The difference that the choice of fretboard material actually makes is a hotly contested debate among guitar circles. While it’s widely accepted that rosewood is softer and maple is snappier, there are others who believe the difference is negligible.
Jimmie Vaughan sits firmly in the latter camp, and in a new interview with Guitar World, the blues guitar ace claims that your choice of fingerboard material makes no difference whatsoever because they all sound the same.
He has some strong supporting evidence to draw on in support of his argument, too: his brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan.
During a discussion of the three most important guitars in his collection, Vaughan turns attention to one of his prized Fender Stratocasters – a 1963 model, to be precise, which originally came with a rosewood fretboard neck.
However, Vaughan promptly swapped the rosewood for a maple alternative because he preferred the aesthetic, and he found the difference in tone to be imperceptible.
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“The body is from a ’63 Strat, but the neck is one Bill gave to me, so I guess it’s kind of a ‘parts’ guitar,” Vaughan remembers. “It was really put together by Charley’s Guitar Shop in Dallas and René Martinez, who was a fantastic guitar tech.
“I’d wanted a white Strat for years; it felt like it was unobtainable when I was a kid. I remember seeing Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps in an old movie, and they all had white Strats with the maple neck. I just thought it looked better than the dark rosewood, so I replaced it.”
While some swap their Strat necks for an alternative fretboard because they prefer the feel and tone of a specific wood, Vaughan did it purely for cosmetic reasons – and as far as he’s concerned, it made no difference. That was further made clear every time Stevie Ray Vaughan would flip-flop between the two.
“I know there are people who think it makes a big difference to the sound, but I really don’t think it does,” he adds. “I know Stevie always sounded the same whether it was a rosewood or maple neck.”
There will be those who disagree with Vaughan’s school of thought. For example, Joe Bonamassa has previously said he prefers Strats with maple fretboards, and even noted that “a rosewood ’board results in more of a Stevie Ray Vaughan-type sound”.
“Personally, I’m more of a maple-fretboard Strat player,” he said. “To my ears, the notes jump off it in a different way, as compared to a rosewood ’board.”
On the other hand, Jason Isbell has gone on record to reveal he prefers rosewood ’boards as they “soften things up a little”.
For the full interview with Jimmie Vaughan – as well as new features with Kiki Wong, Jim Babjak and more – visit Magazines Direct to pick up the newest issue of Guitar World.
