Fender Jaco Pastorius fretless: why Pao Ferro?

[blackbird46]

hi,

i was wondering why the fretless jaco bass has a pao ferro fretboard and MANY of the other fenders of equal price have the rosewood boards. Im searching for a jaco with a rosewood board and the only ones im finding are the relics. help?

 

[Jazz Ad]

It's a much better wood for a fretless board because it doesn't tear as much as rosewood.
It sounds like a valid reason to me.

 

[doctorjazz]

Yep. Pao Ferro basically means "iron wood," hence the extra strength required to stand up to rounds grinding against the board. Jaco's bass was epoxied rosewood, but regular rosewood isn't strong enough to last very long with rounds and epoxy jobs add a lot to the cost of the bass, so from a production standpoint it was better for Fender to go with pao ferro for the regular production model and save the epoxy job for the high-dollar replica model.

 

[Christopher]

Pao ferro is denser and more wear resistant than ebony.

 

[blackbird46]

I was reading on harmony central about the Fender Jaco Pastorius Signature jazz bass that they did back in 1991 that was identical to his bass...any knowledge of this?

 

[ClassicJazz]

Fender Japan makes one. (click on my sig and you'll see mine) And they are great basses. The rosewood fretboard on mine is some type of super rosewood. It is much harder than other rosewood fretboards I've seen, and it is barely wearing at all.

 

[ODDBALL]

The USA Cirrus and the BXP Ciruss use it.

 

[spade2you]

I think it was used because it was the new thing to do. The SRV Strat also featured it. With rosewood and ebony in short supply, it made sense to try it out. Since Jaco epoxied it, really the fingerboard wood was arbitrary.....which is why my next bass is gonna be bird's eye maple with a coat of epoxy.

 

[bongomania]

The rosewood fretboard on mine is some type of super rosewood.

Yeah, it's called pao ferro.

 

[Jazzin']

He covered it in epoxy anyways.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Yeah, it's called pao ferro.

Oh I do know the difference. It is rosewood on mine, it even says it in the specs. But it not the usual rosewood I see on most basses. Also Pao Ferro is usually lighter in color. The fretboard on my jazz is very dark. (see pic)

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[blackbird46]

it just seems to me that to make a jaco tribute bass would mean to make the bass as his bass was...or at least as close as you could. With Fender carrying so many other basses with rosewood boards, i would think they could have done the same on the jaco bass.

 

[brianrost]

i was wondering why the fretless jaco bass has a pao ferro fretboard and MANY of the other fenders of equal price have the rosewood boards.

Last time I checked, Fender uses Pau Ferro on all fretlesses and all 5 strings rather than rosewood. Why? Who knows...

 

[bgavin]

Pao ferro is denser and more wear resistant than ebony.

I don't think so.

Using the Janka hardness scale:
Ebony 3,220
Pau Ferro 1,780

Specific gravity:
Ebony 0.82
Pau Ferro 0.65

Ebony is both harder and more dense than Pau Ferro.

 

[4Mal]

I wasn't aware that pau fer was also iron wood. I did a deck in ironwood back in the late 90's. Tough to work with but it wears amazingly well and weathers real well. That deck was in a really harsh climate, took a lot of traffic.

IIRC the wood itself is a sustainable groweth wood, harverted from the underwater portion of the tree. The tree itself is a very fast grower that is swamp or rain forest based. If I do recall correctly, the sustainability issue would be a good reason. I've had one Fender with a Pau Fero fretboard - I never noticed anything tonally about it that was either objectionable or not. Far as I was converned - it felt pretty much like RW and the bass itself sounded decent enough that I never questioned the fb material. I wasn't in love with the light color, or that fact that it was a 5 string but the color wasn't a deal buster for me - the B string was ... I'm just not a 5 string guy ...

 

[danomite64]

I've had 5 fretless basses, one was rosewood, one was Indian rosewood, one was Pau Ferro, and 2 were Ebony. Ebony is defititely the densest of those options.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

What's another name for Pau Ferro - Bolivian Rosewood- for all intents and purposes - it is Rosewood!!

 

[danomite64]

Yeah, it sure felt and acted like rosewood, which is why I sold the bass.

 

[EddieG]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the type of rosewood used by pre-CBS Fender for boards is an endangered species now, hence the general switch to Pao Ferro.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Which is sustainable rosewood!