Pau Ferro... experiences?

[MikeS]

Hey tone bros,

Anyone have experience with Pau Ferro as a fret board wood? It'll be on a maple neck bolted to a mahogany body SG w/ P-90s. All I've been able to read is that it's a little brighter than rosewood. How is is when compared to maple and rosewood as far as feel, attack, and tone are concerened?

And please don't refer me to the Warmoth Woods page - I've read it and am looking for a more in depth description.

Thanks

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

I have tried some guitars with solid pau ferro necks, one SRV strat that had it for fretboard.
Well mostly I see maple as being a fairly neutral wood soundwise, Rosewood has a great defenition for chords, Pau Ferro is very snappy and feels like something between maple and Rosewood, maybe a tad more open than say a maple with a glued on maple fingerboard, the feel of the wood is very pleasent, the onepiece necks had a very deep and firm bass, the middleregister is very defined and a bit unforgiving, top is open and rings very clear, it is not for those who wants a dark sound.
On the neck with PF as fretboard it had almost the same things going on, except for the bass and alitte more to the dark side in sound, closer to rosewodd than a onepiece
trad. maple neck.
Dunno if this helps?!

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

By the way have you considered a onepiece Padouk neck??
It sounds even better than pau ferro if you ask me.

 

[MikeS]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

How were the mids on the maple/PF neck? were they as unforgiving as the one-piece PF neck? I'm not looking for a scooped sound, but I definatly think that mids are the worst thing to have too much of, and I've found that in my LP, it's very hard to cut the mids back without turning the bottom end to complete sludge. But, since it is just a fretboard on a maple neck, I'm hoping that with the P-90s I should be able to cut a little mids out and still retain some fat clarity on the bottom.

But, if it's snappy like maple but has greater definaition for chording, then it sounds like PF is definatly worth my trying out.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

As the glue onfretboard it was quite fine, Pau Ferro as a one piece sounds better on a bass, while as fretboard on a maplewood neck it is quite nice, maybe not for those who likes the added warmth of rosewood.
It will defently be clear, and I think with a pair of soapbars it will be great.
And with a mahogony body it will probally be very balanced in clearness and fatness, sounds very interesting

 

[MikeS]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

Sounds good. Thanks!

 

[Hellion]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

Pau Ferro is Rosewood, just a different type. It's sometimes referred to as Bolivian Rosewood.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Pau Ferro... experiences?

I owned an SRV strat for a month. I found the pau ferro fingerboard to be quite maple-like in terms of tonal response, perhaps between maple and ebony.

I didn't like the overall tone of the guitar, though to what extent the fingerboard was to blame it's hard to say. It also had a pretty heavy alder body, and it's my guess that the pau ferro and the density of the alder conspired to bump up the upper mids and harden the tone.

I replaced it with a lightweight alder body strat with a 1 piece maple neck.