maple VS Rosewood

[Git-art-ist]

hi i have a Squire strat right now with apaches and it has a rosewood fretboard. i am looking to buy a Fender Japan strat with a maple fretboard.

MY question is what would be the difference in sound if i put my apaches in the the Fender with maple board?

[steve]

You will get a little more top end come through and more attack in your tone.Maple boards are brighter.

[Tim]

Absolutely.........Apaches can handle this better than say a Mother's Milk set which are Alnico V and can come across with some serious cut..........Apaches will develop more edge to the front of the note.Not a bad thing at all, just a different voice again.

[Git-art-ist]

cool thanks Tim and Steve :D

[Elliot]

I have done exactly that - I just took my apache out of my rosewood JV strat and put in Mother's Milks and put the Apache into my Mexican 50s classic strat - with maple.

Both now sound great - the Mother's really work with the r/w, basswood body of the JV and the Apaches with the Alder/Maple.

[Joe Dorcia]

In fairness, there's actually very little difference. My friends luthier did a test to check if maple boards are brighter. But there was no difference according to him. Ofcourser, with BKP pups being so dynamically and tonally accute and sensitive (why the so dam n $%&#ing awesome), they might pickup on the different tonal characteristics if they are there. Its a slightly foggy area with electics. It can make a difference on acoustics for sure, but it depends on the neck wood, Fingerboard joint, neck joint type and quality of neck joint. So its often very hard to tell whats whats. What was i talking about...

[PhilKing]

In fairness, there's actually very little difference. My friends luthier did a test to check if maple boards are brighter. But there was no difference according to him.

I am surprised at this, because I can hear a difference with my strats.  It may also be the woods as you say, but my 57 is brighter then the 60, the 60 has more mid range push though.  I also have a hardtail with a Hank Marvin maple neck and a fake strat which has a copy of my 60 neck, but with an ebony fingerboard and a basswood body.  The hardtail is the brightest (but the neck is huge!).  The 60 is the most mellow.  You can hear this accoustically too.  I have had lots of different pickups on them through the years, but the current line up is:
57 Apaches - brilliant sound - hard to put down!
60 Original 60's strat pickup, one has been rewound by Tim because it had started to fray and had shorted out.  This was my favourite sounding strat until I got the Apaches
Hardail - Evans single coils - waiting for a set of BK's.  I tried the Irish Tours, but they were too bright in this (they are in a custom semi-hollow strat, where they sound great) - I am thinking of Mothers Milks or a custom set.
fake 60 Nailbomb/Trilogy set - this is my 80's sound guitar.  I used to have EMG's in it, but the BK's are so much better sounding.

I know that to do this properly I should keep the same pickups, but I have talked with Tim and picked the best sounding pickups for each guitar.

[steve]

In fairness, there's actually very little difference. My friends luthier did a test to check if maple boards are brighter. But there was no difference according to him.]

I would tend to disagree as well as i have both and can definatly hear a difference acoustically and amped as well.Its one of those age old points of discussion i guess,i know people who say there is a difference and people who dont.Some just go on the look.

[HJM]

Hmmmm no difference - can't agree with that, big difference even when played unplugged. In the past I've gone as far as swapping necks over to check that it wasn't the body, but the sound is in the necks. I'm a firm believer that the neck is a huge contributor to the overall tone of a guitar, both in construction and wood choice.

[Git-art-ist]

hmm...... thanks HJM thats interesting :)  i will probaly get a maple strat and put my apaches in that,and get some more pickups for my squire! maybe mothers milk or maybe trilogies.

thanks for the replys

[Floyd Pepper]

57 Apaches - brilliant sound - hard to put down!

PhilKing, is that an original 57 start with Apaches or a modern 57 with Apaches?  Just wondering if the Apaches are better than the vintage strat pickups which people go on about and why you'd change the pups in a vintage guitar.

[PhilKing]

It's an original 57 strat, but when I got it it had a set of Rio Grande's in it (plus a white enamel scratchplate!).  I changed them for some late 60's strat pickups that I had, and put a gold anodised guard on it.  Then I was talking to Tim and tried the Apaches and got him to make me an aged set (all the plastic parts), on a scratchplate for it.  They came out looking perfect (they are on another thread, but I will attach a picture anyway!).

So in this case I didn't change an old set.  However, I have had Tim rewind several old pickups (usually the originals were not working).  The problem is, after he rewinds them, the other pickups don't sound as good!  Most of my guitars are 'parts' guitars that I have picked up through the years, so many don't have the original pickups.  In other cases, the original pickups sounded bad (my 94 PRS Artist II and my 66 Precision Bass for example), and I replaced the pickups with BK's, but I have kept the originals in case I ever want to sell the guitar.

[The amazing Phil]

I'm a big fan of maple, though they both sound almost the same to me, I notice there's this tiny difference in the top end that's not easy to pick up on, but when you play a note and listen for it, it's there. Though I must say thickness of the neck must contribute a lot too.