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Fret Board ?
- Thread starter bogie1519
- Start date
the hardness of the specific piece of fingerboard wood makes a difference in the sound (i call it "snap"). some pau ferro 'snaps' as much as some ebony, some ebony 'snaps' as much as some coated fingerboards, yada yada --- so there's plenty of overlaps, and of course, exceptions. bottom line = doesn't really matter --- a fingerboard trumps a fretboard, every time! 
1. wood sounds like wood.
2. coated wood (e.g., polyurethane) sounds like coated wood.
3. man-made materials sound more like 1. or 2. depending on how they're made.
i think you can expect "1." it will sound like you're playing on wood...not so much pau ferro, but wood. you'll really like the pau ferro, and it looks great! you're going to love your fretless J!
i'm looking forward to your fretless NBD thread (NFBD)! 
IME: every fretless fingerboard i've ever played has fallen into two, maybe three, general categories:
1. wood sounds like wood.
2. coated wood (e.g., polyurethane) sounds like coated wood.
3. man-made materials sound more like 1. or 2. depending on how they're made.
i think you can expect "1." it will sound like you're playing on wood...not so much pau ferro, but wood. you'll really like the pau ferro, and it looks great! you're going to love your fretless J!
i'm looking forward to your fretless NBD thread (NFBD)!
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BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
Arguably, there's more room for debate on a fretless fingerboard than on a fretted neck, given one of the two witness points for the string to vibrate against is actually wood and not a metal fret that's mounted to wood.
And phenolic, ebanol, carbon fibre, aluminium and those engineered hardwoods where they suck resin into the hardwood cellulose but whose name I can't remember.
You have no idea. One of my first projects post Uni was developing audio measuring systems. Then I did a project using modulation of ultrasonics to determine air density, speed and volume in vehicular intake systems. Plus a ton of other stuff you wouldn't understand.
Show me where I said that. You are the one who has been claiming FBs have a 'tone' but have yet to show it. I have yet to see any evidence that they actually do in any significant way at the output jack especially in a remotely consistent way depending upon the hardwood type.
I have my theories on deadspot formation but have not done the testing to say definitively. However, you brought up deadspots, not me.
99% of these questions could be eliminated by actually playing an instrument.
Asking the internet anything is an exercise in futility unless dealing with hard numbers. Ask which tuners are a drop in, ask what the fretboard radius of a bass is, etc, do not ask anything that triggers personal preference or opinion or you will have to eat a humongous can of worms.
Forget about tonewood and make beautiful music with other people like it's the summer of live again, you dig?
Asking the internet anything is an exercise in futility unless dealing with hard numbers. Ask which tuners are a drop in, ask what the fretboard radius of a bass is, etc, do not ask anything that triggers personal preference or opinion or you will have to eat a humongous can of worms.
Forget about tonewood and make beautiful music with other people like it's the summer of live again, you dig?
Just regurgitating the same "conventional" logic about tonewoods (WRT solidbody electrics) with no evidence.
Here it is from an acoustic guitar designer's perspective and experience.
How can the neck not have an effect, when it can cause dead spots? And if the neck vibrates the most, the density of the board will affect that. Car exhaust systems have got nothing to do with it...
There is a consensus, it isn't just me.
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But again, you got nothing.
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That will tell you what it sounds like, but not why it sounds that way.
It was intakes, not exhausts, and you were trying to disparage my experience by claiming I had no audio knowledge. I clearly do, but you don't understand; I thought 'modulation' would be a hint, but obviously not. Measuring air vibrating inside a pipe, like a vocal chord or pipe organ.
Consensus means nothing to me. Conventional thinking some time ago was that the sun went around the earth. It took one lone voice to prove that consensus wrong.
Consensus meaning something is true is a logical fallacy, argumentum ad populum.
And at the risk of Godwining, there were the Hundred Authors Against Einstein, but we all (should) know he was correct and they were wrong.
However, the acceptance of Einstein’s work was fundamentally different ninety years ago. At the time, some leading members of academia emphatically opposed his special relativity theory. They published numerous articles and statements. In 1931, a booklet was published titled Hundert Autoren gegen Einstein (Hundred Authors against Einstein, Israel et al. 1931) featuring many of those ill-informed contributions.
You still haven't shown anything to back up your claims.
Nor you.
You’re citing an unjuried study presented by whoever Research Gate is.
If it were from a recognized and creditable body like the Acoustical Society of America or the Audio Engineering Society it might be worth considering.
Anybody can publish a “study.” Unless it holds up to the scrutiny and review of people with the expertise to actually know what they’re talking about it’s just a nice piece of paper.
I had two tests done in different nostrils on the same day, a minute apart, one came back pos, one neg. Then redone, and both were neg. C19 is political, so I'll stay away from that.
However, you keep ducking and dodging, never providing evidence, actually understanding most of the subjects raised or answering the questions posed.
So, who was right, Einstein or the hundred (actually 121)?
You're right, I've been amused with this thread, but its now boring.
Don’t offer faulty analogies. Don’t beg the question. You haven’t established anything nor proven your contention. If you want to drop the proverbial mic and scurry away that’s your prerogative. But don’t kid yourself you’ve proven anything.
I have an acoustic with Pau, and I gotta say it’s just as good as any tone wood and is arguably different in tone which is backed by evidence we see in this thread.
Some examples are aesthetically darker than others which would be my only concern.
For what it is worth, I believe board woods have an effect on tone. The real question isn’t if...it is how much. I’m also in the camp of belief that this difference is near impossible to prove to the level of concrete certainty.
Some examples are aesthetically darker than others which would be my only concern.
For what it is worth, I believe board woods have an effect on tone. The real question isn’t if...it is how much. I’m also in the camp of belief that this difference is near impossible to prove to the level of concrete certainty.
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Don’t offer faulty analogies. Don’t beg the question. You haven’t established anything nor proven your contention. If you want to drop the proverbial mic and scurry away that’s your prerogative. But don’t kid yourself you’ve proven anything.
You've proven that you can't educate yourself.
One of the common complaints about pau ferro is that it appears dry. Some players prefer the darker color of rosewood or ebony. But I think that if blindfolded, it would be very difficult to tell the difference.
I have a fretless Stingray with pao ferro. It sounds like a fretless Stingray. I like the look of dark rosewood or ebony better, but i cant hear much difference.
