We try to dispel (or prove!) the idea that fretboard materials affect the tone of an electric guitar. Using two Fender American Pro II Stratocasters, we A/B them both and leave the decision up to you!
Maybe maple sounds brighter than rosewood, maybe it doesn’t. But I have never understood this discussion. It’s only a difference one would hear when the two are played against each other, such as in this video. Not once have I listened to a song and said to myself, “Oh, this was played on a maple fretboard!” Who does that? Would anybody think less of David Gilmour if he predominantly played Strats with rosewood fretboards? I say if you have a choice of fretboards on two otherwise similar guitars, pick the guitar that looks best to you aesthetically and move on.
It's funny, on the blind test, I was opposite what they really were. I thought the attack on guitar A seemed to be maple, whereas the attack on guitar B seemed warmer to me and was rosewood. I guess my ears were lying
Same here Timothy. During the blind test I thought 'A' was more musical and brighter, and 'B' was less tonally-complicated and not as bright/ more dry. But surely that's the complete opposite to what you might expect given the reveal of which-is-which wood at the end? I think a slight mis-match in EQ might be throwing things here then, either that or the guy mis-spoke and got them the wrong way round himself in his concluding words (seeing as multiple people in the comments apparently had a similar perception i.e. that A must be maple).
I definitely heard a difference. They sounded very similar, however the maple had more honk and attack with the lower mids a little more present. It sounded more percussive to me. The rosewood fretboard strat I heard more harmonic content less pick attack more high end content but the lower strings seemed kind of dampened or dark.
@@warshipsatin8764 Are you sincerely asking me to go into all of the possible theories and opinions about this enormous subject, or are you just baiting me? You ask this "question" as if you think that that either it is unanswerable (which it likely is), or you think that you know the answer and are ready to pounce on me, or anyone else who says anything different. Sorry. I don't play that silly game.
You need to pick your fretboard material by the feel you like. Truthfully I could barely tell when he was switching guitars when I just listened to the audio. When I watched and listened, then I could tell. The difference (on an electric guitar) is so minor compared to even the slightest tone adjustment on your amp or guitar that you really need to just pick the one that feels best when you play it! Good video by the way. 😊
Rosewood looks more elegant.That’s why the first years of the Strat they did rosewood, because they were competing with the Les Paul, which is a guitar that was design aesthetically so it could look good with a tuxedo. So Leo Fender had to use rosewood first. Then came maple, but it wasn’t yo appreciated until Clapton started playing with it and making it famous.
sorry to be offtopic but does anyone know of a tool to log back into an Instagram account?? I somehow lost the login password. I love any help you can offer me.
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Ah man. For the blind test I was like: Yeah A is way brighter, it's obviously maple. Then for the non-blind clips I was like : Yeah, maple is so obviously brighter. This is not the first youtube blind test maple vs rosewood video where I've been convinced that the answer is blindingly obvious and have gotten it totally wrong. I think the moral is that it's not worth choosing a guitar based on which fretboard wood you prefer. The best guitar (for you) in the shop might just be the one with the "wrong" fretboard wood. I bought a guitar last week. I tried out 25 guitars and ended up getting a hardtail bullet strat (Indian Laurel board). While I was trying out those guitars I wasn't even really aware of what the fretboard was made from. The body and neck shape had a much bigger influence on my choice. You could swap the neck on my strat for a one piece maple neck and I doubt I'd care.
Rosewood has that upper midrange that jumps out at you more, and some perceive as brighter. Maple is more even across all frequencies, with less mids, which makes it sound brighter overall to me. And, i always find the difference to be most pronounced on the neck pickups, and less so on the other positions. But, on the neck pickup, the RW always has that rounder and woodier tone that maple doesn't have as much.
I'm an experienced player and own several rosewood and maple board Strats and Teles. If you listen with your eyes open your brain will fill in what it thinks you want. If you go back and listen with your eyes closed, there's no discernible difference - it's a wierd effect but it's true. Now, even though both guitars are from the same series, no two guitars are identical and you'll still get minor variances in guitar body woods and pickup winding which can all impact on tone. I'll try and find it but there's a similar test using a single Fender Stratocaster where the neck was changed to one of identical shape, thickness, same strings, but one was maple board and the other rosewood. This was an even better test because it cut out the other variables - and the tone was the same from both. It was also wired up to an oscilloscope and whilst there were some very small technical variances in the signal, these were so small that these were scientifically acknowledged as not within the range of even the most perceptive of human hearing. So I think it's fair to say that there is no humanly discernible TONAL difference as between rosewood and maple boards. But of course there is a 'feel' difference and maple boards being smoother and harder can feel faster to play. Any preference is therefore purely down to feel and aesthetics.
I appreciate the time you put into this. The thing that most people don't realize, or want to accept, is that every piece of wood on the planet is different. There are generalities that can be made, but in my experience buying a maple neck strat does not guarantee you a brighter or sharper tone/ attack. This is why I sold a CS strat and my main guitar is a partscaster. There was just something missing with this guitar. The partscaster is all Fender stuff, but that custom shop body and neck just didn't like each other... Your odds of them getting along are much better if you go CS, but I've heard Japan Squiers that are ridiculously good that most guitar guys would never pick up. Guitar price does not mean sonic joy...
In my experience I've noticed I can hit harmonics more consistently on rosewood. Aside from that I think they sound similar enough to base your preference on aesthetic.
@astull12 Hello! 2 years later and want to thank you for this insight. I’ve played acoustic for decades, finally plugging in. I love harmonics on electrics, so that would really be a deciding factor for me. 🙏🏽✌🏽💙 from Minnesota, USA
My 77 year old buccaneers being subjected to years and years of loud amps had a bit of trouble picking out which was maple or rosewood in the blind test. But I did hear a very slight difference (or did I imagine a difference in tone?) In the visual comparison a couple of riffs on the maple did (I think) have slightly brighter tone. I own and play both Maple and Rosewood Strat's but with different pickups so I've never thought about the neck affecting the tone, just the pickups. I think the feel difference of maple and rosewood fretboards may affect the way you play slightly, which maybe could affect the tone.
Guitar A the white one sounds better throughout the test. Guitar B blue one is muffled/dull/muddy compared to Guitar A. But I suspect even though Fender claims they're both identical guitars somewhere in the circuitry there's a mismatch. A resister/capacitor/shielding/wiring is slightly altered between the two. I doubt it has anything to do with fretboard wood altering frequency/clarity of the chords and single notes coming out the speaker of the amp.
I don't know how people say Maple is brighter. A and b blindtest you can clearly hear the rosewood ping in A. Maple is not brighter it's more compressed.
*I ripped this video and separated the audio track and took samples of 1 second each of guitar A and B on all of the examples except the last one (bolume and distortion were not set the same. So there was a difference.* *I ran the audio track samples through my editing software, and the frequency fluctuation was almost identical between both. A tiny difference. But barely at all.*
Warmth or brightness or any fingerboard has no effect on frequency ... any guitar playing the same note will have the same frequency (assuming they are in tune) that's how a guitar tuner works !!
Nice video. To my ears the differences were not remarkable. There may have been some slight differences tonally but as a few have stated, no two guitars sound identical. For me it comes down to visual preference. I absolutely love the look and feel of a maple fretboard. If there were differences in tone, to me it was not enough to pick the fretboard less visually appealing to me. What is great is that we can have a choice.
i've always felt maple sound brighter and rosewood a little darker. it was never important for me because every guitar i owned had a tone knob and the fretboard is not for changing the sound. is for the FEEL, and i personally hate maple in my fingers, it's just not for me. Rosewood feels good, always go for that and it never was about the sound, just the feel. For the sound a lot of pieces of wood won't make any difference, is how you play and through what you play. the most important things are the pickups and the speaker for sound. in between them you can EQ everything to match almost anything
I always dreamed of a maple fretboard (love the looks) until I finally went to buy one and it felt like I was playing glue. Hated it! I just bought a cheap squier with a urethane finished maple neck and I actually love it 🤷♂️
I haven't owned an electric guitar in about 8 years. Before that I didn't play for about 15 years, but for about six years I played various guitars and really didn't know if there was a difference. I'm watching this because I am considering picking up a Fender Strat. I owned a Tele 8 years ago and regret parting with it. I owned a Washburn Strat with a rosewood board in my youth along with a Charvel (with a maple neck), but I never played them side by side, and I even had different amps when I owned them. That said, I have a fairly good ear for sound, and I definitely identified that B was a maple neck because it sound brighter and slightly punchier at times. There was one thing you played where I was surprised it was B, but overall I could definitely tell the difference. I can see why someone like Brad Paisley gravitates to a maple neck on his Telecasters. But I can also see why he uses a rosewood fingerboard on his Strat (i.e. She's Everything). That doesn't mean one's better than the other, and I assume the difference between fresh and dead strings can matter as much or more, but if I wasn't convinced there was a difference before this video, I am now. That said, there is a difference between what we hear and see versus what we hear and see that is recorded. I heard positively heard the differences, but I obviously wasn't there in the room. My opinion is that I would have heard them because they were that different. We also have to remember we all hear things a little different. Some of us are better at hearing some frequencies than others, so for some people they may not have heard a difference. But for me, it was evident there was a difference. Thank you for making this video because it really did confirm what I heard others say, and if you hadn't done the blind test, I wouldn't have been able to rule out confirmation bias.
I have a limited edition fender strat with an rosewood neck and to my ears it sounds bright and snappy with clear definition like maple compared to the rosewood board /maple neck combo . It’s funny because I thought it would be darker and warmer because it’s fully rosewood, instead the opposite was true
I built two teles with the body material cut from the same piece of wood. The necks were both maple. One had a glued on maple fingerboard and one rosewood. They both had the same electrics, pickups, strings etc. The maple Tele just sounded nicer than the rosewood one which I subsequently sold.
I picked opposite and was bummed because I liked B more and I ordered mischief strat with maple but end result got me pleasently surprised good comparison
I must have a light touch because I rarely even feel the fret board especially with the frets that come on guitars now they must be higher then the ones that came on the older guitars. To me they both sounded like a Stat I just personally like the look of rosewood.
I went to a music store recently to try to bust this myth myself. Grabbed 2 ultras off the rack 1 maple and 1 rosewood. Played them side by side with my former guitar teacher facing his back towards me, and he had a very hard time distinguishing the 2 and told me that he was taking a guess. I believe if you're looking for a difference in sound your ears can make you believe that something sounds different. For anyone shopping for a new guitar - don't be hung up on this. Maple and Rosewood should be a feel and aesthetic choice and not based off of sound. Some maple fretboards will feel smoother than a rosewood and vice versa. For example my previous strat was a Pro 2 with rosewood fretboard and was buttery smooth. Back in November I replaced my pro 2 with an ultra which has a maple fretboard and I am in love with it. It feels super smooth to play, but what sold me was the aesthetic look of the maple matching with the headstock which I felt complimented the mocha burst very well. A darker finish like dark blue or black, even a surf green, would look amazing with a rosewood fretboard in my opinion, whereas brighter finishes with shiny bursts I think look perfect with a maple. I highly recommend going to a store and playing both yourself to know which feels better and is most inspiring to play. Happy hunting :)
Assuming the pickup heights aren't significantly different, the tonal difference is the same as with all such comparisons I've heard. The RW has more midrange, and less high-end chime (I'd attribute the chime to the thick hard finish over the frets).
This is crazy, in the blind test I picked two times guitar B, so the one with maple but in the rest of the video I would have picked the one with rosewood.
Rosewood sounds wider with it[s mid range. Maple sounds more concentrated. Both guitars had good highs. But it's very hard when you don't use the same body because we've all been into a shop and picked up strats. The weight varies wildly and therefore the quality of the wood and whether it was at the top or bottom of the tree makes a big difference. But if you want wider or more concentrated in your tone then it's a part of the chain to think about. If you look at someone like Zakk Wylde. Mahogany has a wider grain and a wider sound. Zakk modernised the Les Paul sound with EMG's AND using maple set necks Whereas Eddie did something similar with bolt on maple necks, higher output humbuckers and basswood to be wider sounding than strat woods. If what you want is the tightest guitar possible then people start to use more and more maple in their guitars from the neck, fretboard and body top, in Jerry Cantrell's case the whole body. Which in turn helps you sound good with darker amp/pedal settings. Dual Rectifier, 5150, SLO100 etc. all had a lot more gain and bass than generations of amps before them. Hence why headless, stainless steel fret, multiscale guitars these days are on the brighter and louder side. There's a strong reason why Ibanez, Kiesel, Strandberg, Schecter, Ormsby, Anderson, Suhr, G&L, new design PRS (Weiner started it), Musicman etc. all have a scale of how much maple they generally use in their electric guitars. Maple has a magic to it that people can't deny that works so well in a huge mix or by yourself. What I see in the comments is that people don't realise how robust maple is and how delicate treble can be on a rosewood guitar because it sounds wider.
Ive always been partial to maple fretboards. They feel great to play. The only guitar I don’t really prefer a maple fretboard on is a jazzmaster and it’s for no particular reason 😂
Could have sworn the blind test that A was maple. But was actually rosewood. Ok so somehow rosewood is brighter than maple. Which I thought would have been the opposite.
i have to say i heard the difference, and i spotted right maple was B. Maple sounded slightly more harmonic rich to me than rosewood. also on the neck pickup and playing around the 12th fret, i have to say it sounded slightly more hendrix'ish than the rosewood one (if you listen carefully on that kind of solo at 5:53/6:02)
I have heard that it does not matter and yet they do sound different. When one plays melodies with attention to maintaining tone quality, not snapping the strings or playing with a planky thin tone the differences are noticeable. Maple is flatter in terms of frequency response. Rosewood is more active in the low and some low mids which can lead the listener to perceive it as a darker sounding wood without considering what is happening in the highs and upper mids. They also respond a bit differently. One reason maple is perceived as brighter is because a lot of folks tend to “break the sound”. It is a term that refers to when you pluck a string harder than it’s natural threshold and instead of getting a clean bell like sound it snaps. This is what we find on some blues shuffle rhythm work or some funk guitar. Under such type of attack maple tends show some activity around 3.5k when you are digging in while the difference in timbre on a rosewood board at this dynamic range is less pronounced. In short it is not merely a question of when being brighter and the other darker. There are more variables at play in what they do when you pluck in different ways, when you play in different ranges as well as ranges of dynamics and all of this is just with a clean guitar. The differences become more subtle the more gain is introduced to the equation but yet they do something different even in that case.
LOL I thought A was the Maple neck. It sounded warmer to my ears. The question I am interested in which Guitar did you feel more comfortable playing. Thank you for the demo.
This is the exact video I've been looking for. For all the people that claim they can tell the difference, I'm only going to show them the first part of this video with the blocked out guitar, and tell them to choose which one is which. People who think this stuff makes a difference are crazy. As soon as you showed the guitars, I could hear the difference, but I couldn't hear it when you weren't showing them. This is a very well understood psychological phenomenon. The senses use each other to fill in details. This is why when you show an instrument being played, especially in an orchestral context, people who know what that instrument should sound like hear it more suddenly. People who don't know what that instrument should sound like do not. This phenomenon has been publicized for many years. People who could clearly hear a difference between two instruments that they were seeing could not hear the difference when they didn't see the instruments. When people have made blind tests, all the people who claim that they can tell the difference suddenly dissapear.
I can't discern a difference in the sound, but it's certainly true that maple feels bloody different. I reckon when I first bought a Fender with a maple fretboard that it took me at least a year to get used to it, it just felt bloody weird.
Completely agree. I have only ever owned rosewood and just bought a satin maple neck strat. It’s for sure different but I really like it. It does just feel weird at first but it brought back some fun for playing because of the change.
I found this extremly interesting. I've only owned maple but thinking there's something satisfying about sparkle and snap of the rosewood. Guess I'll just have to buy one and find out for myself :)
Listening on a pair of Adams with my eyes close and periodically opening them, I knew maple by a sproing in the attack and I bet it's due to the way you're playing in reaction to the different feel.
I'll agree that the were close, but in the blind test, I preferred guitar A, and then rosewood in the non blind test. I can tell the difference. I have preferred rosewood for a long time. I also prefer the look of it.
How do you know it was the rosewood that made TGE difference...they were 2 different guitars, with different pick ups, different bodies, different strings, and different frets. Could be the rosewood made all tge difference...but I'm guessing not.
definitely sound different, the size of the difference heard depends on people. I spot the difference immediately because I am used to listen to it closely, in the past I could not hear the difference personnally. However the more gain and compression you had the less you can hear a difference
Great test! I got the blind test the wrong way round. Then when you did the sighted test I thought it was opposite and questioned if I had the blind test correct. They really are quite close
guitar A is clearly more resonant.I dont know which fingerboard that is yet or if that makes a difference, because it could be the body as well,and the two different maples in each neck regardless of one having a roasewood board.and the quality of how the guitar was made
honestly with the maple/rosewood board its whatever feels and looks better to your preference because you can get the same sounds out of both of them... where as pickups,amps,cabs, solid mahogany or maple capped, change the tone from very very slighty to Alot
Maple has a cleaner brighter sound,where rosewood sounds dull,and muffled.I have an american series strat with a rosewood fingerboard,and I hate it.I went out and bought an american series maple fingerboard strat a few months later,and love it.Im considering changing the neck out to a maple fingerboard.A few years ago I was looking at prices on the maple fingerboard necks,and they were running around $400.
I have a rosewood strat and the cleans are nice and bright. Not muffled at all. My buddy has a rosewood strat as well and his doesn't sound muffled either. Must be your pickups or your amp.
@@MrGuitarandvocals its not the amp.Ive plugged other guitars into the amp,and they sound great.Its possible it could be the pickups.But I doubt it.I bought it brand new a few years ago and its always sounded terrible compared to my other guitars.Maybe I should measure The ohms on the pickups.Do you have any idea how many ohms the pickups on a american series strat is supposed to be?Thanks in advance.
@@GoldSeals I wish I could help you, but I have no idea. I swapped out the stock pickups in my strat for a Bareknuckle HSS set. The stock pickups were decent, but the Bareknuckles blow them away imo. Now that I think about it, the stock pickups sounded kinda muffled. Lol. My buddy has Texas specials in his strat and they are fantastic. No issues. It has to be the pickups. Best of luck!
Fun thing is if you show this blindfold test to someone out of context, like they don't know what guitars are compared at all at what specific aspects are compared, like it could be just any guitars, I bet absolutely nobody will tell you "oh I definitely can hear it's two identical alder body strats, most likely fenders, but I notice that one is rosewood and other one is maple fretboard"
I hear differences with the fingerboards but their enough to notice. The maple sounds brighter and more tinny it has a distinct sound like it's got more treble. The rosewood sounds more softer or warmer as others say, I feel the rosewood has more articulation and that it's richer when playing licks & hammer on's. I don't mind maple with cleans but I think rosewood is better when distorted and more versatile.
I can hear it. to me its sounds like the maple neck is a little raw. However the neck pickups sounded pretty dang close.. Definite notice in the bridge pick up
So many factors go into tone. Each guitar is so individual. The strings...the pickups...the body...the wiring...the PLAYER....the amp. This isnt like an acoustic guitar where the tone resonates from the sound hole and the body (most notably the top). The guitar is amplified. I dont believe you fretting a note in a location that doesnt have a pickup will impart much tone differential. The string will have a frequency (note) based on where you fret it and the pickup (microphone) will grab it and add volume (along with tonal characteristics of the in the electronics / wiring of the pickup. Your eyes have more to do with it than anything....
I watched a thing were Clapton said it’s a lot easier to do bends on a slick maple neck and I have a maple neck on mine but I really love tha way tha rosewood looks compared to tha maple 🍁
Close enough. Anyone who claims a big difference is just cork sniffing. Bigger differences in any two strats (far more than fretboard material) would be the electronics (obviously) and then the nut material the string guage etc. Fretboard material is almost negligible once plugged in to an amp at an appreciable volume. That said I'm a rosewood guy on my Fenders, more for the look than anything although maple is beautiful also. .
I used to switch off during generic demos but I recent years I'm hearing yikes I need to turn they brittle sound off. There's a significance between nickel and steel. I'm sure I could dial out the steel sound but I'll definately stick with nickel regardless of the hassle.
I was working elsewhere in a different browser and therefore wasn't biased by what was being visually presented while listening to each example. I heard no difference. To me, I prefer Rosewood. I always have since first picking up an electric guitar. I don't like the rock-hard feeling of maple under my fingers. I like ebony, as well. It's just a preference.
Rosewood more precise, more transients, Maple more mellow & round. Don't listen to anybody telling you it doesn't matter, it all matters, even and especially on an electric guitar.
I prefer the maple in clean tones and rosewood in dirtier tones. Maple doesn't absorb so much drive as rosewood, and kind of muffles the sound a bit, but that's just my opinion.
I did what a nerd would do and ran the audio through the Decibel X frequency app. I’m starting to think Maple lacks just a little of the lowest frequencies but I’ve only started comparing.
If you know what to listen for it's not hard to get right when side by side. Maple is snappier/brighter. When in a mix? Who cares?! I like unfinished maple with some gunk on it more though 😎🤟
I don't think that all maple or maple with a rosewood fingerboard makes as much of a difference or any difference, but no two guitars sound alike, so using two guitars to do this test proves nothing. Only by using one guitar and changing the necks would tell us something useful. Yeah, it would be a PIA to do that, but that's the only way to be sure that we're really hearing any difference or none.
This argument is ridiculous. It’s not a debate, or shouldn’t be. It’s science. There is equipment that can prove the difference in frequency and resonance than many of us hear. Some people can’t hear high pitch tones played at the same volume as lower pitches, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Some people can identify specific ingredients in a dish, if your palatte is less refined and unable to, does that mean the ingredients you can not identify are not there and the food snobs are wrong?
Maple a lot harder? That's a generalization. There are different kinds of maple just as not all east indian rosewood has the same hardness. The cut makes also a difference, flatsawn, weird sawn or quartersawn. For maple it also matters quite a lot if roasted or plain. The thickness and construction of the neck plays also a role. As a luthier i think i know that there is nothing on a guitar that does not matter. I agree the pickups make a big difference too, but it's the summary of things that make the hearable difference. It's complex.and a lot of personal.taste is involved as always.
Two identiacal guitars? If you don't swap the neck and use the same body, it's not identical. Bodies can also be very different from one to another even if the model is the same.
The next video should show the difference in strings. Not the normal stuff, the indepth things. The different internal shapes, materials, UK.. The seemingly insignificant stuff.
wow i was right! guitar A sounded better, and i am not talking about the bends. normal strums sounded better on guitar A which was rosewood. but it may not be that which is the factor, i think its like another commentor said, they are two different pieces of wood in body and neck. The pickup identical specs I trust as being the same.I have two silver sky se's with rosewood and they sound almost identical. You can really hear that there are new strings on those two guitars
wow, they sound only slightly different, but I cant define in which ways.BUt those amrecian pro 2's sound so great in this clip. They always sound great but that's amazing.That is all the strat sound I would ever want. Am i getting that from my silver sky? probably...i am just de-sensitized to my sound. and this sound is new to me. wow what a warm sound....
MAPLE IS MORE VIBRANT, PERHAPS BRINGS OUT MORE HIGH END!! ROSEWOOD MUCH DARKER TO ME LESS SNAP I FEEL IT HAS MORE SIZZLE WITH OVERDRIVE...AND YOUR SOOO RIGHT IF I LIKE THE LOOKS OF A CERTAIN GUITAR ILL LEAN TOWARDS THAT ONE! GOOD COMPARISN!
I have 2 jackson dinkys. One with a maple neck and one with rosewood. There is a noticeable difference. Even with high gain the maple is brighter. I like the rosewood with it eq'd to be more trebly like the maple.
I've been playing for so long I don't really mind about all this but I seem to be hearing a brittle harshness in all these sounds. Initially it must be the rosewood but I'm hearing it in every example. I definitely a nasty harshness from steel frets. I'm not sure if you can dial it out but I'd rather just put up with nickel frets and get them changed.
I dont think it matters at all. without the other to compare youd never know. Lots of folk on these comments have got the blind test wrong, so are your eyes influencing your ears? Probably. Also, I think depending on the fretboard material, try as you may, I don't think you handle them the same way. I myself don't dig in to a maple board the way I would press more firmly into a rosewood board. I dont know why? So that slight playing difference is going to be audible. Be interesting to hear a blind test on a plywood board, which without the visuals, we'd be well confused. I repair electric guitars and lots pass through my hands. More important to have a great set up, nice shinny frets and the best amp you can buy for your budget. Most guitars I set up from 100 quid strats to American delux's or 100 quid second hand westfields to Gibson les pauls sound great through a big tube amp!
There’s a video on RU-vid where a guy has ten identical spec guitars (Miami blue with maple fret board) and he does a comparison and they all sound slightly different.
Brittleness and harshness in both guitars. I have nickel fretwire. Thing is I can hear it regardless of the amount of distortion. I think you can't get rid of it without losing clarity so I guess I'll stick to fretwire. M
