Brazilian Rosewood. Better than, um, ordinary

[jwoods986]

I could understand a tone difference on an acoustic, since the wood is being used on the body. But on an electric guitar fingerboard? I doubt it. Like people who think they can here a difference between a Strat body made from one piece of wood vs. two pieces glued together. Please........

[Rupe]

IMO, anyone who says they can hear a difference is hearing the effects of other components. You are likely to experience minor tonal differences between two pieces of similar wood. This, in my opinion, is the only thing that can account for the people who claim to hear the difference. Do a test like the one my friends and I conducted (see my 1st post) and you'll see that it is all a bunch of hype...most likely started by people who own guitars with Brazilian rosewood.

[Tiddles]

I think this idea comes from the Les Paul Forum. And it arises because original Les Paul’s were made with Brazilian rosewood and mahogany, ie in the 1950’s when people weren’t so concerned about forest devastation in other countries. Nowadays people claim 1950’s Les Paul’s have a special fantastic tone & the guitars command prices over $200K.

I think someone above mentioned “tone snobs”, OK well those guys claim to hear a difference and are willing to pay $1000’s extra for the claim of Brazilian wood…I say “claim” because although historically you can identify small generalized differences in the appearance of rosewood from different species/countries/origins, in fact I’d bet money that not one of those people could consistently tell Brazilian rosewood from any other sources/species of rosewood.

I know a lot of guys here have guitars with ebony boards, and have to say I often like the matt black look of ebony boards, but although I have an old Les Paul with an ebony board I would never claim to hear a difference due to the ebony … the ebony feels very slightly different, but as Otranad said…the problem with guys claiming to hear all sorts of tone improvements, whether from fretboards or maple caps or whatever, is that they are comparing two completely different guitars under hopelessly variable conditions…as a scientific or meaningful test that’s a non-starter.

Just 2:cents of course lol!

Ian.

[sl2lover]

For fretboards I prefer ebony! But as far as a classical guitar, BR is the way to go as far as the back and sides!!