The end of Rosewood

[vh2580]

So had a chance to have a good look at the darker ( replacement ebony?) piece that Adam sent and began the process to fit to a neck.
Based on Simon's observation used a full respirator before working on the material.
Board was originally just over 9mm thick so gave it a run on the thicknesser to get it down to around 6mm.
Cause it was free gave it a bit of stick and hit it with 2.5mm cut straight up. Straight through and totally flat smooth finish (which surprised me). While thicknessing it had a unique smell akin to a tyre fire so would be interested to see an actual MSDS for the product. As with Simon's obs a little sticky with the dust.
Next fretted the board and was very easy to work with nice clean fast cuts.
As Im going to fit to a build, made up an inlay and routed the board with dremel. Cut really well ( not so much smell this time) and no chipping.
Will glue to neck sometime this week and begin radiusing so will see how it goes with sanding.
So far very easy to work with and looking forward to seeing how it plays once complete.

[wazkelly]

Nice work Tony.

Do you think there was some plastic substance impregnation to cause that weird smell?

[Simon Barden]

It's supposedly a natural resin (or that's the impression they try to give) that the softwood pulp is encased in, but it's hard to put a name to the smell.

[wazkelly]

Is resin part of the epoxy family? The same stuff used with fibreglass?

Used some of that stuff on sailing boats in my youth and wow, what a pong and highly toxic fumes.

[Simon Barden]

Remember that this stuff has already set, so shouldn't be giving off fumes per se, though the heat of friction of cutting and sanding might release some. But as vh2580 says, it would be interesting to see the product materials handling sheet. The manufacturer's website servers are so slow, that I can't even stream the videos to see if they have any more info than the text does (which is very basic).

[wazkelly]

Not likely to attempt a scratch build but curious to know what we may end up with in the future as a replacement for Rosewood & Ebony fret boards.

Maybe we might see more Maple ones instead?

[Simon Barden]

Maybe more baked maple ones, but they must have an effect on the tone, with maple boards known to be brighter/snappier than rosewood/ebony. I have no idea what the baking process has on the sound though.

[dave.king1]

The wood debate is a good one and I'm really not sure how much truth there is in it, many years ago after getting rid of my much hated 72 Telecaster Custom with a maple fretboard in 1975 I swore I'd never have another maple fretboard.

I did trade it for a 1960 Tele Custom ( double bound, burst & rosewood neck ) I now sit here and look at the herd that includes 4 maple fretboard guitars, 2 rosewood basses, a rosewood Strat and a remarkably good Chinese Marina acoustic also with a rosewood fretboard.

After over 50 years of playing solid body electric guitars & basses I think the one that feels right in your hands is the one that you will bond with and the tone will be there.

There is a clear and massive difference between my Mahogany Thinline Tele and my Ash Tele both with maple fretboards but is that the wood, the pickups or the strings Ernie Ball light top heavy bottom on the Thinline and the 11s D'Addario Elixir's on the Ash one which also has vintage humbuckers.

Whatever the case I have what I have because they all have a different voice and each one has it's place.

Really soft timbers like basswood are another argument and I don't have the experience to go there so I won't

[Simon Barden]

I only discovered the other day that my mid '90s MIJ Fotoflame finish Strat has a basswood body. I'd assumed it was alder. Something to do with the 'foto' print not sticking well to alder or ash but was OK on basswood. Apparently the original (and the only ones actually called Fotoflame in the guitar description) Fotoflame strats had an alder body with a basswood cap for the 'foto' to stick to (and the 'flame' was only on the front). Mine is apparently a " '62 RI model Strat", with a fotoflame print on the back and front, so the whole body is basswood. The original pickups were cheap bar magnet types, so got replaced by me with a set of Kinmans, probably in 2002. Now it sounds very much like my Custom shop DG strat, (though the neck, whilst OK, is nowhere near as nice to play. So a basswood body can certainly be made to sound like a classic Strat. It probably isn't as stable as alder though, as the models are well known for cracks in the poly finish. Mine has some accidental gouges (there when I bought it used) plus cracks that have developed from screw holes since I've had it. My plan is to refinish it in Daphne blue with a mint green pickguard this year, and also shave a bit off the neck to make it more like the DG strat in feel, with quite a pronounced V shape (which suits me). I'm keeping the Graphtec saddles that the previous owner fitted as I don't want to mess with the basic sound too much, though having assisted a friend in to buying a Clapton Strat last weekend, I'm pretty set on fitting a TBX control and mid-boost to it.

A MIM Strat with an alder body that I also fitted with Kinmans sounded nothing like as good.

[dave.king1]

Thanks for the real life comments on the basswood Simon I know have basswood kits and my PBH-4 is one such beast but I don't play it often enough to have a well enough informed opinion