I honestly can't tell if the neck material makes that much of a difference. My Daytonas are both ash and one has a maple fretboard and the other has rosewood. When they were stock, they pretty much sounded very similar. But then you run them through some distortion and who the hell knows what's going on. Well...maybe someone with good ears. So that's not me. I like my strat-types to have that maple fretboard. It just looks right to me that way. Same with a tele. Simple slabs of wood. Primal. But with a carved top, I prefer darker fretboards - reminds me of fine furniture.