What is your favorite fretboard material and why?

[G_3_3_k_]

Richlite.

It works and repairs better than wood. Lasts longer. Feels better.

I’m not getting into sonics. Not the thread for that.

 

[yellowv]

Another vote for richlite. Looks, feels and sounds like ebony with no drawbacks.

 

[xzacx]

Ebony and/or Richlite, although I guess a slight preference for Richlite since it's looks the same and is more sustainable. Then Rosewood, then everything else (although I don't actually own anything other than the previously mentioned materials). I could do Maple/Light Richlite, but it has to really be the perfect combo of colors to consider that, and even then I'd probably still prefer one of the others since they provide a false sense of cleanliness—dirty maple boards gross me out.

 

[Dayn]

I'd like to try synthetic stuff like richlite as then the colouring is irrelevant.

As it stands, I prefer ebony. Rosewood is perfectly suitable. A lot of maple fretboards have felt sticky to me, until I tried a decent Ibanez with one. But I'm still wary.

So, I've never felt it was ever relevant aside from feeling nice under the fingers and looking good.

 

[A.JohnHayes]

I love how birdseye maple looks. I had an RG652AHMFX which I had to sell due to illness, and I'm so sad I had to let it go because it had such insane figuring on the fretboard, along with being just a top-tier guitar.

 

[josh1]

Roasted maple
Birdseye/roasted

 

[spudmunkey]

Anyone try Anderson's new Blackheart? They say it's roasted purpleheart, but I've seen that, and it's not black. I suspect maybe they "fume" it, and then roast it.

 

[bigcupholder]

Maple -> Ebony -> Rosewood (sorta)

I never thought about it until clicking this thread but I have a really heavy tapping hand and all the guitars I like to pick up for that sort of stuff have unroasted Maple boards (and also Maple or Mahogany necks).
I think flamed boards are the prettiest but very busy visually. I really love to look down at a Birdseye board while playing.

I visually love Rosewood fretboards and have no preference on whether or not my dark fretboards are RW or Ebony, but I find RW necks themselves to be too warm for me. Someone before me said it felt soft. I agree, but for me that's both in terms of feel and tone.

Ebony -> RW probably for placebo effect. Not that my EMGs cared anyway...

Rosewood is not warmer sounding than maple. That's an old myth based on nothing other than color. It's also significantly harder than maple. The bolded section is complete nonsense.

 

[Forkface]

i mean, while we're on topic. why isnt richlite more popular? is it expensive to make?
ive seen brands go thru the whole wood catalog for fretboards, recently i saw some shit said laurel or somesuch. why dont they just all make richlite and call it a day.

 

[yellowv]

Because a lot of people believe that richlite is a cost cutting effort, which it really isn't. The old fudds that are like "oh I want real wood" lol

 

[KnightBrolaire]

i mean, while we're on topic. why isnt richlite more popular? is it expensive to make?
ive seen brands go thru the whole wood catalog for fretboards, recently i saw some shit said laurel or somesuch. why dont they just all make richlite and call it a day.

richlite isn't cheaper than decent wood currently. The irony is that it prob won't get cheaper overall until more guitar companies order it, or a company like esp/fmic makes a massive order

 

[Lorcan Ward]

i mean, while we're on topic. why isnt richlite more popular? is it expensive to make?
ive seen brands go thru the whole wood catalog for fretboards, recently i saw some shit said laurel or somesuch. why dont they just all make richlite and call it a day.

The guitar world is always slow to adapt to change. I think Gibson tried synthetic boards and got so much flak for it from purists. They don't even like how Gibson changed to a rosewood substitute.

Schecter would have no problem changing to it since most of their consumer base want black boards. I see a lot of ebony board guitars coming out of Korea lately with cracks in the fretboard so even at an extra cost it would reduce the amount of returns and B-stock. You'd have to factor in contracts and current wood supplies when swapping to a new material so that could take a while.

In my opinion the way forward is simple body and neck woods, high grade veneer tops and richlite boards.

 

[Pingu]

Rosewood is not warmer sounding than maple. That's an old myth based on nothing other than color. It's also significantly harder than maple. The bolded section is complete nonsense.

I was not comparing Maple to RW at all, but ranking woods I have on how much I prefer them (often entirely visually). I never intended to give the impression I was providing any objective data.

Patch for patch without adjusting anything in my setups, all of the RW neck guitars I've taken home both came across as 'warm to what I'm used to', and then when I sit down on the couch unplugged I feel like I'm not getting the response I'm feeling for. In regards to RW feeling soft, looking more at it this could be the grain of the wood? I'm not looking at rigidity here, just sliding my fingers around.

Maple being a softer wood might explain why I've gravitated towards slamming my tapping fingers into Maple boards, I don't like jumbo frets so my fingers make a lot of fretboard contact, which I actually like the finger feel and audible wood ping of.

 

[trem licking]

Slightly off topic on topic, why don't we just get away from wood altogether? Richlite entire guitars... No more bs dealing with wood

 

[Ross82]

Ebony is my preference, though at the moment I have majority Maple fretboard guitars

To me, it's really an aesthetic/feel thing over anything else. I like dark fingerboards and Ebony has the smoothest feel to me though Maple is a close second in feel, I just dont like bright colour on my guitars. The whole "fingerboard tone" thing doesn't factor for me.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Slightly off topic on topic, why don't we just get away from wood altogether? Richlite entire guitars... No more bs dealing with wood

Outside of the whole "guitarists are weird" thing, it's expensive and heavy. For a fretboard you don't notice either of those factors, but in a whole instrument you would.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Slightly off topic on topic, why don't we just get away from wood altogether? Richlite entire guitars... No more bs dealing with wood

Richlite is made from wood though. Either recycled products or Eucalyptus trees last I checked. Richlite also claims their products don't biodegrade which really isn't a material we should move an entire industry too.

 

[jack_cat]

I have only negatives to report, and from my POV the positives on Richlite are looking pretty good,
but I have not made up my mind. I have a new FF classical 9-string in the planning stage.

On two seven-string classicals we had built in 2012, the ebony fingerboards both checked near the soundhole. A schmear of black epoxy fixed them both, no big deal. On my 9-string FF classical of 2016 I went with Granadillo, and it has not checked, but it has worn badly after several hundred gigs, and it is clear that it doesn't wear as well as ebony, there are now pits around some frets. So, I will certainly use something else next time.

I am going to have a next-generation FF nine-string classical built (awaiting accumulation of funds),
and the fingerboard will be 3.5/8" / 92 mm wide at the widest. I would certainly like to hear from players of instruments with very wide necks, and take any and all advice, thanks.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

The only "problems" with wood are of our own making. It's cheap, renewable, lightweight, and lasts longer than our lifetime. There are really no downsides to it other than folks get weird about it or its harvested improperly.

 

[will_shred]

Another vote for Richlite!