The ShadowMusic Web Community

Hi, was wondering about guitar fret-boards and necks, sound and feel. Between the two,

Maple or Rosewood

My current guitar is a 50's classic player's strat with a maple fret-board and a V shape neck. I like the feel of the V-neck but it took me a while to get used to the maple neck.
Before i was using a Tokai PRS copy with a rosewood neck and it felt nice, but it had a unusually wide C-shape neck which took some time to get used to.

Also does the fret-board or neck make a difference to the sound?

I am asking what does everyone else feel about this?

Sam.

Fretboard, yes. Not sure about the shape, though...

George

I have 50s and 60s Classic series Stratocasters with maple and rosewood fret boards (they both have 57/62 pickups and US hardware) and it is my opinion that the sound from the rosewood strat is slightly more 'mellow'.
Cheers,
JB

Hi, thanks everybody, what would be better for the shadows sound?

Sam.

Think Im right in saying that while most Shads fans have maple neck Strats - most of the Shads hits were on rosewood neck strats!

I've had two Strats with maple necks and I have to say that I much prefer rosewood. I think it feels much warmer to play.
I once had an electric with an ebony neck and it was fantastic to play. Pity Fender did'nt use that wood on their instruments
Well I aint seen any with it.

neil2726 wrote:Think Im right in saying that while most Shads fans have maple neck Strats - most of the Shads hits were on rosewood neck strats!

I have a feeling that many more of the original early Shads hits than you imagine were probably recorded on that first Maple board Strat. We may have seen them performed live on TV on 'Sunday Night at the London palladium' with the Rosewood board matching set, but I guess a lot of them would have been 'in the can' already for some time ready to be released in due course. I'm sure one of our statistics experts will be able to enlighten us on this point. I don't think the Shads had their F.Red matching set of Fenders for that long; they were soon switched to White ones & then to the famous Burns Marvins.

Tony.

neil2726 wrote:Think Im right in saying that while most Shads fans have maple neck Strats - most of the Shads hits were on rosewood neck strats!

The Shadows only got the rosewood neck Strats around mid 1961, they had already recorded many hits before that, and it doesn't mean that Hank stopped to use the original maple neck one for recording after that...

Didier

Very interesting, any other facts?

Most necks are made of wood.