Slab Rosewood board.

[dingdongditch]

I think my Tele-Sonic has a slab board.
It's a great player.
Do you prefer one over the other?
Is there any difference conically compared to veneer?

 

[StratStringSlinger]

I think people will debate sonic differences till the cows come home but I think they are good from the perspective of re-frets. i.e. it would seem you can get more re-frets out of a slab rosewood board.

 

[dingdongditch]

I think people will debate sonic differences till the cows come home but I think they are good from the perspective of re-frets. i.e. it would seem you can get more re-frets out of a slab rosewood board.

Yeah I figured this could open a can of tone worms.
That makes sense about the re fret.
I most likely couldn't tell the difference.
The new Lollars I had put in make a much bigger difference overall.

 

[Strat87]

I have both, but there are other factors that I'd imagine contribute more to the tone.

 

[dingdongditch]

I have both, but there are other factors that I'd imagine contribute more to the tone.

 

[stephenyi]

I doubt people can hear a discernible difference between veneer and slab fretboards (all other things being equal). I do prefer the look of a slab rosewood board.

BTW, OP, which Lollars did you install in your tele-sonic? I was thinking of upgrading the dearmonds with TV jones t-armonds.

 

[Trebor Renkluaf]

I think my Tele-Sonic has a slab board.
It's a great player.
Do you prefer one over the other?
Is there any difference conically compared to veneer?

You think? You can't tell?

 

[VaughnC]

After playing a lot of Strats over nearly 50 years, the trend I've noticed with rosewood fingerboards is that round lam tends to exhibit more focus on the wound strings than slabs. Round lam is my favorite configuration, along with a top loaded trussrod. This is just a trend I've noticed and round lam just sounds better to me...but your mileage may vary.

 

[DustyRhodesJr]

What is the difference?

 

[Member 1963]

After playing a lot of Strats over nearly 50 years, the trend I've noticed with rosewood fingerboards is that round lam tends to exhibit more focus on the wound strings than slabs. Round lam is my favorite configuration, along with a top loaded trussrod. This is just a trend I've noticed and round lam just sounds better to me...but your mileage may vary.

I don't have much experience with lams, but I think your description is exactly what i would have thought. Because a all maple neck has a tighter low end than a slab by far, and a lam should be closer to the all maple sound than a slab, which to me seems like it would make the lows tighter and add a little of that rosewood complexity, just not as much as a slab. I have often thought a lam might be the perfect balance between maple and rosewood slab, and i happen to like certain things about each. So i think lam might be what i would be happiest with. I have had lams in the past, but it was long ago, before my ear for tone really matured to the point it would be as obvious to me as it would today. But there aren't many available in todays lineup aside from the 70's RI's which i don't like for certain reasons.

 

[blong]

I tend not to analyze what makes a guitar sound good. I have mutliple strats, all with differnt pups, fingerboards, etc, and I just play 'em. When I pick up a guitar and plug it in, it either sounds good when the amp is dialed in or it doesn't. The trick is working the amp, not getting specific components. At least in my opinion. Are there sonic differences? Probably. Are they noticeable? If they are to you. To me, a good guitar is a good guitar, regardless of specs. That's why I own numerous strats that are vintage, new, rosewood, maple, or whatever. The variations are there, but once I dial in my amp and turn up, I sound like me. Dialing in an amp is more important to me, and my touch and technique, than are whether the board is maple, rosewood, slab, non-slab, custom shop pups, boutique, or stock. I think more about my touch and dialing in an amp than I do the specs. I've never met a guitar that I didn't like or could pull a decent tone out of, and the same with amps. Some are easier to find good tones on than others, but I have an old 1970's Montgomery Ward amp and a Squier Affinity tele that I find just as toneful as I do my PRS through my Rake, or my 1978 strat into my 1969 Pro-Reverb. I dig my Marshall DSL-100 with my Squier 51 as much as I do the same amp with my Les Paul. The tones are different b/c the pups, but I like 'em all.


Bob