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Olive as a fretboard wood?

jschulman

jschulman

Aug 21, 2018
584
1,559
Long Island, NY
#1
I'm looking for a lightweight 5-string, and I've almost settled on a custom Frog from Maruszczyk. One of the options for the fretboard is olive. The grain is absolutely beautiful, but I can't find too much information about this wood as far as stability, sound, feel, care, etc.

Anyone have experience with an olive fingerboard?
 
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#3
jschulman said:
I'm looking for a lightweight 5-string, and I've almost settled on a custom Frog from Maruszczyk. One of the options for the fretboard is olive. The grain is absolutely beautiful, but I can't find too much information about this wood as far as stability, sound, feel, care, etc.

Anyone have experience with an olive fingerboard?
Click to expand...

I've researched it a bit, seems like it's a soft wood, and not very stable. Maybe Adrian stabilizes it somehow (other than seasoning it)? I'd just steer for a non-figured wood, so to have the least chance of problems and random fretboard hardness/softness spots (birdseye maple, white/royal ebony, zebrawood, pale moon ebony, spalted anything, etc).
 
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#4
songwriter21 said:
I've researched it a bit, seems like it's a soft wood, and not very stable. Maybe Adrian stabilizes it somehow (other than seasoning it)? I'd just steer for a non-figured wood, so to have the least chance of problems and random fretboard hardness/softness spots (birdseye maple, white/royal ebony, zebrawood, pale moon ebony, spalted anything, etc).
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I don't think it's soft, but it is known to have poor stability.
 
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#5
Turnaround said:
I don't think it's soft, but it is known to have poor stability.
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Right, more to do with the stability factor. I've started to really like ebony, as both of my basses have it now. Figure if you just put some board conditioner on maybe a couple or so times, permanently (that stuff is one-and-done), it's best of both all worlds...stiff, smooth, pretty, and maintenance-free.
 
#6
I've dealt with olive but not in the context of a fretboard.
Olive trees don't grow straight at all or very tall. The former means you get lots of wild figure, but the wilder it gets the more problematic it is to work. The latter means it would be very difficult to get clear boards long enough for a fretboard. I would consider it fairly hard, but also question its stability.
 
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#9
jschulman said:
Thanks for the replies! One option is to have carbon rods installed in the neck to increase stability - would this counteract any stability issues inherent in the olive? The neck itself would be regular maple.
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Carbon rods would be embedded in the neck, not the fretboard, so it wouldn't make any difference to the fretboard. Stability in this case refers to warpage or shrinkage, often relative to temperature and humidity changes. Not what you want in a fretboard.

bgartist said:
MTD uses it often...
Click to expand...
As a figured top, not a fretboard. Aesthetics vs function.
 
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#10
abarson said:
Carbon rods would be embedded in the neck, not the fretboard, so it wouldn't make any difference to the fretboard. Stability in this case refers to warpage or shrinkage, often relative to temperature and humidity changes. Not what you want in a fretboard.


As a figured top, not a fretboard. Aesthetics vs function.
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image.jpg

photo-3-copy-jpg.jpg

image.jpg

These all have pistachio boards.
 
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#15
songwriter21 said:
Right, more to do with the stability factor. I've started to really like ebony, as both of my basses have it now. Figure if you just put some board conditioner on maybe a couple or so times, permanently (that stuff is one-and-done), it's best of both all worlds...stiff, smooth, pretty, and maintenance-free.
Click to expand...

How does ebony sound, compared with standards like rosewood or maple?
 
#16
jschulman said:
How does ebony sound, compared with standards like rosewood or maple?
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Don't be concerned about the sound, when it comes to being on a solidbody instrument. It doesn't really matter. A bunch of people say it does, but it doesn't. What matters, are feel and then looks. I love the smooth feel of ebony!
 
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#17
In my builds I use ebony, maple, wenge and rosewood. There is definitely a difference in tone. Ebony has a greater clarity than rosewood. Very stable as well. Wenge is best if you want growl. It has a cool aggresive tone. Wyn basses and Michael tobias both have great basses and will testify to the effect of the fingerboard wood on your tone. Titanium rods are also very nice for long term stabilty.
 
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