Fender no longer using rosewood ?

[D-Smith]

Pay Ferro is a great fretboard material. I have it on a bass, it looks and sounds great, quite similar to my rosewood basses in fact. I believe it is a suitable replacement, what doesn't make sense is using ebony as a stand in on the American basses. Ebony is much harder that rosewood and has a very different sound. Not sure the reasoning behind that.

On top of that, the world's supply of ebony is drastically smaller than the world's supply of rosewood. In fact, most of the Indian Rosewood coming out of India is grown on plantations, so it's a completely renewable source of wood. With Fender switching to ebony it simply means ebony will be added to the CITIES list that much sooner.

 

[franklindayala]

My Sadowsky has a Pau Ferro fretboard. Nothing cheap looking about it.


View attachment 1136938

Roger loves pau ferro.

 

[C_Becker]

On top of that, the world's supply of ebony is drastically smaller than the world's supply of rosewood. In fact, most of the Indian Rosewood coming out of India is grown on plantations, so it's a completely renewable source of wood. With Fender switching to ebony it simply means ebony will be added to the CITIES list that much sooner.

And the bitching about streaky ebony fretboards will be endless
Honestly, I think guitar makers need to seriously think about wood alternatives, switching to another wood species will just delay the problem. For the exotic woods at least, I don't think we'll run out of maple or spruce anytime soon.

But especially when it is a fretboard, whose influence on the sound of an instrument is rather small, I think other materials could be used. Such as Richlite fretboard on Martins or Gibsons.

 

[Tom Bomb]

There's a good selection, via

this database- Pau Ferro

Dalbergia genus: Rosewood

• Dalbergia baronii
• Dalbergia cearensis
• Dalbergia cochinchinensis
• Dalbergia cultrata
• Invalid Link Removed
• Invalid Link Removed
• Dalbergia latifolia
• Dalbergia maritima
• Dalbergia melanoxylon
• Dalbergia nigra
• Invalid Link Removed
• Dalbergia retusa
• Dalbergia sissoo
• Dalbergia spruceana
• Dalbergia stevensonii
• Dalbergia tucurensis

Blimey. Is it all drying up?

Reading through this page - Restricted and Endangered Wood Species | The Wood Database - is a bit daunting. And the deeper in, as in Are Rosewoods (and Bubinga) really banned by CITES? | The Wood Database, the deeper the worry. Hard to imagine things picking up from here. Boy O boy. Do we need to wise up.

 

[BassikLee]

Pau Ferro is a very popular fretboard wood. Hardly new for Fender. My '92 jazz bass plus 5 had a Pau Ferro fretboard. Zero issues. All my Peavey G-V basses use it as the fretboard wood. They are from about the same time.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Just think of the tone war threads...

Buy Orville Redenbacher stocks now.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Doesn't Fender have a history of using Pau Ferro? I think my 1993 MIA Fender Urge and my 1997 American Standard Jazz V both have Pau Ferro fretboards.

Man, what cheap looking basses, yuck!
I have an old Musicmaster with a very light fretboard. It seemed to go well with the creamy white body and even better as the body aged. I always suspected it wasn't Rosewood.

 

[ispunk]

Good thing there's about 250,000 used Fender basses with rosewood fingerboards still around

 

[brianrost]

What about the other models...other MIA, Asian, etc.

 

[Alivefor5]

Here's some cheap basses. Except for the ebony on the fretless all are Pau Ferro.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Sorry if this has been posted before, the search turned up nothing.

According to the Andertons website: Link Removed
Fender will be discontinuing the use of rosewood and will be switching to Pau Ferro for the Mexican and Ebony for the American Elite models due to the CITES regulations on rosewood.

This will take effect somewhere in June / July of this year.

This was in a post a week or so ago. Quite enlightening actually.

 

[Helix]

Here's some cheap basses. Except for the ebony on the fretless all are Pau Ferro.

View attachment 1136963

How dare you post those cheap looking basses on this forum.....you're lucky I don't report you mister!!

BTW, if you ever want to sell one let me know

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Good thing there's about 250,000 used Fender basses with rosewood fingerboards still around

When rosewood is outlawed, only outlaws will have rosewood!

 

[franklindayala]

There's a good selection, via



Blimey. Is it all drying up?

Reading through this page - Restricted and Endangered Wood Species | The Wood Database - is a bit daunting. And the deeper in, as in Are Rosewoods (and Bubinga) really banned by CITES? | The Wood Database, the deeper the worry. Hard to imagine things picking up from here. Boy O boy. Do we need to wise up.

If all the wood used came from FSC forest plantations. We wouldn't be in this dilema.

FSC web: Home

 

[Tom Bomb]

If all the wood used came from FSC forest plantations. We wouldn't be in this dilema.

FSC web: Home

That's excellent. Thank you.

 

[ale29]

Doing fine with my cheap pau ferro-equipped instrument

 

[japhy4529]

I know that there is a difference between the workmanship and the materials used. I used to work in manufacturing for over 15 years and performed miracles on a regular basis considered what I was given (machine, tooling and materials) and the final product.

My point is that the small sampling of light colored fretboards I picked up had poor workmanship. Those happen to be on Epiphone & Gibson Les Paul guitars.

Is there light colored fretboards with top notch quality work out there? Probably.
Do they also have the Epiphone & Gibson logos on their headstocks? Possibly.
Will I find one myself? No because I associate light color fretboards with poor workmanship the same way a child who touches a hot stove associates that with pain.

One word - Spector. They have been using pau ferro for years now. Doesn't look cheap to me (bass on the right of course).

 

[bass12]

Doing fine with my cheap pau ferro-equipped instrumentView attachment 1137019 View attachment 1137020

Looks surprisingly like rosewood!

 

[japhy4529]

I have a bass with pau ferro, and nobody ever said it looks cheap. It wasn't cheap, either.

Ditto

 

[bass12]

Furniture that destroys forests: crackdown on 'rampant' trade in rosewood