stability of bloodwood vs. ebony for fretless fingerboard

IME my experience a good piece of straight grained bloodwood is actually more dimensionally stable than most Ebony. Either would make a very good board for a fretless IMO.

 

I love using bloodwood for fretless boards, and have never had any trouble with one in the 9 years I've been using bloodwood.

 

Bloodwood has been very very good to me but I haven't been using it as long as Shawn..t

 

Bloodwood?

 

Thinking Mikey needs a spokeshave or a safety for that drawknife...hehehe. As always the more humorous take from Cinci...kind of like Skyline.

 

Now all you need is some sweat and tears to really put yourself into that build.

I picked up some Bloodwood yesterday for a couple of fretboards. At least one of them is going to be fretless.

 

Man, that's just sexy...

 

I really do enjoy bloodwood myself, for the most part. I enjoy the fact that it can be polished to a mirror shine, it's great stuff.

I haven't seen any really stripey stuff like that before, most of mine has been fairly solid colored.

I love the smell of bloodwood, but I'm sure we've all heard the horror stories of people using the stuff. I had a lymph node swell up and I had to get removed because of the stuff.

 

Wipe that stuff down with mineral spirits before you glue it - otherwise you could have some real adhesion problems!

Lonnybass

 

Really? I've never experienced adhesion issues with bloodwood, and I use it in about 80% of my necks. It's not particularly oily, certainly not as much as, say, cocobolo.

 

Maybe you are just luckier than I am! What kind of glue are you using in your shop? I've done bloodwood boards with both TB2 and Gorilla - in my experience the TB2 seems to be somewhat hit or miss for a tight joint for unless the board is wiped down well. Hasn't been an issue with Gorilla, but I try to avoid using the stuff if at all possible!

Lonnybass

 

Original tb never an issue.

 

I'll take Tom for the win.

PU glue is not allowed in my shop and nothing but TBI is allowed for laminates.

 

Mike/Tom-

How has TB1 compared vs TB2 for the laminates? Interesting. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Lonnybass

 

TBIII moved on me during a build and has since been banished from the shop. TBI has performed flawlessly during my 20 years of use.

TBII has some modifiers to improve water resistance. There are some builders here that use it, and I do as well - just on bird feeders and other outdoor projects.

 

Birdfeeders, I love it. I'm getting down near the bottom of the current bottle of TB2 so I'll be sure to replace it with TB1 and see how it does.

Lonnybass

 

I would be more worried about ebony on maple, than bloodwood.

Gaboon ebony gives up moisture so slowly compared to maple... The fingerboard on the bass in my sig has some checking around the upper frets, and I've talked to other people who've had similar issues.

 

That would be from improperly dried Ebony. Ebony that is taken to 0% and then reconstituted will be stable in service. Ebony that is sold wet will rarely receive the proper drying postmarket.

 

+1 - also, TB original FTW