Not seeing a lot of love for Canary/Rosewood?

[alj201]

I have a canary backed neck with a pau ferro neck on a Warmoth Warlock that is awesome. I'm not a tone geek that can tell you if it is bright, warm, dark, etc. I just know it sounds nice, feel great to play and looks very cool.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

I agree that I often pass up Rosewood looking for more unusual options, but I really like Rosewood for some guitars. I've owned many different Strats with Maple necks with both Maple and Rosewood fret boards and personally prefer the Rosewood ones. But, that is simply because I find the raw fretboards more comfortable than the finished Maple ones. Tonally, I guess Rosewood might not be as bright as Maple, but I've never really noted enough difference to be significant. So, I think the contribution of the fretboard is only a part of the whole contribution of the whole neck, and less than the neck wood itself.
I have a both Canary / Canary neck and a Rosewood / Rosewood neck and really like both. I like Canary almost as well as Pau Ferro (my favorite neck wood) and don't find a huge difference in the tone. The Rosewood neck is surprisingly comfortable to play and has great tone, but maybe a little less bright than Maple or Ebony necks, but still sounds very good!

 

[DustyCat]

Well, I admit it's hard to argue the affect of a fretboard. Any argument usually gets dismissed by claiming that an identical guitar with a different fretboard must be compared side by side. But, I have. I've compared a Breedlove American series acoustic with a rosewood board to that of the exact same model with an ebony board. The difference wasn't subtle to me.

One time I picked up an acoustic guitar by the brand"Lauren" (Pricetag ~$69.00 US + tax NEW) and I was amazed...uh-MAZED at the sound and feel from such a cheapo POS that all of a sudden seemed to glow in my hand.

Yeah sure, it was breaking my hand to hold anymore than 2 notes down at a time, and cutting up the tips of my fingers like one of those blister packs. Intonation? Open or barre chords, but not both.  :sad:

Long story short, the guitar had a crispness, a tightness, a briskness, a brightness, that could only have come from the ebony fingerboard, (what would could they possibly use for the body/neck with that pricetag? balsa?) especially when sliding a single note up into the next fret (think 'squeak' on a basketball court).

On electrics though, who knows how much, (and I am inclined to say it has less) bearing on the sound coming from the speaker (especially with high output pickups), but...who knows how your body/fingers will react to the feel (remember you don't actually need to be able to hear to play an instrument. :laughing7:

I personally would be interested in a pickup system more akin to a boundary mic (or at least what I think one does) in which the sensors pick up more of the vibrations bouncing around the perimeter inside of the guitar rather than the vibrations 1/4 inch away from the string (or whatever the standard height/distance is).

 

[Ddbltrbl]

I bought a Cat Eyes acoustic in the 80's because of the same kind of sound you mentioned for the Lauren, but I found it faded significantly after the first year. It pretty disappointing.
I also have an old FG-180 red label Yamaha that sounded pretty good when I first got it, but has steadily improved over the years until I have no hesitation to put it up against top of the line Martins now. People are always amazed by how good it sounds!
Anyway, I think that the tonal qualities of the different woods in acoustics have a different impact when using them in solid body or even semi-solid body electrics. I maybe really wrong, but it seems like resonance is more important in acoustics, where sustain is more important to the tone of a solid body electric.  :dontknow:

 

[greywolf]

Go 4 it , you'll be fine