Laguna burger build

[Reedt2000]

Are you anywhere near Vorhees and are you by any chance familiar with this seller?
I'm having a really hard time with the idea of buying any expensive piece of wood online.
Gabon ebony bass fingerboard blanks. Extended range blanks 3" wide, nice color. | eBay

This guy is about an hour from me and I don't have any personal experience with him. The Ebay feedback is excellent and his Facebook page shows a pretty legit small operation, I'd feel comfortable buying from him.

Quality woods

 

[RichterScale]

I probably spent a few hours last night just looking for 3" wide blanks of ebony for a fingerboard.
But I just couldn't pull the trigger on anything because I can't hold it in my hand. A lot of the sellers I found either had horrible pics, or no pics at all.
I was gonna post last night and ask if anyone has recommended sellers/suppliers that they regularly buy from online and trust, but I forgot and it got late.

 

[RichterScale]

Geez, I almost forgot....
Stopped to see the shop teacher today. Turns out, he plays bass in a band!!
We ended up shootin the breeze for over an hour and then he had to spend the day grading, so he told me to come back next Wed and we'll fire up all the tools.
The shop was cleaner than most hospitals I've been in.
When I got there all the lights were off and my phone takes really crappy pics in bad light, but here's what they have. More than I remembered.

 

[Slidlow]

I probably spent a few hours last night just looking for 3" wide blanks of ebony for a fingerboard.
But I just couldn't pull the trigger on anything because I can't hold it in my hand. A lot of the sellers I found either had horrible pics, or no pics at all.
I was gonna post last night and ask if anyone has recommended sellers/suppliers that they regularly buy from online and trust, but I forgot and it got late.

Do you need a 3" wide board?

 

[RichterScale]

I measured the one currently on the bass and it was 2.75" at the heel

Do you need a 3" wide board?

 

[Slidlow]

I measured the one currently on the bass and it was 2.75" at the heel

I might be able to help.

 

[Rôckhewer]

I probably spent a few hours last night just looking for 3" wide blanks of ebony for a fingerboard.
But I just couldn't pull the trigger on anything because I can't hold it in my hand. A lot of the sellers I found either had horrible pics, or no pics at all.
I was gonna post last night and ask if anyone has recommended sellers/suppliers that they regularly buy from online and trust, but I forgot and it got late.

Where did you look?
If you buy a board from LMI for instance, it's gonna be decent ... they have 2 grades I think.
They're around what... 50 - 60 bucks?
There are a few bass size fingerboard blanks on ebay... but yeah good pictures help. It's hard to see cracks etc.
As long as it doesn't look like poo, and they have a return policy...
There's a cat in NY by the name of Raj...
I found him on ebay several years ago.
Here's his number... +17163973369
I went to ebay just now and expected to find him, (he may have changed the name of his store..).
and some of the other sellers who I have bought ebony from in the past, also some of the larger billet size pieces like the one I found a year ago and just cut into???
... holy crap.... it's all gone.
Just little stuff there now .
"Exoticwoodzone" looks promising.
Maybe that's Raj' new store.
GABOON EBONY GUITAR/LUTHIER/BASS FINGERBOARD BLANK 28-3/4 x 4" x 3/8" FREE SHIP | eBay

 

[Slidlow]

Where did you look?
If you buy a board from LMI for instance, it's gonna be decent ... they have 2 grades I think.
They're around what... 50 - 60 bucks?
There are a few bass size fingerboard blanks on ebay... but yeah good pictures help. It's hard to see cracks etc.
As long as it doesn't look like poo, and they have a return policy...
There's a cat in NY by the name of Raj...
I found him on ebay several years ago.
Here's his number... +17163973369
I went to ebay just now and expected to find him, (he may have changed the name of his store..).
and some of the other sellers who I have bought ebony from in the past, also some of the larger billet size pieces like the one I found a year ago and just cut into???
... holy crap.... it's all gone.
Just little stuff there now .
"Exoticwoodzone" looks promising.
Maybe that's Raj' new store.
GABOON EBONY GUITAR/LUTHIER/BASS FINGERBOARD BLANK 28-3/4 x 4" x 3/8" FREE SHIP | eBay

Just checked that, looks like a good deal.

 

[Rôckhewer]

Stopped to see the shop teacher today. Turns out, he plays bass in a band!!
We ended up shootin the breeze for over an hour and then he had to spend the day grading, so he told me to come back next Wed and we'll fire up all the tools.

... there's not a big enough smile emogee to comment on this.
Congratulations.
Get to know that LASER too... good fun.

And God bless the high school that still has a woodshop like that.

 

[RichterScale]

I might be able to help.

That would be awesome.
Let me know.

 

[RichterScale]

... there's not a big enough smile emogee to comment on this.
Congratulations.
Get to know that LASER too... good fun.

And God bless the high school that still has a woodshop like that.

I know!
And he's a bass player!!
What?!?
I got the impression that the shop hasn't been used in a while.
He seemed pretty excited about it.
I'm going to see if I can maybe do something with the laser on the fingerboard. Nothing crazy. Maybe a little something on the 12th.

 

[Slidlow]

That would be awesome.
Let me know.

I had a look, nothing really suitable if you want all black.

 

[dwizum]

That shop looks like it has a good bandsaw and jointer so you should be all set!

Ebony is getting hard to find in big sizes. I've basically stopped using it and am using Ziricote when I want a black(ish) fretboard. Mostly because I scored a giant thick board of ziricote on eBay last year at a great price and cut about a dozen blanks out of it, but I'm down to my last two. I would also consider Rocklite Ebano. LMI sells ebano blanks.

Besides LMI, Allen Guitars has fretboard blanks, and I know they go through a lot of ebony if that's what you're set on:

allenguitar.com

 

[RichterScale]

Doesn't necessarily have to be black, but I was hoping to get out of the red tone of the rosewood and into the darker brown. Kinda picturing a relatively even color too.
Running to Rocklers after work to look at what they have and if I find my top wood today, I'll pick a blank online from pics and do my best to find a match.
I know I'm probably being too worried/picky and whatever piece I buy online, when it shows up and I have my hands on it, I'll think it's gorgeous.
My biggest concern is making sure it's thick enough in case I have to plane it flat.

 

[dwizum]

There are a lot of good vendors for fretboard blanks. I think you'll do fine buying one online. I would be careful on eBay though, many of the cheap ebony blanks on eBay are roughsawn and not well dried.

Even your top wood - lots of us buy most of our wood online. It really opens up a huge range of suppliers. Or dig through craigslist or facebook adds and fine your local weirdo wood hoarder who's decided to sell off his stash. I found a local guy who has (I am not making this up) more than 3,000 slabs of local hardwoods stashed in barns and old buildings and he's slowly trying to sell them on eBay.

 

[RichterScale]

I'm one of the weirdos. Unfortunately, I have an affinity for junk and not anything valuable. You know, the stuff I'm gonna "have a use for someday".
But it's the kinda stuff you throw out after 10 yrs and not stuff you would sell on eBay.

 

[RichterScale]

I just took a few measurements and I'm dropping them in here because I write stuff on post-it notes and on paper with 40 million other unrelated things on them and then lose it all.

Fingerboard-
Width- 1-3/4" nut, 2-11/16" heel.
Length- nut slot to heel- 25-7/8"
Body thickness- 2-9/16".

 

[RichterScale]

Rocklers was a bust. I was so disappointed in their selection, I didn't even look at tools.
They did however have one piece I couldn't stop looking at.
Judging by eye, I'd say 8' x 10" x 13/16".
Not one knot or wave. Perfectly straight grain through the entire thing. It was beautiful. (Wenge).
Think it's worth $157?
The lighting and my phone made it look lighter. It was very dark in person.

 

[RichterScale]

Just realized that I sounded like I was being picky. They had no basswood, the bin with hobby blanks was picked over, the larger walnut pieces were picked over, there were only 3 large pieces of Wenge, there was a decent amount of larger purpleheart, but the top few pieces were warped pretty bad, same with the zebra. They had mahogany, but it was all odd sizes and looked 2"+ thick. They had pallets of stuff on the floor, but the guy said they probably wouldn't have it on the floor until next week and it was wrapped in black plastic, so I couldn't see what any of it was.
I realized that if I had more tools, I wouldn't have to be so picky. Like a band saw mill to start.
I was staring at that wenge board for 10 min, thinking about how many finger boards and book matched tops I could get out of it with a mill. And who knows what else.
I think wenge is possessed by some evil spirit. I hear bad things about it and it's terrible to work with and decided to avoid it. Then I see it in person and I want to spend way too much $ on it and build everything out of it. It's evil.

 

[dwizum]

Wenge splinters like heck and has big pores. Otherwise it's not TOO bad to work with. $150ish seems like an OK price for that board but not a steal. I'd say it's normally between $15 - $20/bf.