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We now have a small supply of Rocklite Ebano fretboards, bridges and headplates. http://rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store/rocklite-ebano-guitar-parts-c-174_179/
Thry are made of 100% wood, jet black, perfectly QS. TIA for looking

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Yowsie! Those look great!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Lance they look even better in person. Each one is perfect and made from sustainable wood. Craig Lavin is trying some headplates to see how they inlay. I'm going to slot one to see how that goes.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Bob, keep us posted. From a picture, I could not tell that from the Ebony of the old days. FYI that coco in the background is sublime.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Darn, I'm about a week late. Seems that since I've started building again, ebony has landed on the CITES treaty. It's now about 110$ - 125$ bd/ft, here around my parts. I just bought 2 sizable wallet breaking boards.

That stuff looks amazing Bob. I'm curious to see what you think about it.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Al I like it. Works just like any wood. You can plane it, sand it, cut it and every piece is QS and perfectly flat & very stable. The yield from an ebony log is very small which also adds to the cost

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

What is it, exactly?

"Rocklite is a man made product, engineered entirely from real, sustainable wood.it is NOT vulcanised paper!

Rocklite is designed to replicate exactly the beautiful exotic hardwoods, whose very existence is now so endangered by excessive and in some cases illegal logging.

Thereby offering a sustainable and Eco friendly alternative to the relentless march of the logging companies, further into the rain forests of the world." Taken from their website

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Bob: Sure look interesting. From what you are saying I assume these are not a homogeneous material but rather have a grain structure. Again I assume wood is not ground up and compressed with some kind of binder. Do you have any more info on the process?
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I'm curious about it, though I think it would be a hard sell explaining to customers why this fabricated ebony substitute is more expensive than actual ebony, especially without being able to tell them what it actually is.

Rocklite is a man made product, engineered entirely from real, sustainable wood.it is NOT vulcanised paper!" is all the info they will supply do to Copy rights/ Tom I think this answers your question. Some well known luthiers are in thr process of trying it out. As I get more info I'll post it here. West African finger boards are in the 25-28 range for a first grade board so I don't think they would be a hard sell since everyone is perfect and all the same quality and sustainable. The price for african ebony will continue to rise as supplies are exhausted

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Bob, how do you think this material compares to Ebony in hardness and durability.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve this is from a builder in the UK What Rory Dowling of Taran guitars says about ROCKLITE®

"This is a man made product, made entirely from wood and is not vulcanised paper!
It looks the same as ebony, it feels the same as ebony, it machines the same as ebony,
it sounds the same as ebony, it even has grain direction, which for a man made board is just great!
But, its 100% sustainable.

When gluing this stuff, basically there’s no issues at all, if anything it glues a bit better than ebony, it’s fantastic!
Every glue that I have done tests with has been great with it from Epoxy all the way through to Cascamite.
So really good for guitar making, it’s ……..phenomenal stuff! Absolutely brilliant."

Steve
I have not had a chance to do any machining yet do to the small order we bought. They do look and feel like ebony. No twisting warping or cracking.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

It looks great, I really like the idea behind it and I've seen it on guitars, well, maybe... Rocklite Richlite ? Not sure what the difference is except neither company will tell you what exactly it is and frankly that bothers me enough to not bother with it. I don't understand why they won't say what it is, I'm not asking to give trade secrets away but just the over all gist of what it is.

We know it's man made, we know it's sustainable, but what is it?

It's wood but they haven't said what kind what kind of wood. I'm going to see if we can get some answers from them. I know rhat Larry Robinson is using it for his inlay work. Richliye is made from spruce in China

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

The lack of disclosure from the producer reminds me of a certain spruce of the feline persuasion from B.C.
Testimonials with lots of exclamation points creep me out.

This isn't a knock against you, Bob. I really like that people are looking for good sustainable alternatives to tropical hardwoods. I hope you can find out what it actually is though. I don't see myself using a material if I can't tell a potential buyer what the material is.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

http://www.rocklite.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/s ... ent&part=2

The problem with any new product is getting people to try it. As you all know our motto is satisfaction guaranteed. Afew years back it was Fish glue & Waterborne finishes and the list goes on. Now it's Torrefied sound boards.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Is there any independent sustainability certification for this material?

I'm very interested in using it but would need some actual evidence that it is manufactured sustainably.


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Les all I have to go on is the mfg's claim. Not sure how I would obtain proof with out being there when they source the material. Sustainability is the whole reason behind this material

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Bob l didn't mean for my comment to be aimed at you. It's entirely the manufacturers responsibility to provide such information.

It's just really surprising to me to see so many claims of eco friendliness on their site without a speck of supporting information. I expect most customers to see through that in this day and age.


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I should have just quoted this. It's exactly how I feel about it as well.


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If you have a chance, could you weigh up some and some comparable Ebony? Get some idea of S.G. ? Looks great for head plates. If it has close to the same hardness as Ebony would make fine FB's. For bridges I guess you would have to carve some up and see. Being man made would probably make it less crack prone than Ebony.

Always nice to see a good looking eco alternative Bob!

The first guitar I built had an FB that looked that good. I haven't seen many since. Some of the nice stuff I have seen often has mineral deposits.

Maybe you could give one a good smack with a hammer.

If it feels, looks, and works like ebony, I'd have no problem using it.

Danny I will weigh a comparable sized piece of ebony and post here. I may try the hammer test too.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498