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| Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=34820 |
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| Author: | Corky Long [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:57 am ] |
| Post subject: | Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
So I'm planning my build for Wudwerker's Doc u build, and I've got some options, but am getting a bit stumped on choice of fretboard and bridge. Clearly ebony and rosewoods are out, since the criteria is inidigenous woods. What North American Woods approximate the characteristics of Ebony, or Rosewwods? Any dark woods in those options? As a rosewood substitute I'm aware of Osage Orange, and Black Locust. Any others? Thanks. |
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| Author: | Ken Franklin [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:09 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Desert Ironwood, Texas Ebony, Manzanita. Doubt if they'll help you stay under the $150. |
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| Author: | DennisK [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Texas ebony (not a true ebony), persimmon (a true ebony, but mostly white...), mesquite, and desert ironwood would be my top choices. TE is hard to find though, and ironwood is a little pricey for this competition, though not impossible. I got a nice fingerboard from http://www.arizonaironwood.com/ for $30, but I'm saving it for something special. I'll be on the hunt for some osage when I get started on my harp ukulele for the challenge. I think I'll try suntanning it. But to make it easier, I'll get the fingerboard all slotted and ready for gluing and fretting without any further surfacing, and then toss it out in the yard for a week or two. That way I don't have to worry about the rest of the instrument being exposed to the elements. It turns a gorgeous dark orange when fully oxidized and UV exposed. Check out this tree I ran across in a park last weekend: Attachment: OsageOxidized.jpg
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| Author: | SteveSmith [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:22 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
I'm also looking for suitable north american wood for fretboards and bridges. Would like to find sources for osage orange, texas ebony, mesquite or ??. |
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| Author: | Corky Long [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:28 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Filippo Morelli wrote: North America is a cinch - as it included Mexico. So now you've got Cocobolo. I'm building a guitar with Katalox ("Mexican Ebony") which is very dark and quite hard - a good fretboard option if you are looking for a dark fretboard. Filippo Ah, good point. I do think I'm going to go "hyper - local" and try to build with really local woods, so I think I'm going to opt out of the cocobolo. |
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| Author: | ChuckB [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Hickory is another option, the heartwood is a medium brown. Chuck |
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| Author: | John Lewis [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Black walnut might be good for bridges but too soft for fingerboards. |
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| Author: | WudWerkr [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
What About Hard Maple ? And Why dont we put these type threads in the challenge subforum ? Just a idea , no biggie . |
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| Author: | Corky Long [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 1:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
WudWerkr wrote: What About Hard Maple ? And Why dont we put these type threads in the challenge subforum ? Just a idea , no biggie .  Until your comment, I felt like I was missing something - now I see the subforum. Will do.
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| Author: | Alan Carruth [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
I've used a lot of persimmon. It takes a stain made by boiling black walnut hulls in water very nicely, and so do several other local woods such as hophornbeam, hard maple, and apple. One of my favorite 'local' fingerboard woods is soft shell almond. A student got me some from a fire wood pile in California. It looks a lot like cherry, but is much harder and denser, and has a very tight grain. It's also browner, rather than the red of cherry wood. It is too tight grained to take the walnut stain well, alas. You might get somewhere with a venegar/iron stain. Another dense, dark brown wood is 'mountain mahogany'. I got a piece from a pallet once: I was cutting some up for fire wood, and the electric chain saw just stopped when it reached that slat. I didn't find out what it was until later. It was certainly big enoughfor a fretboard, except for the nail holes... |
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| Author: | Darryl Young [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 5:11 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
How about Pecan? |
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| Author: | Stuart Gort [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 5:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
I've got a small piece of Mesquite that is certainly hard enough and dense enough to fit the bill. It works/machines about the same as African Blackwood, which is used for bridges. Although Myrtlewood seems to have a range of density....the denser stuff would also work. And Black Walnut also. I have some of that and it seems more than hard enough. |
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| Author: | John Arnold [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Quote: How about Pecan? I used a pecan pallet board to make the fingerboard and bridge on one of my first guitars. It felt a bit coarse under my fingers, but no more so than Indian rosewood. Hickory heartwood, which is functionally the same as pecan, is also a possibility. I found a Texas ebony board at the local hardwood supplier for $20, and it made three fingerboards. This is unusual, because Texas ebony generally has a lot of defects that reduce the yield.  Persimmon very rarely has black streaks in the sapwood, making it resemble black and white ebony: 
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| Author: | Clinchriver [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Here is some persimmon I cut off my place. |
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| Author: | douglas ingram [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 7:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
I've used hard maple for fingerboards and bridges (for nylon string guitars) and was very satisfied with it. If you want it dark, I've done that, too. Stained it with aniline dark brown and then flooded it with CA. A couple years in and it still looks great. |
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| Author: | TonyKarol [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Or get some roasted maple .. comes in birdseye and curly, or plain too, about 7-8 bucks a bd ft .... and is a nice caramel colr (carmelized), or dark brown (roasted) |
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| Author: | Alex Kleon [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
TonyKarol wrote: Or get some roasted maple .. comes in birdseye and curly, or plain too, about 7-8 bucks a bd ft .... and is a nice caramel colr (carmelized), or dark brown (roasted) Just what I was thinking! I am going to Exotic Woods in a couple of weeks to pick up some indigenous woods for my challenge build.  Alex |
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| Author: | MetalOne72 [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
Just curious, where can you get roasted maple in the states? |
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| Author: | oval soundhole [ Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:10 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Ideas on Fretboards and Bridges? North American woods.. |
http://bit.ly/xH51eU |
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