Bamboo or eucalyptus basses or fingerboards

[moon-bass]

My wife and I are getting our floors redone (hurricane Ida damage). Long story short, we are using bamboo and eucalyptus flooring.

Dig this wood. It's engineered, and from what I gather, it's b/e fibers pressed together in a hydraulic press, and from what I gather it's pretty extreme pressure.

Here are the details on it - Janka Hardness Scale | Flooring Durability Test Explained | CALI

The result is awesome. It looks and feels like real wood, but it's super hard. 5000+ on the Janka scale.

I admit, we were skeptical at first, so we ordered some samples. For the past six months, we put the samples through their paces. We used them as coasters. We hit them with axes and hammers. Left a sample in a bucket of water for a few days. Etc.

The only thing that I didn't do was shoot at them, but tbh I'd be afraid of the ricochet lol.

Anyways, this wood is impressive. Those samples came through all of that barely scathed. I mean, direct hammer blows, and not even a dent.

So, bass nerd that I am, I started thinking about a fretless board made out of this type of wood. I could imagine that it would be difficult to work with, but I would imagine that it would be a killer, killer fretless board. Also, the coating on the wood is super strong - perhaps that coating could be used to coat existing boards.

Anyone out there familiar with this type of wood and possible bass applications?

 

[Energy]

First thing that came to my mind was "a bass neck is not a kitchen floor..." But hey, there are fretless basses with stainless steel fingerboards, so why not give that bamboo stuff a try.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Give it a try. Can you get a blank in the correct dimensions to make a fingerboard?

 

[2112]

Very interesting idea... subbing to hear about possible results.

In the meantime, my grandfather used to install flooring... he always said that spike heels were his #1 source of repair calls. If your samples can survive that kind of abuse, you're probably good-to-go.

 

[moon-bass]

Give it a try. Can you get a blank in the correct dimensions to make a fingerboard?

I'll measure tomorrow, but yeah pretty sure you could make several fingerboards from one flooring board. It would be above my feeble woodworking skills tho.

I should ask the mods to move this to the luthier section.

 

[moon-bass]

The more I think of it, the .ore I like the idea of it.

It's sustainable/ecologically friendly, it's cheap, plentiful, most likely sounds great (very hard fretless boards normally do),stable, impervious to moisturize ... It's very dense, so maybe a con would be that it's hard to work with.

 

[moon-bass]

Very interesting idea... subbing to hear about possible results.

In the meantime, my grandfather used to install flooring... he always said that spike heels were his #1 source of repair calls. If your samples can survive that kind of abuse, you're probably good-to-go.

Dude, this stuff survived hammers

 

[Jeff Scott]

I don't think the wood will be too difficult to work. If things don't work out with the bass with the bamboo & eucalyptus fingerboard, give the bass to a panda and a koala to share, they'll love it.

 

[spatters]

Materials aren't magic. You can make a fingerboard out of anything that's sufficiently hard and of similar dimensional stability to the neck. If the flooring's coefficients are within the range of existing fingerboards that people glue to maple necks, I say go for it!

(The fingerboard's coefficients of thermal and hygroscopic expansion should be similar to those of the neck, or temperature and humidity changes will tend to make the bass lose tune, the neck warp, or the fingerboard delaminate entirely over time. It's why synthetic fingerboard materials are specifically engineered, instead of just slapping down a sheet of whatever is cheap, hard, and easy to work. That, and being able to bond the material to wood. In contrast, material selection is much less critical with the guitar body, which is held on by screws over a small surface area and thus can be made out of nearly anything.)

 

[bholder]

Chapman makes Sticks out of compressed bamboo, so no reason it wouldn't work for bass too.

 

[Snert]

Chapman makes Sticks out of compressed bamboo, so no reason it wouldn't work for bass too.

I was just gonna mention them...

Also this project might give some inspiration.
Winter Build-Off 2022: Bamboo EUB | TalkBass.com

 

[ToddB1963]

What species of eucalypt? ( there are many used for flooring ).

FYI, there is a species here in the south west of Western Australia, Eucalyptus wandoo, that is extremely hard and makes excellent guitar fingerboards.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Bamboo on my NS/Stick neck.
Was good enough for Emmett Chapman and Co.

 

[micguy]

There are 2 kinds of bamboo - the stuff that isn’t compressed, and the stuff that is. The compressed stuff is really dense - probably plenty stuff, the question is how much it will weigh.

I would avoid making a body from the compressed stuff; a neck I’d be concerned with neck dive. The uncompressed stuff would be fine for a body, but I have no idea if it’d hold up as a neck.

 

[Barticus]

I have a buddy that built a multi scale 6-string that used bamboo for the neck (37”). It is super thin, strong and not that heavy, looks cool too.

 

[kumimajava]

I have a buddy that built a multi scale 6-string that used bamboo for the neck (37”). It is super thin, strong and not that heavy, looks cool too.

i'm sure you were expecting this - but: any chance of seeing some pics of that instrument? I'be really curious

 

[g-dude]

What species of eucalypt? ( there are many used for flooring ).

FYI, there is a species here in the south west of Western Australia, Eucalyptus wandoo, that is extremely hard and makes excellent guitar fingerboards. View attachment 4687056

Eucalyptus was one of the greatest cons in US history.

Basically, in the early 20th century, someone convinced everyone in the SF Bay Area that it’d be a great tree to import and plant because of how fast it grows and all the uses of the wood.

What ended up happening is that the trees did grow fast…but the wood was useless for anything.

The trees spread everywhere in the area, which…I mean, they smell nice and all that, but…

They drop a ton of bark at the base, and the trees have a ton of oil on them. Basically, the perfect tree if you want to take a fire prone area and make it much worse.

I remember during the Oakland firestorm back in 1991 watching the trees explode on TV, sending flaming oil in all directions.

Always liked the look and smell of them, but after that I regretted convincing my dad to plant one on the hill in our backyard.

 

[Barticus]

i'm sure you were expecting this - but: any chance of seeing some pics of that instrument? I'be really curious

Yep, I'll be back over to his place later this week and I'll grab a couple of pics.

 

[Altitude]

Big fan of bamboo in many wood applications. It’s easy to work with and grows so quickly that it’s both renewable and natural.

Not sure I buy the hardness claims though. I installed bamboo floors in a few rooms of my house about ten years ago - looks great but it immediately began taking dents from normal wear that I don’t see on, for example, oak. I would not recommend bamboo in a kitchen where people drop a lot of things.

As for use on a bass - maybe. Seems similar in hardness to basswood.

 

[moon-bass]

Big fan of bamboo in many wood applications. It’s easy to work with and grows so quickly that it’s both renewable and natural.

Not sure I buy the hardness claims though. I installed bamboo floors in a few rooms of my house about ten years ago - looks great but it immediately began taking dents from normal wear that I don’t see on, for example, oak. I would not recommend bamboo in a kitchen where people drop a lot of things.

As for use on a bass - maybe. Seems similar in hardness to basswood.

I have heard the same thing (about bamboo from years ago) but this is a different animal. I was skeptical at first as well, but once I saw it in action I almost couldn't believe it.