Maple vs. Roasted Maple (Is there a tonal difference ?) Share you thoughts

[TonyP-]

Hello All, 
    I know the Warmoth tone guide says mentions them the same.

However I heard otherwise and that roasted is a touch warmer / less bright..

What do You think? Share you thoughts?

I don't have much experiences in this specific area and welcome feedback especially from anyone  used both in similar builds.

 

[Hendrix]

I believe the different for Maple vs. Roasted Maple from same tree is lees than Maple from different tree.

 

[Cagey]

I've had a bunch of them go through here, and I haven't been able to tell any difference in tone. However, if I didn't have any experience with them and was forced to predict what a difference might be, it wouldn't be "a touch warmer / less bright..." Quite the opposite. It seems Maple, which is already kinda brittle, gets slightly more brittle as a result of being roasted. Warmoth has even gone so far as to include a warning in the shipping box about splitting the headstock if pilot holes aren't sized properly for screws. Based on that, I'd expect them to be brighter. But, as I said, that doesn't seem to be the case. Although, Maple is pretty bright to begin with, so maybe it does change, but the change isn't audible. Which is to say, there's no change.

To be fair, how could one tell anyway? Every guitar has different pickups, strings, nuts, bridge, body wood, body design, neck/body attachment... the list is long. And the neck itself can't be magically transformed from roasted to raw with a fingersnap, so you're always comparing two different necks. Even if they came from the same tree and one was roasted while the other was not, you couldn't attribute the difference to roasting because if they were both raw or roasted, they might still sound different.

So, for all intents and purposes, you may as well say there's no difference other than what you might expect statistically from any two different necks of the same design from the same species.

 

[rgand]

As near as  can tell, they sound about the same. What is different, is the feel. I really prefer roasted maple over finished maple any day.

 

[aarontunes]

I don't feel like there is any difference at all. The advantages of RM are in the feel, stability, and appearance.

 

[TonyP-]

Thank You Folks for Your replies...

What I'm reading makes sense. I plan on replacing 1 or 2 necks with Roasted Maple Jazz bass necks but as a 70's fan I'm going to go with gloss (I know I don't need to).

I'm sure that added protection does not hurt.

I would imagine the following -> Roasted maple - super bass construction with the steel rods over the slimier contour - and gloss finish would be as stable as it gets without going to graphite or all ebony. 

 

[MikeW]

I recently replaced a Warmoth Birdseye Maple neck with a Roasted Maple neck. Dimesions are the same between the two necks (Wizard profile, 25.5 scale, compound radius), and the frets are the same material and size (SS6105) The tuners and nut were taken off the old neck and put on the new neck. The only real difference between them was the finish applied to the Birdseye neck (clear satin on the birdseye neck). Other than the material the only other difference is that the position inlays are Abalone on the birdseye neck and Mother of Pearl on the roasted neck.

It's the guitar that I regularly use in our first set, so it's one that I'm very familiar with. To my ear there is no real difference in tone from one neck to the other. Interestingly though, with the roasted neck, the guitar has a bit of resonance going when I hit a big G chord. The springs vibrate a bit now where they didn't do that before. It makes no difference to tone or playability or sustain however, but if you're sitting and playing it acoustically, it's kinda funny to hear the springs.

 

[Cagey]

The neck may be tighter in the pocket, or the screws torqued down a little more.

 

[MikeW]

Hm. I supposed it's possible. I hadn't considered that to be a factor since the screws and plate were the same as with the old neck.

I was attributing it to better mechanical resonance in the neck due to the roasting process. Seems like the less water there is in the wood, the less dampening effect it would have, and the better it would vibrate at it's resonant frequency. In this case it's a shade higher than low G.

 

[Cagey]

Actually, once the roasting process is done, they deliberately re-hydrate the wood. There's a brief description of the process here if you're interested.

Yours may have a different resonant frequency just because of the piece it is. Wood characteristics vary, even from the same tree.

 

[screamin_conure]

FWIW, this is my own experience with roasted vs. regular maple...

I put together a Warmoth Strat back in 2015.  The original neck was a Warmoth Pro, standard maple, '59 Roundback with 6130 frets and a clear satin nitro finish.  About a year later, I decided the 6130 frets just weren't for me, and ordered a Vintage Modern / Clapton with 6150 frets in unfinished roasted maple.  Both necks had their frets professionally leveled, both had a 10"-16" radius, and both used a standard Tusq nut. 

Upon installing the roasted VM / Clapton, I immediately noticed that something had changed with the guitar's tone.  It just didn't sound quite the same.  There was a certain 'sweetness' or 'fatness' (for lack of better words) that the original neck had that was missing.  It didn't sound bad, just different. 

A week or so ago, I've now decided that the 'V' in the Clapton neck isn't for me either, so I popped my original neck back on.  That tonal quality that I had missed was back. 

Not saying it was the roasting that caused the tone shift, it could have been anything (different tree, different neck profile, different truss rods, etc.), but there it was.

Ron

 

[swarfrat]

Only a slight Tonal difference. Roast maple thinks about is something that takes you across the water and calls the last letter of the English alphabet "Zed" istead of "zee"

 

[Rick]

To me no tonal difference.  Feels different because one has a finish, and the other doesn't.  RM looks nicer, but is more expensive.

To finish the regular maple neck is no trouble using tru-oil.  About $15 max.  That said, a flamed RM neck is pretty!

 

[rgand]

RM is actually cheaper since it doesn't require a finish.

 

[Cagey]

Right. And it burnishes up so nice, and it's light. Excellent neck wood.

 

[Mavrk1]

New guy here, I guess I'll have to take a minority position on this topic. I think there is absolutely a tonal difference between roasted maple and traditional. BUT, and it's a big but, whether or not you'll hear or perceive the difference depends on a lot of factors. Are you talking about the acoustic sound properties or plugged in. If plugged in what pickups, amp, gain etc, not to mention musical style and tastes. The subtleties disappear proportionally with gain and compression. Heck with enough gain you can pretty much make single coils indistinguishable from buckers aside from darker or brighter. Certainly the neck wood tonal differences are long gone at that point. So I assume we're talking about acoustically. Every roasted neck I've owned and played because of the process, takes on an almost "petrified" feel to it. Denser, harder, almost like glass or carbon fiber in a weird way. I guess I would agree with the characterization of "brittle." I like it and I don't....... It's a neat feel, so smooth and glass like, along with the stability. But, I've gone away from them because in my humble opinion the DO resonate differently due to the altered internal structure. To me they are "Zingy'er" or put another way perhaps brighter, but it's more of a high zing thing. They lack something I crave, at least in a Strat or Tele, and that is a bit of diffuse focus or warmth in the way it resonates. They do seem more focused and a bit sharper, maybe that works for your style maybe it doesn't. Of course every piece of wood is different. Some crap wood doesn't resonate well at all. Nothing can save that it's just not good tone wood. But every roasted I play has that same kind of upper brittle Zing that I refer too. Just my 2 cents. Peace!

 

[guitarslinger21]

I know every piece of wood is different, BUT....I've owned around 15 maple warmoth necks.  I have to say, my 2 roasted maple necks have an extra "ring" to them, like a bell.  The lighter weight, great looks, syrupy smell, and no need for finish are just bonuses. 

That said, they ARE more brittle.  I installed a tight nut on my first one that wouldn't have been a problem with regular maple, and it splintered the edge a bit.

Also, the roasted fretboard with no finish gets VERY dirty.  Not a huge deal for me, but it could be for some.

I don't plan on buying plain $157 maple necks anymore unless the absolute aim is to save money.

 

[Cagey]

Being more brittle, you'd expect them to be slightly brighter, but I can't say I've heard it if it is. Of course, I don't think I've ever put together two guitars that sound exactly the same, so it's tough to say.

 

[guitarslinger21]

Being more brittle, you'd expect them to be slightly brighter, but I can't say I've heard it if it is. Of course, I don't think I've ever put together two guitars that sound exactly the same, so it's tough to say.

FWIW, the brightness difference in "roasted vs. not roasted" is a lot less to me than a pickup swap, so it's nothing that can't be tamed.