Soft Maple For Fretboard?

[Jake]

Yea.. its just that soft maple is cheap.. and easier to get for me than hard maple.

[Jake]

By the way.. are you getting hard maple mixed with soft maple?

[westhemann]

No,everyone replying in this thread is familiar with both types.

[Woodenspoke]

With any maple you are finishing it so I dont see the point of compairing soft to hard maple since you will be playing on the finish and not the maple. Most people cannot tell the difference, and may be using soft maple thinking its hard maple.

[marko_slash]

With any maple you are finishing it so I dont see the point of compairing soft to hard maple since you will be playing on the finish and not the maple. Most people cannot tell the difference, and may be using soft maple thinking its hard maple.

What is the main difference? I mean visually?

[Mors Phagist]

I was always under the impression soft maple wouldn't work well for a fretboard. But now it seems it wouldn't hurt to make a few Practice/Real fretboards out of some decent soft maple...

[westhemann]

The soft maple everyone likes to use is quilted,which makes it unstable because of the wild grain.straight grained is damn hard...I made a body of it once and I thought I was going to die while sanding...

[killemall8]

With any maple you are finishing it so I dont see the point of compairing soft to hard maple since you will be playing on the finish and not the maple. Most people cannot tell the difference, and may be using soft maple thinking its hard maple.

What is the main difference? I mean visually?

There really isnt a difference... Ive compared them at the lumberyard side by side... A lot of the time the soft maple is whiter than Rock. But thats about it. Identical grain patterns, and everything.