Fretboard crack or grain?

[Lesfunk]

Crack is whack!

 

[DanDBassist]

Here is what I found about Pau Ferro wood: I forgot to save which online site I found this...

In truth, pau ferro is very similar to rosewood. To the untrained eye and ear, it would be easy to mistake one for the other. However, some slight differences add up to make a significant difference.

Firstly, pau ferro has a tighter grain than rosewood. This affects its appearance, and also results in a slightly snappier tone with a sharper attack. Rosewood is slightly softer sounding when the note is initially struck.

 

[Arie X]

Yes I did, and they said I could not get a refund at this point. I'm happy with an exchange, as I like the bass. My only worry is that I'll get one with a less appealing grain or a really heavy one. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

along these lines you do have some options. they will weight what they have in stock and they usually do take pictures so you can likely pick out the replacement bass. our sales engineer has done this for us in the past.

 

[Arie X]

I assumed this was just porous wood, didn't think they were all cracks. Should Pao Ferro be smooth? I have many rosewood fretboards that look similar. I found this from a wood database:
View attachment 4384225

I don't know about this "Pau Rosa" described on that web page, but Morado/Pao Ferro/Bolivian Rosewood etc.. has dense grain and can be finished very smooth, and it's a pretty hard wood that holds frets really well.

Pao Ferro off-cut from an LMI fingerboard blank I purchased:

 

[Lammchop93]

Interesting, thanks for sharing

I'll be curious to see what I get in a month. If it's another bad QC bass, I'm going to ask for store credit or something else.

 

[dwizum]

The big line down the middle is clearly a crack or check, but the other "little cracks" look to me like open pores, not actual cracks. That's pretty common on at least some varieties of pau ferro and not really a problem at all.