Rosewood v. Maple Fretboards

On Topic:

I never owned an instrument with a maple board until I got my Atelier Z so I cannot attest to how it actually differs beyond appearance. It only looks appropriate to me on instruments with a bright, natural finish. I'm only a fan of rosewood on guitars with bursts or dark natty finishes. Ebony for everything else. It's more durable. That in itself should win everyone over.

If you ever get a chance to order or customize a guitar or bass, I would suggest you get an ebony board and stainless steel frets. It will be forever and a day before you need to pay to have the board and fretting redone. Built to last.

ebony really isn't more durable... rosewood is less prone to issues than ebony, requires less conditioning... and maple is usually finished in the fender style and its the most durable fretbaord material anyway. Very dense and resistant to finger oils.

Okay, let me explain something that I think might be the reason for this: Many P&W musicians preach humility when going on the stage. I think it's one of many great things that should be taught even to any musician in general. It's fun to go up and shred it out, but don't forget that you have an audience too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx3Pzv3xJd4

THIS IS WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO PREVENT

I gotta say that we don't see a lot of that in secular music.... no showboating here in planet pop/rock/country, we did away with that in the 80s.... however, that song is so crappy when judged by my aesthetic his impromptu drum solo really broke the tedium for me, maybe that P&W drummer knows better than all of us! after the 1st 30 seconds I was ready for a change and I didn't mind having a laugh at the whole thing when he finally busted out on the toms. Who could take something like that seriously unless they were getting paid handsomely to perform it anyway?

can we add another letter to P&W? Like PW&J; praise, worship and jelly? The jelly will sweeten the whole thing up. Who doesn't like jelly?

oh yeah, and fretboards have the least impact on your tone than any other part of an electric guitar.... its there, but its so subtle. Its most obvious on super bright designs like a stock strat. You will typically hear a slight difference between a rosewood slab and finished maple in that context, but its really something you can dial out at the amp its just that subtle on a lot of examples. I was a maple guy for years but more because I liked the feel of the lacquer under my fingers... I warmed up to rosewood though and I prefer the feel of a tight grained slab of rosewood now.... this stuff is just not that important compared to your body wood, bridge materials and electronics. Your bridge has huge impact on the sound of your electric guitar but very few players nerd out about various bridge and saddle materials. Trust me, steel versus brass alone is huge. But there are other materials too. In a strat or tele the mass of the sustain block and pickup surround respectively are a big deal to the sound that's not at all subtle.... to say nothing of their electromagnetic properties.

Oh no, Oceans is the type of song that's sort of a musical palette to go ape-shit on. It's so much fun for those who like to improvise and do random shit. If anything, this is by far the driest performance I've heard. Playing this song with just a pianist and drummer at the forefront is the perfect way to shoot yourself in the knee.

I can't imagine noodling helping that song along.... maybe a full blown gospel rhythm section and some horn players.... fat ladies with tambourines. Nah. The sparseness seemed appropriate to a whitebread church setting to me though....

I really like that girl's voice, she's really wasted on that song and in church in general. Oh well, whatever makes people happy.

I don't really write anything extra for Oceans. However, I do enjoy going lower than the others on it. During the breakdown part where the lyrics say, "Spirit lead me", I like to hit the first fret of the low B and let it ride before I start playing the 4 notes afterwards. I think it makes the song sound a little darker and gives it more depth, pun intended. Only well known songs I've written large bass parts for are "Your Love Awakens Me" and "At The Cross". A lot of the songs I find don't feel right for super crazy bass parts and I am a fan of serving the song when it comes to bass parts.

I would like to write some kind of.... fun... motley crew'esk type of song to allow for more bass and heavier rhythm guitar.

When my band leader had me in orientation, he showed that video of the oceans drummer and said it was our new drummer, "Cinto". I believed him and thought it was hilarious. Only recently at a poker game did I discover that it was not Cinto.

For fuck's sake, yes, please.

if you were local to me you could hire me for 1 sunday to sort out your sound.... I'd mix one show and if you were all happy I would straighten your mouthy soundman out or die trying.... at the least I would set everything up right, gaff tape amp, mic stand and drum position marks on the stage and create recall sheets for every piece of gear, some on a song per song basis and I would makesome recommendations for new additions to the FOH arsenal if needed. I would also work on your stage monitoring making it more holistic with your stage volume. I find a small stage does well with a good amount of bass, kick, snare and vocal in the wedges letting the guitar and keys people msuter some stage level to hear themselves and be heard. It also makes life easier notching out monitor feedback so you can get the band's sound nice and loud for them (sometimes louder than the house mix in the mains LOL) I am sure I could make a great mix with whatever you guys have with all of you maintaining reasonable stage volume to hear eachother but not enough to offend your audience or detract from the spiritual setting...

sadly, LA is pretty far from me and I don't like going there anyway. You should get someone local to help out for a day. Talk to your pastor about it. If you go on prosoundweb you'll find a directory of P&W mixers who do really pro quality sound for the super big churches that dot the USA (at least they sued to have a directory)a and you should just contact one of them and get him for 2 sessions, a rehearsal to set up and a sunday to get a baseline mix on the revised setup. These guys are often former secular soundmen who know their shit and will work with you and the music, not try to push everyone around and make the music into what he thinks it should be. A music director is 1 job, an FOH mixer is another and the guys who do the high end church gigs usually know this. I think having a pro adjust the install, position the band optimally and get the sound working right is well worth the money. You guys seem super frustrated with things as they are, talk to the boss and see what kinda budget he can allocate.... maybe make a point of discussing it so folks will dump a lil extra in the collection plate? The nice thing about religious music is the audience is sued to making donations whereas in a small secular gig you are lucky to get paid these days even if there's a cover charge.

immature. early 20s tho

These two statements shouldn't go together.

I just watched that Oceans video posted above....

Well that's a fucking train wreck!

That is like the band at the start of a bad teen movie about a band making it and becoming the next big thing... all awkward and fumbling, just stuck like glue and mumbling.

But nobody knows if they did make it because everyone walked out of the film.

It's generally considered the worst cover of all time in CCM. I'm pretty sure people show it to all new comers just to point out what you should not do.

I really think its a gag, guys. Either that or the drummer just freaked out.... total mental breakdown. He quit the church the following week and joined a black metal band. Died of a heroin overdose a year later....

It does seem that way, doesn't it?

It's generally considered the worst cover of all time in CCM. I'm pretty sure people show it to all new comers just to point out what you should not do.

This is SOOOOO far from my world, but will expose my ignorance to become educated.

Acronyms... I guess CCM is Christian Country Music and P&W is ummm Pountry and Western? praise and western?

So Christian music is essentially an offshoot of country music? but allows for different horizons and landscapes obviously, because oceans and stuff.

makes sense!

I'm pretty sure it IS that way.... its a joke. Those guys might not even be Christians. They are probably having a go at you guys.

P&W is an acronym for "praise and worship". Haven't heard CCM, though. Enlighten us, Boom.

Contemporary Christian Music. Praise and Worship can be a bit broader, but CCM is only the modern stuff, probably the last 15 years or so.

An old school, traditional church will consider their music P&W and what they mean by it is older hymnals; mostly negro spirituals and southern poems played to old tavern songs and marching music. This would be stuff that is more recognized like Amazing Grace, Old Rugged Cross, and When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder.

CCM would not count any of the older music. Only the new age, guitar/keyboard/boom-tist-boom-tist kind of music which is generally a mix of country, hip-hop, and only a bit of borrowing FROM the old hymnals, but not enough to consider it a modern cover of the hymnal. The churches that play CCM also call their music P&W as well.

A lot of the more traditional churches do not accept the modern music. It is considered "of the deh-boh" but out of ignorance. I've met many preachers of different denominations who have said Christian Rock "as they call it" is evil because of a number of things, but none of them make sense from a musician's stand point. They will say, "It's the beat. The beat makes it evil." These people don't usually have any formal music background though and are unable to explain exactly what about the beat is evil. I've heard some really ridiculous statements on it. My "go to" statement to them is, "So, if I played Old Rugged Cross at 132 BPM, it becomes Satanic?".

"So, if I played Old Rugged Cross at 132 BPM, it becomes Satanic?".

yes, yes it does

https://youtu.be/IrKG68CCtVs?t=22m26s

no dancing!