LeftyBassist.com

Just out of curiosity, why are maple fretboards so sought after?

Generally speaking, because the only choice for lefty bass players who have wanted a Fender has been rosewood for the last 30 years.

It'd just be nice to have a different choice for a change.

For me personally, I tend to like maple better aesthetically... there's nothing sexier or more rock and roll than a black Fender P-bass with a maple board, IMO. I generally like the tone of maple better as well... there's a bit of a snap and a snarl there you can't get from rosewood.

Likewise, I prefer the tone of a Maple Neck Jazz Bass. It's often a little more bassy and snappy with slightly less low-mid growl. I feel the sound is more round played softly and more funky when played in a percussive way. But I will prefer a Rosewood Stingray or P-Bass. Just a matter of taste I guess.

The thing that bugs me so much about Fender's rosewood fretboards are that they are often painfully thin around the middle of the neck. Both a Mexican Jazz and my 07 American Deluxe have this little wafer think fret boards that get even skinnier around the middle of the neck. Its almost like the neck wasn't leveled properly so they had to shave off half the fret board to make the neck serviceable. I hate looking at it and have never noticed this issue on a maple fretted board. My Stingrays have a thick slab of rosewood and are dead even all the way along the length of the neck. I could see this happening on the MIM bass but its pretty bad for an expensive "Deluxe" model.

Out of the hundreds of instruments Fender brought, they had NO lefty basses, and NO lefty guitars on display at 2013 NAMM. They only had (1) Squire Vintage Bass in the corner. I'm looking for a tele bass and held the (3) Fender options: Sting/Dirnt/Modern Player -- unfortunately that is all I'll get to do since all 3 are only for righties. So I walked into the 2013 Fender exhibit excited, and quickly walked out pissed!

SWING AND A MISS! Thanks Fender.

At least they're making an effort. Not sure about you guys, but the Gibson run has been the gift of the year. Maybe Fender will pony up next year....