Funny how Fender went with rosewood because the maple showed age and usage….now they charge extra to make maple necks look that way!

Now, the only problem is convincing my wife why I need three Strats.

11:14 In my humble opinion that is true for so much more than just fretboards. Even switching from a Peavey Wolfgang to a 1971 Les Paul Custom during a live concert doesn't change that much of what's being experienced by the audience in the room, but obviously it makes an immense difference for me. For me, whatever inspires you in any given moment is the right thing to use!

Thank you very much for sharing the wav files!

When I compared a Squier to a Fender standard/custom shop/original '63 loads of people didn't hear a difference either, which is totally understandable. They all sound very much like a guitar. This is basically the same, but even more extreme I guess. There are differences, but they are marginal. But if you've been playing guitar for so many years and for so many hours a day, these subtleties are easier to spot. I don't even know if it's the wood, or just the fact that it's different necks/nuts/tuning pegs. For what it's worth: camp Rosewood.

I think we can all agree that what made Jimi Hendrix so great was his incredible choices of fretboard wood.

This is a really useful video mate. Thanks and subscribed!

Awesome Rhett. Never saw a demonstration like this. You're incredible.

I closed my eyes and listened to the entire thing and I could not tell when you switched.

I heard more of a difference than I expected. Thanks for taking the time to run this experiment.

Very very cool video!! I loved the sound of all three necks but for me the snappyness of that Roadworn Neck maple neck was so friggin sweet! I have done several neck swaps on my strats and teles turning average playing, feeling and sounding guitars into great guitars. It was fun listening to it in a test last this. Thank you!

long time viewer. Just subscribed. Been wondering about this for a long time. Thank you.

Hi Rhett, I thought it would be less noticeable than that. Great video and explanation/analysis. That strat is awesome with all 3 necks!

Great video Rhett! I have a Fender California Series Telecaster with rosewood neck and I always wondered why the sound is darker than other Fender guitars. After more than 20 years I found the answer!

Awesome review. Definitely hear the difference in all 3.

Definitely agree..! I have rosewood, maple and ebony neck guitars. The rosewood is really warmer, absolutely. Maybe that's why Jimmy Page, Slash, Satriani and Vai always wanted rosewood neck on their guitars.. Keep rockin' guys..!

🔥Awesome video man!! In the studio, I always hear the difference too, on top of that, i have a few strats at home and the findings are always the same, and we all know it. just like you said, “everyone should get what fits them”. Both their needs and LIMITATIONS.(my editorial addition) 🤘🏻

Oh boy.... The PTSD this gave me. The great Tonewood Wars of the early to mid 2010s.... What a time to be alive

Kudos to you it your video editor. Excellent video!!

Hi Rhett, Great comparison!! Thanks for sharing this. I changed the neck one time. There was some time in between the change. There was a big difference. One neck was USA 2006 rosewood the other MIM 2022 pay ferro. The way of playing and the tone changed extreme. I did a lot of these comparisons on different guitars with different parts. Every part has a big influence on tone. You can have a guitar which challenge you or not with changing some little details. The most interesting I found the Strat Tremelo system. By sanding the Fender tremolo blocks the chime and sustain increased extreme. The Callaham gives the old chime. The electronics like wiring, pots and paper in oil caps also make a lot of tone and quality of the sound. My comparison between a standard Fender Fat 50’s pickguard and a wiring harness made by a luthier with paper in oil cap vs the cheap ceramic. He worked 15 years for Fender and had a lot of Custom Shop Guitars on the bench. This difference in electronics was really the difference of a very good sounding guitar into a bizar good sounding guitar. My conclusion is that all changes matter!! Wood, hardware, electronics, pickups, nut, etc. All these challenge the player or not. With all these knowledge you can let guitars with a good basis (wood!!!!!) letting sound like custom shop or even vintage.

Nice touch starting with some Knopfler on the red strat. It’s the little details.

This is such a cool idea. Thanks for spending time to put this together. Cheers!

Great video. Thank you for your efforts

Thanks for this video. I totally agree that you can hear the difference and that the rosewood is slightly warmer. Also great that you point out that no one who isn’t as nerdy as us “guitar people” ever will hear the difference or care. So the only one it matters to is the player and like you say if you have a preference you should go with it. It’s not better or worse just a matter of taste. Love that you did this. 😊 Also, isn’t it reasonable to assume that Leo, being a business man, quite simply skipped a step in production and just put the fret wire straight in to the neck to save cost? I mean there is a reason why strats are kind of the most common and wide spread guitar type ever. Partly because it was readily available to the mass market at a affordable cost. Again thanks for great video.

I just love the look of maple fretboards and never cared about change in sound. I heared "rumors" but I never thought it would be this clear in a kinda scientific comparism. This is a cool ear-opener.

Great video. Pretty amazing to hear the clear differences between the different necks.

Great video! Thank you!!

this is the exact result I came up with 10+ years ago doing the exact test. I prefer the RW sound for my playing. ...Glad you went thru the effort to bring this to us Rhett! Thanks!

I was definitely surprised, and I like the snappier maple sound. I switched to Maple, because I can see the strings better, so I'm super grateful you did this and set my mind at ease that I'm not giving up the tone I like. Good job!!

It's over Rhett. You live in a post-Jim Lill world now.

Great video. And great idea to post the raw files - nice work Rhett. My heart always said that such things made a difference, but my head believed the naysayers. Good to get such a 'scientific' comparison.

Awesome video Rhett 💯😎

@11:32 The sound and feel of a guitar ABSOLUTELY affects the way I play. This is th reason why I choose certain guitars for certain gigs. I hear in my head when I think I may want a Les Paul, or my blackguard Tele, or one of my Strats, or my 335. They all sound and feel differently, and it's reflected in my playing.

Had my eyes closed during the A/B comparisons of the rosewood vs maple and other than the first playing where i had yet to shut my eyes, i could only tell when the neck had changed maybe 2 times out of 10

I agree with your analysis! Great guitar nerd watch! Very interesting

I’ve always thought that maple was touch brighter, and that’s what I learned/read/was told… I love them all. I’ve had them all at different points. I usually go guitar by guitar about my overall experience… all good! Great nerd video!

Definitely a difference in tone. Thank You

In this instance below are my favorites 1. Road Worn '50s Maple Strat Neck - Winner 2. Roasted Maple Strat Neck - 2nd place (I wanted this to win) 3. Rosewood fretboard - 3rd place (sounds a little muffled - not my types)

Well said about the audience not caring about the specifics of your guitar. Thanks for the demonstration. Yes, there really is a difference between the types of fretboard woods' sound. After this demonstration, I'll never looks at fretboard woods the same way. This was truly educational.

Nice shirt Rhett!! Good content here

I owned strats with different fingerboards, and now I have two that I cannot decide between. I believe that the rosewood sounds nicer to the ear, it's warmer and more round. It is also kinda softer to the touch. The maple neck strat that I own now is snappier, brighter and in my opinion cuts through the mix better than the rosewood. So, I think there are just different uses for the two fingerboard types. I would use the rosewood strat in solo playing, bluesy stuff, and the maple in a funky rhythm band situations. It's best to have two! :)

Well done comparison again, Rhett! Aaron of Warmoth Guitars did a very good video comparing different neck woods some time ago, too. Your comparison just proved what I had already experienced myself and expected. In my opinion the neck's material makes a much bigger difference than the body material of a guitar or bass. I'm pretty shure, the reason for this is that the neck takes the much longer part of the whole scale length of the instrument and therefore has a much bigger influence on the overall resonance of the guitar. I assume, that the sound difference between the thin coated road worn maple neck and the roasted maple neck comes primarily from the high gloss finished fretboard. As the frets are embedded in laquer, they transfer the vibrations differently to the neck, I think. It's a subtle but noticeable difference. To be honest, I liked the roasted maple neck the most. I like the snappiness and glassy high end of maple necks and the roasted maple neck didn't sound quite as harsh as the road worn one. Lucky me, I also like high gloss finished necks, so the choice is an easy one for me.

So, so cool. You’ve confirmed what I’ve thought I’ve known for a long time. It also confirms what my preferences. I also believe no two guitars are the same. To me it’s the spirit of the guitar.

Thanks for a great video! I agree, the road worn is definitely brighter and snappier, and completely agree with your assessments! Personally I like the Road worn maple the best when looking for a strat sound, having that really clear bright tone to cut through the mix for a funky rhythm guitar groove.

I’ve often wondered if the visual lightness of maple makes us think it sounds “brighter”, and the darkness of rosewood makes us characterise the sound as “darker”. The mind plays funny games…

You should give a few raps up and down the back of each neck , whilst unplugged, and listen to hear if there is any movement of the truss rod inside. In over 40+ years of doing guitar repairs I've found you might find a spot along the neck where the sound of the rap is noticeably different, indicating a slight space between the trussrod and the channel on the back of neck or under the fretboard. I do this before fitting any after market necks as well [Cheap necks off Ebay/Amazon have about a 5-10% failure rate of this test], and advise the owner to get a replacement that doesn't show this trait, as it's not really viable to repair.

Thanks for doing that experiment. I did not expect a difference myself, but I could hear the ever so subtle differences through cell phone speakers

I knew this a long time ago. It's like watching the wheel be re-invented. Good video.

How do we know that the string height is absolutely the same down to 100% ? Also, the pick attack is absolutely not the same, I hear that the Maple run is picked harder than the rest.

why are you so surprised about the results my man? this has been common knowledge amongst old guitar nerds since the late 50's....i can tell a maple neck on a strat a mile away

Very professional and even scientific analysis! Thank you.

Very relevant editing !!!

For sound (very minimum) I like the rosewood but for feel I would go with the 50's roasted maple. The thing is, within a song mix there would not be much diffenece noticed. You would simply get use to the original recording.

Arthur Pate and others at the Sorbonne in Paris did some experiments and found that the resonance properties of individual pieces of wood vary more than the difference between the average piece of maple and the average piece of rosewood. They measured a bunch of nominally "identical" guitars made in the same factory, differing only in the wood type used for the fretboards. They also did tests where they had guitarists play guitars in a dimly lit room with funny-colored light, so that they couldn't tell whether the fretboards were rosewood or maple, and then asked the guitarists to describe the sounds of the different guitars. There was no pattern of them describing either type as brighter or snappier or any of the things we're told about fretboard effects on sound.

Hey Rhett. Your chops and feel are on point. This is why I subbed. You’re an amazing player with great connects and reach. For those of us that are done with the buying of guitars and realize technique and soul matter more, It would mean so much to see tab and more instruction. Always hoping the best for ya *edits for humanity. Spanks

Great comparison and reinforcement that there is a difference in the tone different woods produce even in an electric! Perfect timing too because I posed this question in a recent video and as you can imagine, the comments section is completely split! 😂

I've got a 3 year college degree in lutherie. Altho I've not made a career out of it yet for obvious financial reason I can tell you this. Even if you pick wood from the same exact tree it can end up souding totally different from each other. We tuned our soundboards not by thickness but by putting weights on it and measuring how it flex and also various test with a frequency generator. A case could be made for neck thickness/ rigidity and sound.

That’s a lot of work! Thanks for the effort. I didn’t think there would be that much difference. The maple necks are definitely brighter, noticeable so. Personally I liked the 50s maple the most.

This was great! I agree with the conclusions.

Thanks for that! What I've seen in this video is exactly my experience with my strats, but now it's proven!

I'm with Leo...I prefer the looks of the Rosewood (or Darker) fretboards. The slight sound difference is irrelevant to me, a pickup change, EQ in the mix can make up the slight difference. If it means the world to you.

Always preferred rosewood boards on alder Strats and maple boards on ash Teles, this could explain why

GREAT VIDEO!...my experience playing -55 years- has shown me similar results...Use my Clapton Blackie Strat (25 yo)-maple neck- for certain sound/techniques....use my Jeff Beck Custom Shop (9 yo)-Rosewood- for certain sounds/techniques...DEFINITELY Different....Thanks! Lee

Good video. In all honesty I expected the results you found. But it’s so nice to see a video like this. I generally found the sounds more pleasing with the 50’s Road worn Maple. It might possibly explain one part of why I went away from playing a Strat to playing a Tele. I used to own a Strat with a rosewood neck. The sound was okay, but I never really at the time got the sound I had in my head from that guitar. Add to that I never really got on with the placement of the selector switch on a Strat. When I picked up a a Telecaster I was hooked. That guitar had a maple board & is a guitar I still own. In fact I have two telecasters, both with maple necks. Interestingly each has a slightly different vibe when I pick them up, which is down to other variations, such as on my JD Telecaster it has more of a V profile, but I digress. A couple of years ago I put together a Strat from various parts to get the guitar I wanted and the feel and sound of that I really do like. And yes I went with a Maple board. Rosewood has its place but I don’t think everything is down to Maple being snappy, bright & defined. Or Rosewood being warm, mellow & muffled. For me there is another thing. And it’s a tactile thing. I do own quite a few instruments, and each has a different feel in the hands and under the fingers as well as sonically. Fingerboard on rosewood necks probably to me vary probably more than anything, with how open or tight the grain is. Not really sure if this makes the slightest difference to tone. But I know which instruments I like to play more than others. And with maple I generally prefer for Fender style instruments.

The thing I gather from all these types of videos is that if there's a difference in tone at all it's minimal enough that when buying a guitar you really only have to worry about the feel and if you like the way it looks. The wood choice really isn't something that effects the recorded tone in a large enough way to matter.

Very interesting. The Maple has an emphasis around 4k, the Roasted maple has an emphasis around 6-8k, and the rosewood has an emphasis around 400hz with less top end than the maples. Thanks for sharing the raw files. Was fun to put them in the DAW and check it out blindly

Dude, that’s amazing!!! I’ve always strongly preferred rosewood fingerboards and here I’m hearing why! I also strongly prefer the way rosewood feels.

That was a brilliant video and I could definitely hear a difference. I've always prefer maple necks and lately roasted maple, for the looks, feel and sound, which is now officially recognized.

I bought the American Vintage II 61 Strat in Olympic White from Sweetwater and had them apply their PLEK setup service to it. It was and is astonishing just how flawlessly the guitar plays for me. Absolute perfection.

Just my two cents since I don’t see anyone here talking about vibration (FYI I am a mechanical engineer with experience in vibration analysis and mitigation). When a string vibrates it transfers energy into the guitar and causes it to vibrate. Since the guitar is now vibrating it will transfer energy back into the strings; this relationship goes both ways. Now, how the vibrations travel through the guitar and back into the strings has to do with natural frequency and transmissibility. Transmissibility is how effectively an object or material can conduct vibrational energy without dissipating it as heat (also known as dampening). Different materials dampen different frequencies at different magnitudes than others. Maple doesn’t add high frequency and ‘snappiness’ to a guitar, it is more correct to say that it doesn’t dampen high frequencies as much as mahogany or rosewood. Every object has a natural frequency, or a frequency it wants to vibrate at. The natural frequency of an object made of many parts is affected by the natural frequency of each individual part. So if you replace a part, such as a bridge saddle, tuner, fingerboard, etc. with something else that has a different natural frequency it will affect the whole object and how it vibrates. All that being said, parts on a guitar change how it vibrates, and how the guitar vibrates affects how the strings vibrate because they are attached to each other. Pickups will notice these changes in the vibrations of the strings, this is why strings sound different new vs three months later. Old strings have dirt and grime stuck to them and rust or corrosion, those changes affects how the string vibrates and therefore the sound. The reason old strings sound dull is the same scientific concept as why certain guitar body woods sound darker or brighter than others. If you can’t hear the difference or don’t care about the minute changes these things make, that’s fine, but at the end of the day that’s an opinion. Tried and true engineering doctrine developed over the last century that billions of dollars of machinery is built and operated on states that when an object vibrates, any object it is rigidly attached to will affect its vibration characteristics. I encourage everyone to look into the science behind this taught by real industry expects and PhD level researchers, not just musicians on KZfaq. The information is out there if you aren’t afraid of some math and high school level physics.

I love how you included the riff from "Just Kissed My Baby" (The Meters) in your comparison video. Great video and excellent comparison.✌🏼

Good test Rhett! I'm 0 and I have been a tech and builder for 40 years. You have proven my feelings about the different neck woods.

You should try an all-rosewood neck..one word: BRIGHT. Rosewood is a very dense wood, but the feel of an unfinished rosewood neck is hard to beat..

So it will make a subtle difference in sonic tone, but the change in visual tone is much more apparent.

It’s brilliant to finally hear the difference between rosewood and maple, side by side. Definitely brighter. Thx!

Ah! You played one of my favorite Leo riffs! Thanks!

I agree with your findings, and the differences were easily noticeable. The thing that matters to me is whether or not the differences in tone can be made removed with the use of the guitar's Tone Knobs, or an EQ Pedal. Thanks

It’s the front end of the note. It’s softer on the rosewood. I think the maple “snap” is a real thing. They sounded brighter. I think it’s from the feel, i have always preferred the “harder” feeling maple. Really well done Rhett!

Rhett you are a real guitar guy to bring in neck shape as well as wood type. Now you need to do 3-4 of same type of wood made different days/years, age of wood, it will get complicated. Great job 👏🏻

Awesome video! There will always be tone wood deniers out there but the evidence in this comparison is pretty clear. Thanks!

Rhett: I want to test if the fretboard gives different sound, can I have the same neck with different woods? Sweetwater: Sure, here's three completely different necks.

I have noticed a difference between the maple neck and rosewood necks, and your results mirrors what I hear. The maple is brighter. I have not never have played a Strat with the roasted Maple neck. Maybe I will have to try one out sometime in the future. Thanks for doing this comparison.

I have been thinking of getting an Ibanez Maple SG, the same one a friend of mine had when we were kids. I need the lighter weight that an SG affords since I'm an "old'e guy" now. Besides his SG having superb action back then (1973) his guitar "cut" through the mix better than any guitar I have ever heard. His neck was the roasted maple with Lacquer Finish on top "and" bottom. The Lacquer Finish on the bottom was a downside since my hand tended to not slip around as easily (more Finger-Ease is required). Good stuff, Maynard! I appreciate this video being made. It helps me to hear what I heard many years ago. True story: I loved my friend's SG and he loved my 73' Gibson L6 Deluxe w/ Ebony Neck!

Super awesome video! I'm curious if the frets in the necks were identical or if the older road worn maple had slightly harder composition.

Rhett, I think the real change in tone is caused by the dirt in my phones speaker mesh….

Great job! I've noticed the difference between rosewood and maple, but could you do a comparison between rosewood and Pau Ferro? It would be interesting to see if those alternatives to rosewood actually sound like it or not.

Your findings match exactly what I’ve been saying for years and some people call me crazy ha ha. THANK YOU!

Good video. It seems like there are some subtle differences. But not enough to change it drastically. Which makes sense to me.

Surprised how much difference I could hear. The rosewood is a bit easier on the ear but the maple has a bit clearer articulated highs

I wish Rhett would've mentioned the exact string gauges he's using on this video. I understand he has another video on that, but it still would've been nice just to make sure exactly what he's using here. Great video, nonetheless!

Great video, Rhett! I heard more of a difference than I was expecting! The 50's maple seemed to have the quickest attack and the brightest post-attack tone, the rosewood seemed to have the slowest attack and warmest post-attack tone, and the roasted maple had a slightly slower attack than the 50's maple (I was assuming it would have been faster) and for post-attack warmth was somewhere between the 50's maple and the rosewood. Lots of people treat the "Tone Wood Debate" as just binary choices - good/bad, yes/no - but guitars are made up of many different components, each of them creating some kind of variable. Some of these variables can be heard (different pickups, different strings, etc.), and some can be felt (roadworn finish of this 50's maple neck, versus the mega-thick poly finish that was on my Squier Classic Vibe P-Bass's neck; this will be more for the player's own inspiration). Find something you like and go with it, let others go with what they like, and let's all just make some music.

This is cool, I did this same test back in 86 when I got my first Strat. I did Maple and Rosewood, I don't think they had roasted back then, but I heard the difference right away and I went with the rosewood. People said I was crazy or I'm just imagining it. Thanks for setting the record straight

I absolutely think woods matter, but I think that when changing necks, there's a whole lot of pieces that are being changed that can impact the sound beyond just the wood. Fret size impacts the fret to wood contact and different fret materials sound different. Even how well seated the frets are matters (an air bubble under a fret can make for a dead spot, for example). Different nut materials sound different. I find tuner mass makes a pretty substantial difference too. I wouldn't be surprised if the type of truss rod makes a difference to some extent too. How the wood is cut (quarter sawn, flat sawn, etc) also makes a noticeable difference. The overall mass/weight of the neck (and thickness) play into it too. We don't get all of the specs of all 3 necks in this video, thus we can't fully say whether it is the wood or something else changing. Regardless, though, I think this video does show that there is more that impacts the sound of an electric guitar than just the pickups (as some people seem to claim).

The questions I’m asking myself as I’m listening: 1) string vibration is predominantly between the fret and the bridge, where is the neck wood even playing a part? 2) between changing the necks and the feel of the fretboard, is it likely you’re playing subtly differently and it’s where the tone differences come from? 3) wouldn’t a better test be to have someone else play a few things and then you listen back and try to guess (even better is 2 recordings of the same neck, 1 different) and try to determine which option is the different neck

I have a satin finished roasted maple neck and LOVE IT. The satin makes it very easy to move around, it is very bright, it feels harder, which it is because the roasting melts the resins in the wood and makes it harder and denser. Mine is a Mexi with 22 frets. Good job Fender!

Finally a real goot test! i'm a bassist so i would love to see this in a bass but really helpful! thanks! (still a mistery the body woods.... )

Yes there was a difference. I liked the Rosewood better.

Anything visible in the waveforms on a computer?

My first major purchase was a 82 kramer Pacer 2, EVH endorsed with the unfinished maple neck. Next was a late 80s Fender Japanese super strat with rosewood neck. Played both for decades. Still have both but they are stored in their cases. My regular player is a modified Mexican strat with a lacquered finish maple neck. I have a tele with a rosewood neck as a backup which is the Swiss army knife. I always revert back to maple. There is a difference.

Great demonstration. My favourite sound was the roasted maple neck.