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I was first introduced to Rocklite Ebano when I visited with Rory Dowling of Taran guitars about a year ago. He was waxing lyrical about this new fretboard material, and I could see why. It was jet black, made of wood, (not compressed paper and phenolic) and it worked just like ebony. At that time it was still in the beta-testing stage, but at last it is now available to one and all.

IIRC, Rory said that the material could also be manufactured in various custom colors, and in different colored laminations, but obviously solid black is the one of interest to luthiers.





NB: if you click on any of the apparent hyperlinks in the picture above, you will just be directed to my ImageShack pages ... the link to click on for further info about Rocklite is This one

Looks pretty interesting. I am in the design stage of a high end instrument with special neck inlay work that will require a jet black fretboard. Due to the nature of the inlay work, I can't use black stain. This looks like it has promise! Can it be oiled like Ebony?

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It will probably be alright.

On their website they define Rocklite as:

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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.
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That's not good enough for me. Perhaps it's a trade secret and that's understandable but that is not a definition of what it is. Sounds great! But I'd really like to know what it is.

Respectfully -- rather not use fake/fuax any thing on a hand made guitar. Nature provides many wonderful abundant options. $.02

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

It can indeed be oiled like ebony. The feedback I got from Rory is that it accepts any finish , and it will take an oil application just like ebony will. I have ordered two fretboards myself from Tonetech, so I will soon be in a position to give a first hand opinion.

Incidentally, Rory told me that it is a dream to fret, and especially to refret.

I am guilty of using "what ever works" I am not hung up on nature. If I were I would have to use wooden tuners like violins on my geetars and that just wouldn't fly with my customers
I also use the AST inlay, heck, I use man made glue too instead of HHG.
When I think about it, there is a lot of man made stuff on my guitars start to "finish"

I would happy to give this product a try.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Looks interesting, but I could not really tell exactly what it was from the website. Sustainable engineered wood product covers a lot of ground.
I guess I need more information. Why it is sustainable and how it was engineered.

I was given a fingerboard and headplate to try out by the guy developing this product. It really is a dead ringer for quartered black ebony with consistant colour throughout. Lovely to plane cut etc. .
The thing I like about it is its actually wood.

Pete

Its made from a ". .North American FSC hardwood. ."
Don't think there going tell anyone how they do it !!

Pete

Looks really cool. Not cheap, around $37 plus shipping from the UK for a fretboard blank. I'd use it if it's as good as advertised. It's getting hard to get good Ebony.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Ay caramba!! That isn't cheap.


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I have several sources for jet black ebony fingerboard blanks and I believe there are OLF sponsors that will supply them as well -- perhaps a supply problem in the future, but not for now. Martin and others use a synthetic material on their less than high end guitars -- so I am sure this material will work fine as well.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I've used black dyes persimmon fingerboards from Northwind Tonewoods a few times. This is another process that's in beta test; they're having a few problems with getting it really black all the way through on a consistent basis. When it works, it's great. Persimmon IS an ebony: the North American member of the family, it's just not usually naturally black all through. The dye process doesn't seem to mess up the properties of it, to speak of. Right now it's about the same price as ebony, but it's a lot easier to get, and more sustainable.

I'm not out to hijack the thread so much as just point out that the biggest problem in wood substitution is on the way to being solved. With these ebony substitutes coming on the market there's no real reason to be tied to tropical woods any more.