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I’ve heard some luthiers explain how fingerboard material makes a difference in the instrument’s sound.... I’d like to understand this more. Aren’t we playing against the frets? How does the material matter, and in your experience which materials make which differences?
B


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"I’ve heard some luthiers explain how fingerboard material makes a difference in the instrument’s sound.... I’d like to understand this more"

So which Luthiers, and what was their explanation? Knowing that might help with understanding.

Well, pretty big difference between a maple neck strat and a rosewood strat...just cause that kind of tone difference would be buried under more influential things don't mean it's not there. My .02

As well, usually FB and bridge material are a match, and there's quite a bit of difference in mass between a rosewood and an Ebony bridge for instance, which will definitely have an effect on timbre...

FB wood type and it's thickness versus the rest of the neck will affect stiffness of the neck and thereby affect note decay and overall tone. The neck is not heard directly, it gives feed back to the system and provides over/under tones

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I've heard mostly electric guitar builders make that claim. I can't say I know one way or another and really the only way to know would be to make a guitar with a removable fretboard and run tests.

I suppose that anything you put on a guitar has an effect on the sound to one degree or another. The type of wood I use for the fretboard is not something that I worry about other that how it will look, how well it takes frets and how well it will wear over time.

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Steve Smith
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The more beautiful the fretboard wood, the more beautiful will be the sound of the music. It is a direct corelation, because most people hear with their eyes.

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There was a recent thread on this, I think. The most coherent argument seemed to be that the stiffer the neck and lighter the headstock the more sustain. However the effect is very subtle and drowned out by all the other much stronger influences in an acoustic guitar. It might be noticeable in an electric guitar where most of the wood influences are pared way back and sustain takes a bigger role.


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