The Maple vs Rosewood Debate: When Will It End?

The reason why Leo Fender used maple wood to make the earliest Fenders was simple. Maple was abundant and easily obtained around the area Leo had set up his factory. And that production method had continued into the late 50's, where rosewood and maple fingerboards were made available as an option for the customers. Thick rosewood boards appeared on 1959 Strats (most famously played by Rory Gallagher), hence the term "slab board". Towards the end of Leo's ownership of the company (which CBS bought over Fender in 1965), Leo had experimented with laminating the rosewood onto the maple fingerboard, giving it a round-radiused bottom as well as being very thin, hence the term "round-lam board". Wait, you're confused about the terms and years... so where does that bring us? Back on the debated topic, of course.

Let's base these ideas off the fact that Leo Fender is no guitarist, and that he knows nothing about "tone", but rather playability, durability, cost, everything you can imagine of from a business standpoint. Now, maple was and still is, the most commonly used wood. Tell me, how often do you see maple-necked guitars, regardless of it being rosewood-boarded, ebony-boarded or just plain 1-piece maple, it's all still a maple-based neck. All the Strat/Tele-styles that you can think of out there, whether it's made in China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, USA, Mexico etc, they're mostly fitted with maple necks. Back in the 40's though, not many guitars come with maple necks "fitted". Leo Fender thought it'd be a smart idea to bolt-on a neck instead of setting it in with glue. This saves manufacturing cost and labour hours. But the very popular mahogany wood during that time is a medium density wood which will not withstand being screwed in and unscrewed many times (which was supposedly the proposed function of a bolt-on design), so Leo had to choose a harder, higher density wood. Leo doesn't pick wood based on tone, he picks them based on how much do they cost, how easy is it to obtain them. So maple became the right choice of wood.

Along the way, Leo received some complaints from his customers, saying the pale colour of the maple gets worn and dirty-up very easily (as seen on many maple-boarded vintage Fenders), which led Leo to come up with another solution --- the tried and true rosewood fingerboard. By gluing on a slab of rosewood on the neck, there's no way for the fingerboard to look dirty and gunky anymore from far away. Just as Leo Fender thought he had solved the problem, there comes the complaints.

It appears to some customers' ears that the rosewood had dulled the treble frequencies a bit, resulting in less clarity and cut. They wanted the rosewood board to conceal the fingerboard mess, but still wanted the "tone" of the maple fingerboard. The year 1962, is the year Leo started implementing the round-laminated rosewood board. The thin layer of rosewood "shields" the maple neck from dirt, and at the same time, is too thin to have any effect on the tone.

However, the very thin round-lam boards weren't found on most modern Fenders anymore because at some point in the 70's, nitrocellulose lacquer was ditched and replaced by polyester finishes, not because they were better but rather because of the car industry changes. Car bumpers were made to flex upon impact, and nitrocellulose will crack even under the lightest tap from a car accident. Polyesters were able to absorb some minor shock and still maintain the surface gleam after flexing, so it worked for the car industry. Not for the guitar industry though...Guitars in the 70's were claimed to be "tone-suckers", although it's not entirely the finish's fault. The guitars seen in the 50's collected battle scars like nobody's business, but the 70's Fenders don't even dent at all unless abused hard. Which is also the reason why round-lam boards were gone. Polyester-finished maple necks won't get worn and dirty, and even if they do get grimy, a simple wipedown will get rid of the gunks. No more dirty-board woes. So naturally, only the slab rosewood and one-piece maple neck camp still existed.

So the next time you hear a difference between a maple fingerboard/rosewood fingerboard, check and see if it's a round-lam or a slab board. Check and see if you've been tricking your own mind with the "rosewood = darker/warmer" perception. Are you really hearing the wood, or does this particular guitar sound brighter/darker? Or is it the pickup doing it's own thing? You'll be surprised how a rosewood 'board guitar can be brighter than a maple 'board guitar. Been there, done that, and got my preconceptions thrown out of the window. AND have been preaching this truth to my friends ever since.

Pickups matter more.

This is Bernard signing out from my first post of 2016!