Has pau ferro fallen from grace?

[Holdsg]

Pau Ferro/Morado/Bolivian Rosewood =

 

[micahwc]

I don't have a fretless yet, but am curious as to what happened to your FB? My fretted Pau Fender board is 27 years old and has held up quite well for me.

The thread before this one you quoted I shared it. I defretted a pau ferro Jazz V neck from 1999, and without flats it marred pretty quickly. With flats it was fine.

 

[Trouztrouz]

He's the founder of Taylor Guitars. They are making a large scale effort on making wood production (not only) for guitar building sustainable.

Here's the story on ebony. Pretty shocking...

Wow that is really eye-opening. Next time I'm looking at a bass with ebony I'm going to see about getting one with some color.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

The thread before this one you quoted I shared it. I defretted a pau ferro Jazz V neck from 1999, and without flats it marred pretty quickly. With flats it was fine.

Gouged, or marred? Marring is fine; gouging is not so fine.

I had a 20+ year old fretless SR5 with Pau Ferro that lived it's life with rounds and it wasn't gouged in the slightest. I also have an RGW fretless jazz with Pau Ferro that has lived with rounds and been played a LOT and there's absolutely no gouging on that one. The amount of marring is on par with my other ebony-board fretlii. Of course, it also depends on how hard you press the strings into the board, and whether you grind them or not.

 

[cnltb]

Seems that a decade or so ago, pau ferro was becoming fairly common, even showing up on Fender basses.

Now it seems like we're back to rosewood and maple with a dash of ebony. Did pau ferro prove to not be all that great or have people just gone back to what they're used to?

Maybe it has gone up in price for builders, so they don't hype it any more?

 

[japhy4529]

Nope! Just ask Stuart Spector for starters...

 

[smperry]

I have no idea of whether its popularity has waned, but I'm a fan. It's the fingerboard wood for my Martin Keith fretless (in British Racing Green). It's been holding up fine for me; that bass is over 6 years old and the board looks and feels great.

 

[ole Jason]

Personally I hate the look of pau ferro and wouldn't buy a bass with it. That said I'm surprised you don't see it more often. Other than the allergic reaction people can develop it seems easy to work with. I'm not sure why it isn't more popular but I suspect we'll see more of it in the coming years.

 

[Doner Designs]

Also known as Bolivian rosewood.

 

[bassdude51]

The thread before this one you quoted I shared it. I defretted a pau ferro Jazz V neck from 1999, and without flats it marred pretty quickly. With flats it was fine.

Round wound strings are like a rat tail file and they will mar any wood, even ebony which is about as hard as a fretboard can be. Overall, Pau Ferro is pretty hard stuff.

Back to the thread, other than custom necks or customer requests, all in all, Pau Ferro is not used very much and I don't think that it's fallen from favor. I don't think that it ever was a very popular fretboard wood to begin with.

I find it to be very attractive and desirable for that reason but it's kind of "tappy" because it's so hard. By tappy, I mean that when I fret down a note, I can hear the string metal to the fret metal, a tap sound. More so than maple or rosewood. Ebony is VERY tappy, IMHO.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Personally I hate the look of pau ferro and wouldn't buy a bass with it. That said I'm surprised you don't see it more often. Other than the allergic reaction people can develop it seems easy to work with. I'm not sure why it isn't more popular but I suspect we'll see more of it in the coming years.

I suspect it's the colour and the reaction to the dust. I imagine it could be easily stained but some of the sweatshops in Asia might have to really figure out how to deal with the dust and their employees.

 

[Fender_Bender]

I applaud Mr Taylor and his approach,but there far more people than him out there who really don't give a damn. The same kind of people who are still selling poached ivory to China. Again,I'm somewhat stunned that Fender would at this point in time turn to ebony for production basses. He never said anything about replanting trees either.....

 

[Tom Howland]

Pau Ferro like any fingerboard wood. Is just part of the tone sauce. I believe good wood is the key.
I owned a Musicman with a pau ferro fingerboard. It sounded very good.
Then I played a Fodera with a pau ferro fingerboard. It sounded much different in a good way. Much faster, defined. Notes pop off fingerboard.
The Fodera wood was much older. My guess better quality.

 

[ole Jason]

I applaud Mr Taylor and his approach,but there far more people than him out there who really don't give a damn. The same kind of people who are still selling poached ivory to China. Again,I'm somewhat stunned that Fender would at this point in time turn to ebony for production basses. He never said anything about replanting trees either.....

Are they doing basses with ebony? I'd definitely be into that

 

[Jeff Scott]

Also known as Bolivian rosewood.

Not a true rosewood, however, so it is safe. Just like Chechen (Caribbean "Rosewood").

I applaud Mr Taylor and his approach ..... He never said anything about replanting trees either.....

Read Wood & Steel magazine, there is plenty of information, and articles, over the past several years about Taylor's initiative with replanting ebony trees.

 

[Flaked Beans]

I have a gecko MM 5 w a pau ferro board that I've recently fallen back in love with- it is a ultra snappy and responsive bass and the board has a lovely grain and swirl.

Bass is alder with a maple/purpleheart stripe neck and Seymour Duncan pup/circuit. It's become my main fretted bass and is a total funk machine.

I have a 6 string gecko (swamp ash body/maple-purpleheart neck/pau ferro fingerboard/SD basslines pickup at the MM sweet spot/2 band preamp) and it's a total funk machine too!
Here it is:

pau ferro fb mmm:

ebony lizard on pau ferro fb (adds an extra bright and snappy tone!):

 

[stingray69]

I love pau ferro - have had several basses in the past with it. Harder than rosewood - but not quite as hard as maple, but in the same ballpark. I've seen it stated that its much like a middle ground between rosewood & maple. Very lively notes, much like maple IME.

I've also seen color mentioned in this thread as a potential turn off to pau ferro. In general terms, I do think Pau Ferro runs a little lighter in color than rosewood, though not always. Just a reminder that Minwax has felt-tip wood stain pens that couldn't be easier to use & won't discolor plastic or MOP inlays either. Light colored examples pau ferro can easily be turned just as dark as any rosewood in just a matter of minutes. These can be had at most Lowes, Home Depots, hardware stores, Walmart, etc. I've used these to both overall darken and/or even out a couple of uneven/streaky examples of rosewood in the past. Wide selection of colors, with the Invalid Link Removed color is as dark as these product get. Great product!

 

[fivestringdan]

I chose Pau Ferro for my once in a life-time custom build. The tone is elegant and balances well with the Mahogany/Alder body. I think it works well with most wood combinations.

 

[T. Brookins]

My 'View attachment 1133747 90 Fender Jazz V Plus has a Pau board. If you haven't played on one I recommend it. The sound is one thing, but it just feels very nice on the fingers. Very flat, tight, extremely dense. Makes the neck fast.

Beautiful! There’s nothing wrong with the alignment; the a string is supposed to be off center bc string distance is often measured from the edge of a string to avoid crowding on thicker strings.

 

[T. Brookins]

An undeniably pretty fretboard, but the string alignment appears to be off-center and over to the treble side. Is it just the angle of the photograph?

The a string is supposed to be off center bc string distance is often measured from the edge of a string to avoid crowding on the thicker strings.