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Fingerboard Dilemma


stewblack

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4 hours ago, Muzz said:

I've had a maple boarded Ric and still have a maple board T-Bird (kinda)... 😀

Thinking about it, Lemmy's born to lose bass is a nice Ric with a maple board and fenderbirds look good with maple too....

I guess it goes to show that the fret board wood doesn't matter that much as long as it sits nicely with the rest of the bass. 

Dots Vs blocks is probably a bigger factor for me if I had a choice! 😂

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Of the 11 basses I own 10 have dark fingerboards (2 ebony, 2 pau ferro, 2 wengé,  4 rosewood)

I was never partial to certain fingerboards and I think the numbers above come from the fact that those basses I wanted / liked / kept in the end had mosty dark wooden boards as part of the specs. The one exception is my Atelier Z custom M265. There is just something for me in a '70 kind of jazz bass look...maple with white bindigs and block inlays.

569055_main_l_201803151915.thumb.jpg.7a2c35515365adeec2753040c93e53e1.jpg

 

Edited by Paulhauser
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Maple miost if the time until my “Steinberger” phase (thanks Hohner)! Then maple, a Yammy BB, then maple jazz, maple esp and maple Sub MM. happy with them all. Now I’m Spector. Don’t think it matters much either way.

Edited by merello
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I’ve never played a bass with a light wood fingerboard. I was just looking at the three current basses in the rack, both the ACGs have fingerboard made of extremely dark ebony. The exception is the RA Mouse, which is various shades of mid-brown but gets a pass as it’s simply a thing of immense beauty. As ridiculous as I know it is, I suppose function should trump form, I don’t even consider a bass if it has a light fingerboard, no idea why. I’m not just ambivalent about them, they actually repulse me a little bit, maybe because the light wood reminds me of the humiliating weekly torture of the school gym...

...issues. 😳

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With Fenders, I’ve tended to find, with no inherent bias either way, that I prefer the sound of maple boards. I also find them easier to see when I am in low light (yes, I do look at the board quite a bit, one of my failings). I’ve also often found that many basses with ebony boards - of which I’ve had several - seem to have a clackiness that isn’t my preference. Of course there could be other factors, for instance they’ve all been active, but even acoustically it seems to be there. I think it entirely depends on the bass though. One bad experience I had with my Squier P (Rosewood board) was the venue had a pink light in the mix and whenever it came on my fretmarkers, front and side, completely disappeared. As I wasn’t that familiar with the bass at the time it really put me off. I don’t know why the rosewood boards don’t all have separate black side markers a la the Nate Mendel. 

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I another one who cares about the whole aesthetic of the bass, not the finger board per se.  None of my basses have a maple board, but my favourite electric guitar to play is a Fender Tele with a maple board and that looks great.  I'm more fussed about inlays (oddly - I don't like dots, but have to concede that there are some instruments that suit them - the Tele being one, and a Les Paul DC Special being another - they seem to reinforce the non-fanciness of the guitars)

That said...

A couple of years ago I got a Lowden acoustic that has an ebony board, and I've been mildly obsessed with ebony fingerboards ever since.  There's just something about the way they feel.  My soon to be delivered Wal will have one, and in idle moments I start thinking about how much it might cost to get the wenge board on my Warwick replaced with ebony...

Not because of the look (well, not entirely true - the rest of the Warwick is black so an ebony board would slightly improve the look of it) but because of the feel

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Yep, that's how it works for me; I can look at a bass and know I wouldn't like it, whether it's colours, woods, shape or the pickup type/position...

It took several attempts with various basses to get to that point, though...

Edited by Muzz
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