Favourite Fretboards?

[Rocks256]

Hello.

What is your favourite fretboard, what is the reason to pick particular one? Explain and share.

I have two guitars, and maybe will add second 7 string in future or other guitar. I have damien elite 7 mk.2 by Schecter (mk 2 is for fixed bridge version) and i don't get along with rosewood. The feel under hands is okay, however i preffer brighter woods. I have to admit i love one piece maple neck in my Fender Telecaster, it looks sexy with red body. Wish i could have maple fretboard or one piece maple neck on schecter. I known there is dark red version with maple neck of Jeff Loomis 7 string but i cannot afford it at the moment, it costs here 1200$ while my schecter is 500$ and fender is 600$.

I wish there were more affordable 7 string with maple fretboard, i can't stand white or blue 7 string with rosewood or ebony, theres something that doesnt look okay about it.

Whats your desire?

 

[dr_game0ver]

I haven't played many guitars but: I don't like maple because many guitar that have it are Fenders likes with 7.5 or 9.5" radius and laquer finish, which i don't like, i don't mind ebony, rosewood is complicated, i hate "bad" rosewood with holes and crevasses in them, but on the other hand, the rosewood board on ma Washburn MB-6 is by far the smoother and most confortable board i have ever played. Much more than some original Music Man EVH models and 10K$ Fenders customs strats

 

[Soya]

Finely polished, black as night ebony. It's the business.

 

[Flappydoodle]

Ebony, but for me it's all about the looks

People talk about "feel", but when are you ever actually touching the fretboard? My finger touches the string, and the string presses against the metal fret. At no point (I think) does my finger ever touch the wood.

Are people playing with super small frets, low action and pressing really hard?

 

[Breakdown]

A nice dark piece of ebony . Or a nice tight grained dark brown piece of rosewood. Maple is cool but im not a fan of how dirty oiled ones get or how lacquered boards look and feel.

 

[Splenetic]

Rosewood

 

[Lorcan Ward]

My favourite is African Blackwood, its harder and tighter grained than ebony and is darker when oiled. It polishes up really smooth and retains a slippy feel for longer without oiling.

 

[diagrammatiks]

wenge

 

[KnightBrolaire]

depends on the overall aesthetics of the guitar and what kind of look I want. Lately I really like maple since it's more environmentally friendly (plus it's a lot harder to source good pitch black ebony).

 

[Ebony]

I have a few favorites, so I voted other.

- Ebony.
- African Blackwood, my only worry with this one is import/export, maybe the next brazillian.
- Snakewood.
- Ziricote.
- Satinwood ( I have daydreams of a flamed satinwood fretboard combined with a solid-white holly top).

 

[cardinal]

Another guy for whom it just depends on looks. Depends on the guitar. As long as the frets are level, they all play fine.

 

[Wolfos]

Pale moon ebony for looks, actually anything with a nice bold pattern, Cocobolo, Ziricote etc.

 

[TedEH]

Just for aesthetic reasons: Maple > Ebony > Everything Else > Rosewood

 

[thraxil]

Parker's carbon fibre glass epoxy fretboards. Nothing like it.

 

[oracles]

Phenolic, the same material Parker and Washburn were using. Combined with well done stainless frets, there is nothing smoother. I wish more builders would use it, it's the cats ass.

Richlite is great because its largely maintenance free, and its largely very uniform for aesthetics.

If I had to pick a wooden material, macassar ebony.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Parker's carbon fibre glass epoxy fretboards. Nothing like it.

yep I changed my mind. this is the right answer. Nothing feels quite as good as the parker phenolic boards or the cf neck, especially with good frets.

 

[blacai]

After choosing ebony I double checked if I had read the question correctly
I could try some OGRE guitars last year, wich mount "magnesium" and it was also interesting, but a little bit weird.

 

[JSanta]

Best fretboard I've ever played on has been on any of the Parker Fly's I've owned. Next is maple and then rosewood.

 

[gujukal]

Birds eye maple, dark ebony or pale moon ebony.

 

[Andrew Lloyd Webber]

How many times am I going to waste my interbreath explaining that Parker never used phenolic boards...If there was “nothing like them”, people wouldn’t constantly refer to 1mm carbon fiber sheets and slabs of phenolic resin as the same thing.

Anyway, I prefer the smooth feel of zero-maintenance, synthetic boards - But own a lot of wooden fingerboard-guitars because my fingers generally don’t miss the strings and touch the board.

I have some Speedball India ink set aside for dying some Pao Ferro because the black hardware making the brown pop pisses me off.