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Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

#41
...and, what of "Indian Laurel"? ;)

From what I understand, Fender is sourcing their instruments with Pau Ferro, and Squiers with Indian Laurel.
I have a fairly new Squier with such, and imo it's quite nice. I've seen some comments online re:appearance (not rosewood enough) from some people (mostly guitar players), but few negatives about play (slightly stiff) and none about mechanical performance.

I've seen some pics that suggest a fairly wide range of appearance, from a "pinkish, light RW, maybe" to more of a "medium figured cross between Pau Ferro and Indian RW" look as on mine.

I think it sounds, looks, and plays great. ;)



Turnaround said:
I've heard and seen quite a few discussions about how manufacturers are using Pau Ferro now in place of Rosewood because of CITES regulations. And there seems to be a significant negative reaction to the use of Pau Ferro. I'd like to understand better what it is about Pau Ferro that some find objectionable. Most of the objection I have heard centres around the appearance of Pau Ferro - how it doesn't look as good as Rosewood.

The problem is that there are so many variations on Rosewood, it's hard to make a comparison. And since manufacturers have been dying their Rosewood fretboards dark for years, it becomes an almost meaningless discussion.

However, I decided to put up photos of some Pau Ferro, Indian Rosewood and Brazilian Rosewood for comparison and discussion. So here they are. Care to guess which is which?

View attachment 3197282
Click to expand...
 
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#42
48thStreetCustom said:
I played a Mustang the other day with a pau ferro board. I don't think it felt or sounded any different. But it did look slightly pinkish. Kind of odd but I'm sure I'll get used to seeing them. I'm all for the using more sustainable woods so the color is something I could live with.
Click to expand...

I'm already getting used to seeing G&L instruments with chechen (Caribbean Rosewood) fretboards, which they've adopted as their standard dark fretboard wood for sustainability. It usually isn't as dark as most rosewood and has more streaks/variation, but I'm starting to like the earthy, natural vibe. I think it looks good with some finishes. Here's a typical example (from The Bass Place's site), though many are darker, or at least appear so in photos:

GL-sunburst-J-5-_0009__DSC4581.jpg
 
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#45
For some context for everyone, I'd like to include this video series from Taylor about the wood they use and how it is sourced. This video is also especially moving for me because I've done some touring in Cameroon, and I can corroborate how the economy works over there, and how we can be way more sensitive to the way we impact the industry and the world by what we want cosmetically. (Yes, I know this is about ebony in particular, but obviously you can see the connection to the current discussion).

The Truth of the Forest
 
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#46
I specifically don't like the tone of Pau Ferro, most of the time. If I have a choice, I wouldn't go with it. There is a specific tone to it in my opinion. I'll admit, the Fodera Emperor Standard or even a Spector designs both use Pau Ferro and I think they sound great. It's all in those designs for whatever reason is what I like....but on many other designs, rosewood reigns supreme in my opinion.

I owned a 1999 Sadowsky Modern 5 NYC Solid Body that was Ash / Pau Ferro and couldn't stand it after a while. I had to experience it, glad I did, now I stay away. I generally don't like the sound of an Ash bodied basses(or tone block) unless it's paired with a maple or ebony fretboard (like F-Bass does). My personal preference is always Alder over Ash too....so I like the good old Alder / Rosewood 60's Fender Formula. I guess nowadays......Alder / Ebony and Alder / Pau Ferro are going to become the norm!
 
#48
Gorn said:
Nice looking pau ferro is fine by me but most of the boards I’ve seen have looked pale and anemic. Like dirty rosewood. The nicer examples of any wood are gonna look better right? I’m sure there’s plenty of ugly rosewood out there.
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Your post makes sense. What doesn't make sense to me is that Music Man was using pau ferro for a long time and no one ever complained. I never heard anyone say they wanted a fretless Stingray but chose not to buy it because of the pau ferro.
 
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#49
I looked at the pics, then skipped down to here. Were the woods, from top to bottom, Indian Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood, and Pau Ferro?

EDIT: Shoot, I was miles off. I guess I have no problem with Pau Ferro, but I hate the color of the Pau Ferro they're putting on lower end Fenders. It's too light, looks cheap and nasty. I can just stain it though I guess, plus I'm unlikely to ever buy one of those.
 
#52
Turnaround said:
I've heard and seen quite a few discussions about how manufacturers are using Pau Ferro now in place of Rosewood because of CITES regulations. And there seems to be a significant negative reaction to the use of Pau Ferro. I'd like to understand better what it is about Pau Ferro that some find objectionable. Most of the objection I have heard centres around the appearance of Pau Ferro - how it doesn't look as good as Rosewood.

The problem is that there are so many variations on Rosewood, it's hard to make a comparison. And since manufacturers have been dying their Rosewood fretboards dark for years, it becomes an almost meaningless discussion.

However, I decided to put up photos of some Pau Ferro, Indian Rosewood and Brazilian Rosewood for comparison and discussion. So here they are. Care to guess which is which?

View attachment 3197282
Click to expand...

I have a rosewood bed from the 1960's that looks just like the bottom picture.
 
#56
Turnaround said:
I've heard and seen quite a few discussions about how manufacturers are using Pau Ferro now in place of Rosewood because of CITES regulations. And there seems to be a significant negative reaction to the use of Pau Ferro. I'd like to understand better what it is about Pau Ferro that some find objectionable. Most of the objection I have heard centres around the appearance of Pau Ferro - how it doesn't look as good as Rosewood.

The problem is that there are so many variations on Rosewood, it's hard to make a comparison. And since manufacturers have been dying their Rosewood fretboards dark for years, it becomes an almost meaningless discussion.

However, I decided to put up photos of some Pau Ferro, Indian Rosewood and Brazilian Rosewood for comparison and discussion. So here they are. Care to guess which is which?

View attachment 3197282
Click to expand...
It’s not the end of the world to me, I prefer maple and ebony over both Rosewood and PF personally. That said see both sides of it. I can agree with some folks in that not all PF is equal and on particular basses they clash with the body finish and can look hideous. But yes it’s absolutely true that you can darken both rosewood and pf several different ways. Ironically in this video they eventually talk about this subject and one of the employees of Andertons shows his Guitar and he talks about how he darkened his PF board. I have to say I do think the after Guitar looks much better. That’s at around the 7:15 mark
 
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#57
ole Jason said:
The pau ferro that has been popping up at my local GC this year has looked pretty awful. Very light and dry looking. I've seen it look decent on higher end basses and I really like the look of it roasted but haven't seen too many people doing that just yet.
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This is what I have seen as well at GC. There is good wood and bad in any species and I have a feeling we will see both in the future. The Pau Ferro on my US Masters was beautiful but the guitars hanging on GC walls looks not so great.
 
#58
BryanB said:
My only question is why did it take so long for manufacturer's to embrace pau ferro? It's a great fretboard wood that is also widely available.
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Spector and Peavey have been using it for decades and is quite beautiful on those examples. I don't know where Fender gets theirs, but when I was looking for a Mustang, I didn't like any of the pf examples that I saw. Pale and lackluster for the most part. I wound up with a used rosewood one.
 
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#59
BioDriver said:
That's what I said until I tried a few roasted maple necks/boards and the difference is insane. I can see roasted maple and roasted pau ferro as the primary woods in the 2020s.
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Roasted maple is the best feeling neck as far as I’m concerned. I had a roasted maple/maple neck but ultimately sold it as the tone was to bright ( could have been the metal rods warmoth uses that also contributed to its overly bright tone). In the future I too believe we will see a lot of roasted options. The low end basses will be the ones that suffer as they get the “B” grade lumber. High end builders can and do hand pick only the best of any given species and that formula will almost always render a great sounding instrument. Nothing wrong with maple so if that’s still available in the future I can live with just maple as an option ( for body wood as well ), I’d put some flats on to take all that top end off thought
 
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