Rosewood fingerboards (?)

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NorCalluthier

Posts: 136
Joined: Apr. 16 2016

Rosewood fingerboards (?)

Hello All,

I have what I call my "one percent list". These are materials that I use, or procedures that I follow, that I think make a better sounding or easier playing instrument. I figure that if I get several of these little things working for me, I'll end up with an better guitar. But, I'm guessing that each of the things on the list only makes about "one percent" difference.

I recently finished a couple of "ultra-lightweight" cypress flamencas using rosewood fingerboards. The guitars turned out particularly well, and I attribute part of their virtue to my using rosewood instead of ebony. So rosewood boards are now on my one percent list. I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has an idea which wood is really better.

Cheers,

Brian Burns

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 25 2017 0:39:25

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Rosewood fingerboards (?) (in reply to NorCalluthier)

People are fixated on ebony, but I think many other woods work well for fingerboards. Rosewood is a good fingerboard, but some players associate it with cheaper guitars.

Its one of those things that would be very difficult to quantify in empirical terms. Blind testing with customers, I doubt anyone can tell the difference really. For builders to say this or that fingerboard renders this or that result I think is highly anecdotal.

In the end it's what the customer will accept. If you tell them in your opinion it's better and that is good enough for them then that's it. The person to really ask is Al Carruth, right? He has thought about these things carefully and if it is anecdotal he'll say that, and if one factor may effect the outcome one way or another he might speculate. The reason I mention Carruth is because he has done some work on neck stiffness and and it's effects on modes in tuning. Logically, the density, weight and stiffness could be factor in the over all effect of the neck and fingerboard is about one third of the neck.

I use Maccassar Ebony as a default fingerboard unless the customer orders black ebony. I can't say there is a difference, but only that some Ebony fingerboards are lighter than some Maccassar boards. But I'm speaking of a few grams.

In my opinion where the rubber meets the road with alternate woods as a more than 1% factor is in bridge wood. I use Cherry bridges sometimes and I have used at least five other woods besides Rosewood. And I'm looking to get a supply of Osage Orange for bridges, and I have some Japanese hardwoods the names of which I don't even know that I cut for bridge wood and it looks to be very promising.

The only regret I have about rosewood is that it is associated with cheaper guitars and that is ashame. I'm not the biggest fan of rosewood back and sides, I prefer blonde body wood in every case, but the fingerboards have to be dark or rich woods to look right. That said I'm not above making a stunning rosewood guitar, I prefer blondes.

_____________________________

https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 25 2017 3:15:54

NorCalluthier

Posts: 136
Joined: Apr. 16 2016

RE: Rosewood fingerboards (?) (in reply to NorCalluthier)

Hello again Stephen,

Contacting Al is a good idea. We are good friends, both being "techno-weenies", and I haven't heard from him in some time.

Ebony probably wears better than rosewood. I used rosewood boards on the "ultra-lights" because they weighed less than ebony ones. I have since tested the damping ("Q") of a batch of ebony and rosewood boards, and the rosewood boards come out with around 30% lower damping than the ebony ones.

Ralph Novax, the electric guitar maker, and "inventor" of the fan-fret system, gave me the idea that fingerboards were important. In chatting with him at an NCAL meeting years ago I marveled that wood choice could make a difference in the tone of a solid body electric. He said not just the body wood, but the neck, and even the fingerboard wood made a significant difference.

I recently contacted him to ask if he thought that a nylon strung instrument would be affected by choice of fingerboard wood, and he said that the fingerboard was part of the vibrating system, so it probably had its effect.

As for bridge wood, I have always used Brazilian, as it is the lowest damping wood around, and I figure that all the sound has to go through it---except on one of the ultra-lights.

Richard Bruné said in a GAL convention lecture that to get that old time sound, use a mahogany bridge. I got digging around in my stash, and came up with some great Spanish cedar at a bit more than half of the weight of mahogany. It tested to have the same damping as East Indian rosewood! And the resulting bridge, with wide bone inlays, came in at just under 11 grams!

The woods and voicing of the two ultra-lights were matched closely, as I wanted to see what the effect of that cedar bridge turned out to be. That is the first guitar I've made that had notes that jumped out as too loud! The one with the Brazil bridge has more of the standard even response.

The kicker: The cedar bridge guitar was bought by a classical player who plays nothing but classical music on it---doesn't play flamenco at all!

Cheers,

Brian

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 25 2017 16:45:10