just what you prefer.

Having said that, I personally feel that you really need an all maple neck (i.e. a maple fingerboard on top of the maple neck) to really bring out that "quack" that is - to me - the characteristic sound of a telecaster.

As far as being a good match for the body wood, I have always felt that you need to do something to brighten the sound a little bit, anytime that you've got an all mahogany instrument. Either make sure it's got a maple top, or use an all maple neck, or make sure you use pickups with an extra dose of treble bite. Otherwise, the instrument will just be too mellow. The maple 'board will sound slightly brighter than the rosewood. (I'm assuming the rest of the neck will be maple either way, and you're just wanting to know what fingerboard to put on it.)

Ultimately, it comes down to what particular sound you're shooting for, and how the various parts (including woods and electronics) work together.
 
Telecaster and Maple is the way to go IMO. A Strat can go either way.
 
What bassman brad said is spot on.

If you're looking for as much bite as you can get go with the maple. You can probably get a good bite with the rosewood board if you add really twangy (and/or active) pickups, but the stock ones probably won't do it. Thay'll bite, certainly, but not bite and rip. You know what I mean.

If you're not as attached to the classic tele bite, and especially if that's a natural finish body, the rosewood board looks pretty exotic. I have a walnut natrual finish body and rosewood board (on a maple neck) and it gets plenty of bite but not enough to tear my head off. Which is what I wanted. :)

Have fun!
Chris
 
Rosewood will be a bit warmer, and maple will be a bit brighter.

Another thing to consider - Maple fingerboards MUST be finished if you want them to last. This has a number of fairly major problems, most importantly is that they are financially completely unreasonable to refret. You will eventually wear away the frets to some degree (unless of course you have stainless frets, and even then you may wear them away, we just haven't seen them for long enough to be sure. They will certainly last a lot longer though.) When you do wear away the frets, you can get a fret dress the first time or two (or three or four, if you get big frets), but then it will need a refret. On a rosewood board that is still a $300 job, which is an awful lot, but on a maple fingerboard it is $500-600, which is only ever resonable on the most valuable of vintage fingerboards (and even then only if they have been refreted before, as a refret will affect the value of the neck - and yes I think that is fucking idiotic, but the real vintage freaks want their stuff ORIGINAL, even if it is so fucked up it is useless).

Oh yeah, and if you want the brighter sound without the future repair issues of maple, plus most of the feel of rosewood (it is different, but it is still bare wood) look at ebony. Of course, the look is more like rosewood (particularly if you use a real strippy piece such as Macassar Ebony).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I gotta second the motion for ebony, not only is it tough, it gives a guitar "class" and ages beautifully.
 
That would be Rosewood if...

If you want to have a Steve Cropper sound from all those Stax records. He liked the warmth of the rosewood, it doesn't sound as reedy as the maple necks. If you do like me, you'd think of your favorite tele player and go for what kind of neck they have.
 
thetallman916 said:
If you want to have a Steve Cropper sound from all those Stax records. He liked the warmth of the rosewood, it doesn't sound as reedy as the maple necks. If you do like me, you'd think of your favorite tele player and go for what kind of neck they have.
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Yeah, but the tele in the enitial post will have a mahogany body, so it will never sound like a "real" Tele no matter what. Tele's have ash or alder bodies, which far outweights the sound of the neck and fingerboard. The question is do you want the guitar brighter or warmer, what are the future repair issues involved, and which one has the look you like, not what someone else has on a "real" Tele.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Chicken Chokin

I have a relatively new American Tele- maple neck- and I differ with the earlier post. I stripped the finish off as soon as I could- just the raw wood now. It plays and sounds like a real guitar now.

I did the same thing with an old Fernades Revival Strat that I had (got stolen :(). There is something about playing a piece of wood that feels like wood- or does that mean that I like playin my own wood? :)
 
TheRockDoc said:
I have a relatively new American Tele- maple neck- and I differ with the earlier post. I stripped the finish off as soon as I could- just the raw wood now. It plays and sounds like a real guitar now.

I did the same thing with an old Fernades Revival Strat that I had (got stolen :(). There is something about playing a piece of wood that feels like wood- or does that mean that I like playin my own wood? :)
Click to expand...


It means that your guitar will be ruined in at most 5 years, and that your neck will move like a diving board from season to season. A hard protective finish on a maple neck may not FEEL as good, but without it you are distroying your neck.

It is not just an opinion that maple must be finished, it is a simple fact of woodworking. You can "differ" all you want, but you are still wrong.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Is that completely true??

Light said:
Yeah, but the tele in the enitial post will have a mahogany body, so it will never sound like a "real" Tele no matter what.
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I have seen original 73 bigsby equiped Tele's with Mahogany bodies.

I selected a Mahogany body on purpose, with the hopes of getting a deeper, warmer sounding Tele. I have owned MIA Tele's with Alder bodies and found them to be too twangy. I know a Tele should be somewhat twangy, but I don't play country and could not adjust to the tone.
 
gvarko said:
I have seen original 73 bigsby equiped Tele's with Mahogany bodies.

I selected a Mahogany body on purpose, with the hopes of getting a deeper, warmer sounding Tele. I have owned MIA Tele's with Alder bodies and found them to be too twangy. I know a Tele should be somewhat twangy, but I don't play country and could not adjust to the tone.
Click to expand...


Oh, I wasn't saying you were doing anything wrong here. It just will not have that classic tele sound, that's all.

There is nothing wrong with coming up with you own guitar sound. Not at all.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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