i wonder what string wear would be like on Bamboo? oh you luthiers, you're such tricky folk 
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Double Bass Alternatives to ebony, for fingerboards
- Thread starter gaelmckeon
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staying away from any of the wood ju-ju... need to find a suitable by-product from some non-wood related manufacturing process that would suit the needs for the exotic components and in some respects, mere accoutrements in the instrument biz.
by-product in the sense,that there is likely little interest in developing materials if simply targeted for the musical instrument industry.
by-product in the sense,that there is likely little interest in developing materials if simply targeted for the musical instrument industry.
I helped a friend install a floating bamboo floor and fabricated a couple of thresholds from solid bamboo. I was impressed with how hard it was. But in tables, you can see a lot of different values quoted for bamboo Janka hardness, from around 1700 to up over 3000. Apparently, the properties depend a lot on what part of the plant the sample was taken from. If anybody really wants to get into the gory details, they could check out:
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I would assume that making a bamboo DB fingerboard would entail some kind of lamination process, as I don't think you're going to get solid billets on the order of 2" x 4".
I'm still intrigued by the idea of Eucalyptus, perhaps laminated, with some book-matching and end-swapping to promote stability. It is abundant in our area, to say the least, and I think local sourcing of a renewable resource is one of the things Gael is interested in.
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I would assume that making a bamboo DB fingerboard would entail some kind of lamination process, as I don't think you're going to get solid billets on the order of 2" x 4".
I'm still intrigued by the idea of Eucalyptus, perhaps laminated, with some book-matching and end-swapping to promote stability. It is abundant in our area, to say the least, and I think local sourcing of a renewable resource is one of the things Gael is interested in.
What eucalypt species do you have growing in San Francisco? They vary a bit with respect to hardness. Ironbark, for example, is harder than ebony (Janka hardness 16.3 kN or 3667 lb), but tends to have a pretty twisty grain, at least in my experience of using it for fenceposts and firewood!
- Aug 1, 2005
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Yes. It's hard to imagine any bass maker doing all the work necessary to create a manufacturing process for bamboo fingerboards. Our only chance would be adapting technology from another industry. Let's see, must be long, stiff, and have a very hard, durable, curved surface. How about wind turbine blades?
Please no jokes about the adjectives in the last sentence. If I could have written it another way I would have
robobass said:Yes. It's hard to imagine any bass maker doing all the work necessary to create a manufacturing process for bamboo fingerboards. Our only chance would be adapting technology from another industry. Let's see, must be long, stiff, and have a very hard, durable, curved surface. How about wind turbine blades?
Please no jokes about the adjectives in the last sentence. If I could have written it another way I would have
This past weekend a friend's son showed me a new baseball bat that was made out of bamboo. If I recall it was called " BamBoo Bats". Perhaps I can call the manufacturer and get a blank before it's cut to length and turned on the lathe. I think that size might be in the ballpark (sorry, couldn't resist) for a fingerboard.
I own a bass with a fingerboard made from "bruinhart" (translated: brownheart) "Vouacapoua americana" from Surinam. Still no need for redressing after about 8 years now. It is really hard with a slightly coarse open grain, the feel is different from a smooth Ebony and needs getting used to.
I think it ads something to the sound. I never heard my bass with the original fingerboard, so I can't really compare, but there is an extra vibe in the upper mid register that's really special.
I think it ads something to the sound. I never heard my bass with the original fingerboard, so I can't really compare, but there is an extra vibe in the upper mid register that's really special.
I'm very pleased with pau ferro on my fretless.strong stiff and resonant wood.great growling tone.not really bright like carbon fiber or ebony
There's also another woodtype from Surinam: groenhart, Tabebuia serratofolia (greenheart, don't you love their creative names?) that's in hardness almost equal to Ebony, is smoother than bruinhart and is supposed to be really stable and cheap. Never seen it used on a DB but apparently it is used for guitars.
I think you could source bamboo blanks suitable for FB. All bamboo products are laminated since the plant has a small radius. If you wanted to make 1 or 2 you could buy a couple pieces of bamboo flooring which is 5/8" and make your own. A quick internet search and I found "Fossilized" bamboo with an Janka rating of 5000lbs, comes in a couple of colors too.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
All depends on what species of bamboo (there are many). the larger ones are nearly a foot in diameter, and grow to 100' tall. If they didn't have short sections like they do, a piece of the large bamboo might work very well.
Those close nodes may not be an issue - they can be be sanded down quite easily, and the only issue is visual.
I work with bamboo (on a smaller scale), and love it.
George
Fine Hardwoods Specializing in wood billets for baseball bats.
3x3x37"
Of course, here is the big problem: It is made in China, which entirely defeats the purpose of locally-sourced materials. If it wasn't, I would have already bought a blank for myself.
We have plenty of bamboo in the U.S., somebody needs to do this stuff right here!
George
One wood that one wouldn't normally think of for fingerboards is walnut, but Ovation has been using an impregnated walnut for the fingerboards on most of it's top of the line Adamas guitars for decades, and it seems to hold up quite well. Looks great and is available as a domestic product.
Anyone ever tried it for bass?
Anyone ever tried it for bass?
Ha! I know a lot of products that are peddled as "green" are made in China! Which is ridiculous! A local restaurant started using biodegradable cups made from corn, and made a big fuss about it. I looked into the issue and found that the product they were using was made in China. That's not "green!" Since China imports U.S. corn, the material in these cups probably crossed the Pacific twice. Ridiculous.
Anyway, there's a lot of greenwashing going on, and we'll need to look very hard at all aspects of any new fingerboard material to get a realistic idea of its "true costs."
Exactly right. And that includes components of the beloved Prius. Intent vs. reality. That is the problem.
Back to the bamboo though - that definitely needs to be looked at. I find it ridiculous to see bamboo stakes in Home Depot that are imported from China, when there is the same exact bamboo growing right behind that Home Depot!
George
This gets complicated, but a big part of the problem is that we allow trans-national corporations to exploit labor by pitting different country's populations against each other. The old race to the bottom syndrome. Workers suffer. The biosphere is ruined.
Another point: I don't think Toyota's intent is to do anything besides sell cars. And greenwashing is a great marketing technique.
But this issue probably goes beyond the scope of this discussion. Sorry for the digression...
The benefit as I see it is bamboo grows like a weed as opposed to ebony trees which take - a long time to grow and require specific growing regions, environmental conditions etc. So I vote that bamboo is "greenish" on the basis of quick growing (renewable), easy to process etc.
