I really wouldn't say my ears were that good Philly! :lol:
On a blind-test of maple versus rosewood, if I was listening rather than playing, I reckon I'd probably get as many wrong as right. But if you let me set my amp up with one of my guitars, and then gave me a selection of maples/rosewoods to blind test myself, I think I'd get a majority right. I think it's a combination of what I put in with the fingers to get what I want out of the speakers. Just listening, not playing, I'm not convinced I could tell, there's too many other variables - the amp and what the player is trying to achieve, for starters.
The best comparison I have at the moment is my two Roadworn strats. Both 7.25 with (I believe) them medium jumbo things. Playing acoustically, the maple board one seems to encourage playing with more bounce and snap, and it benefits from a lighter touch from the picking hand -all sorts of interesting things come out when I hit it lighter (which don't with rosewood). The rosewood board one encourages a flatter, woodier type of playing, I imagine it as an "older" sound if that make sense. It also requires a little more work and imagination to get expression out of it - and it seems to benefit from hard playing rather than light.
I have heard it said, though, that we bring preconceptions to the maple/rosewood thing, and that's what we hear. I could easily buy into that idea... but then I'm left thinking "where on earth did these preconceptions come from then?" :lol:
One thing I have just noticed though (I'm noodling on the Baja and the Custom tele), I have to hold the pick slightly differently when switching from rosewood to maple. Never realised this before. I grew up on rosewood, and I tend to hold the pick close to the tip and dig in - there's a fair bit of forefinger in my digging in picking style for single notes and suchlike. This got learnt from hundreds of strat-playing gigs trying to sound like Rory Gallagher, I guess. I've just noticed, on picking up the Baja after 20 minutes on the Custom, that I automatically adjust to having more pick sticking out clear of the fingers, otherwise the notes squeal more than I'm after. So I checked it out on the Roadworn strats... seems to be true (for me, anyway), I get more squeal out of maple boards than I do rosewood...
And, I've just remembered, I have two Variax guitars, one with maple, one with rosewood, but both with the same software and models on board... Now, the host guitar's not meant to make a difference, but it does in my hands. The rosewood one sounded mellower than the same model on the maple one (which sounded harsher).
Anyway, this evening I've discovered that I would not like to have to decide between rosewood or maple - I want at least one of each :lol: Whether they sound different or not doesn't matter - they encourage me to play slightly differently. If I prefered one style to the other, I'd probably want to stick to that wood. But, as it is, I want both!
