NorCalluthier -> RE: Rosewood fingerboards (?) (Jun. 25 2017 16:45:10)
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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
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