Fretless fingerboard woods.

[tribal3140]

go visit mitch you in san diego
he has big enough pieces, the lat time I was there
and verawood
.
I dont know that either of them (vera or LV) glue all that well for the face joints that are needed for the fingerboard/neck joint.

but let me know how that goes! a heavy, oily wood thats for sure

 

[Rodent]

for the fingerboard I shared earlier, Titebond original would be an excellent glue choice

all the best,

R

 

[tjclem]

So far as cheap, hard and strong it is tough to beat Ipe..........t

 

[budman]

arcylicizing is fine for fretlesses because it adds to that "MWAH" sound
but it IMO ruins the sounds of a fretted bass- sounds like phenolic and diamondwood- the sound of polymers.

I'll disagree with that. I've built numerous fretted instruments with stablized boards, maple and macassar ebony, and there was nothing ruined about the tone at all. All sounded excellent. I don't think it sounds like phenolic at all. In fact I wish you would start selling stabilized fingerboards.

 

[jonas_oxide]

I'll disagree with that. I've built numerous fretted instruments with stablized boards, maple and macassar ebony, and there was nothing ruined about the tone at all. All sounded excellent. I don't think it sounds like phenolic at all. In fact I wish you would start selling stabilized fingerboards.

I'd like to second that motion

 

[James Hart]

I'd like to second that motion

I'll Third it!

I have a fretless P bass with an Acrylized fingerboard (not at all the process used by woodsure.com, Acrylized wood is completely sealed with no finishing/sealing needed... only polishing!). It barely "Mwahs" at all. We all know that "Mwah" is a product of set up more than fingerboard material!!!! If I wanted it to Mwah, I could fix the set up... but that isn't the tone I use it for.

I also have a fretted made of Acrylized maple, wenge & silvervine (only the ash core is untreated)... it's the clearest most focused tone I've gotten from a bass. Like Bud says, not at all Graphite/composite/phenolic sounding at all. To me it's very organic sounding... alive!

Actually, I'm in the process of ordering a second from Fred that will be set up as a Mwah fretless. Only the board is Acrylized at this point.... we are still hashing out details (including what else we should have treated). Plus I won't have it in the budget till next Spring the earliest.

 

[Rodent]

since we're talking acrylicized wood, would it not make sense if we heard right from the expert himself?

O paging doctor Davis, paging doctor Larry Davis ... there's a discusion on acrylicized wood here waiting your input

you back from your recent travels Larry?

all the best,

R

 

[FBB Custom]

Larry is on vacation and I don't think he will touch discussions of "mwah" and tone with a 10 foot pole.

 

[T-34]

Actually, he's returned already. My fretless flame maple board will be shipped monday

 

[Dusty G]

I think it's a good idea here to mention that it's not hard at all to get a piece of vera, or "Argentine Lignum Vitae" big enough for a fingerboard. If you like the raw feel of wood, and the color matches, it's a teriffic choice for a fretless. Don't even worry about a coating.
It's more expensive than ipe, (but not bad at all compared to ebony), but even harder. It also looks a lot more interesting than ipe.
Use gorilla glue, no additional prep needed. That's an educated opinion.

 

[Larry Davis]

Sorry I'm late to the party, but have been off for some family time. Getting my feet back on the ground and stumbling thru the piles of work hopelessly behind in again

Here's a link to a good bit of the process I use for acrylizing various wood species. Much info and some phases are not covered of course. Link Removed

Since the actual resins used in my process including the process itself (and those of others) are proprietary and held as trade secrets anyone professing knowledge or experience enough to compare the products pretty much shows ignorance. One should go to the sources for truth and facts.

Wood polymers have beginnings back in the early 1950s with veneer based products like Dymonwood (Pakkawood) made in Pakistan consisting of phenol-formaldehyde and water. The resin mix was impregnated into veneer and the resin left uncured. Next, epoxy is applied and the veneers laid in a stack and hot pressed. This is known as densified veneer. For the most part Dymonwood is still made this way today using dyed veneers.

In the late 1950s lumber based wood polymers came about using a vinyl monomer and cured using gamma radiation from Cobalt 60 produced in nuclear fission. Brookhaven National Laboratories was the site of initial work developing the process.

Today we have many other resins to choose from and combinations of resins with cross-linkers and initiators much safer. Gamma radiation is still used in some production processes, but every time I search eBay for "gamma ray machine" I see black helicopters in the neighborhood

I have two rresin formulations I use for fretted and fretless boards. Adding a specific cross-linker increases surface wear ability for the fretless application, but costs more and isn't reusable after a primary application.

As to declarations of specific woods equal specific completed instrument tones I'll leave that to the "experts", but each board still retains a signature individual bonk tone.

My process and product does not require a finish and I do not recommend it. Simple sanding and buffing is all that's required. Any so-called "stabilized" wood product that requires a wet finish system should be viewed with suspicion as to quality and purpose.

Wood polymers are not magic and are still subjected to some moisture absorption and change due to ambient conditions, but very, very slowly compared to "natural" woods

Thanks...Larry

 

[fish man]

Cocobolo is so nice. Get a slice with some sapwood!!!

 

[Rodent]

just finished slicing another fingerboard blank off of that acrylicized quilt maple board I posted earlier. here's a sneak peek at what this 6-string fretless fingerboard has the potential for (here it's been sanded to 80-grit and doused with Naphtha so the figuring will show)

Right now it's looking like the Alder single-cut body will be finished in gloss black Nitro. Ought to catch a few people's attention, eh?

all the best,

R

 

[Musiclogic]

Bloodwood, Purpleheart, Wenge, Bubinga, Chechen, Shedua, Cocobolo,etc. There are a lot of viable options for a fretless. None tough, that will be maintenance free, other than maybe the acrylized stuff. Morado would be fine, but may need a coating or to be redressed yearly.

 

[Steve'r]

A lot of people consider pink ivory to be the holy grail of fretless boards.
That is, if you can find a big enough piece of it, you can afford it, and you can deal with the fact that it's awfully pink.

 

[Rodent]

you could always stain that pink ivory black



R

 

[doctorjazz]

Cocobolo and Ebony are probably my favorites. Artificial stuff like diamondwood is said to be awesome too, I just haven't been able to get my hands on any, but on the recordings I've heard it sounds great.

 

[tribal3140]

...

 

[The Penguin]

Purpleheart

My 14 year old fretless with stainless steel roundwounds that has never needed leveling agrees

 

[Suburban]

...There are a lot of viable options for a fretless. None tough, that will be maintenance free, other than maybe the acrylized stuff.

Nope. The acrylized wood, just like any other polymeric composite, will also wear pretty fast. My limited experience put them in the same league as ebony, i.e. slightly better than raw avenbok, which has been my most frequent fingerboard wood. The avenbok is good enough, no tendency of any mark after two years with groundwounds.