Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

[toowrongfoo]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

And more importantly, you are SIMPLY more limited now. The jazz bass that is my mainstay is the "special edition MIM" that has rosewood from a few years ago. I'm not ditching it for the readily available "Pau Ferro" .... you dig?

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I think you could with a little more experience with Brazilian. I can. But I have had two wonderful Brazilian dreadnaughts. Still have one of them.

It's either your imagination of you are bullcrapping us.

Normally people over 60 years old have lost much of their ability to detect certain frequencies. I have seen a test on this, in which kids under 10 or so were able to detect certain frequencies but the senior citizens didn't hear anything.

My second guess is you are Guitar Fanatic in disguise...

 

[toowrongfoo]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I can't agree "categorically" with that. But then again, I don't want to pretend to be definite............

 

[sondich]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I know this thread is talking about Pau Ferro and Rosewood in the fingerboard context but I just finished an article comparing Pau Ferro and Rosewood from a wood perspective. When you pick up a large board of unmachined Pau Ferro, it really feels like a rosewood, even though it's not. The US is going to see a lot more of this wood in the next decade.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

My favorite feeling fretboard is Ebony -and its not even close -I know it's bright and hard but you can play so much faster and smoother...

not sure why its not more popular -maybe the cost?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I like ebony, too. But I also like richlite and phenolic which is about as hard, dark, and sounds the same to me. I don't think a fingerboard wood matters much on a scalloped board, however.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I like ebony, too. But I also like richlite and phenolic which is about as hard, dark, and sounds the same to me. I don't think a fingerboard wood matters much on a scalloped board, however.

I can totally see Phenolic being similar.

Ive never owned a truly scalloped guitar -only ones scalloped above like fret 15

 

[orpheo]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I like ebony, too. But I also like richlite and phenolic which is about as hard, dark, and sounds the same to me. I don't think a fingerboard wood matters much on a scalloped board, however.

from my experience as a luthier, phenolic sucks. It's extremely unstable and requires a lot of attention. Richlite is much, much, much more stable and thus friendlier in its behavior.

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

The problem with Ebony is that it’s very hard to buy it in bulk without going into black or gray market territory. There’s Chinese logging companies that go cut down beautiful & very old growth trees without any permits or any right. Then it gets loaded onto ships where where it’s sold in international waters (A lot like what North Korea does with oil & coal to subvert US sanctions.) where nobody really has any authority to do anything about it.

Personally I’ve played some Black Palm fingerboards that we’re absolutely beautiful! It sounded just like ebony, feels like ebony, looks like ebony, & most importantly its a very sustainable fast growing hardwood. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll start seeing Black Palm on fingerboards in coming years...

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

The problem with Ebony is that it’s very hard to buy it in bulk without going into black or gray market territory. There’s Chinese logging companies that go cut down beautiful & very old growth trees without any permits or any right. Then it gets loaded onto ships where where it’s sold in international waters (A lot like what North Korea does with oil & coal to subvert US sanctions.) where nobody really has any authority to do anything about it.

Personally I’ve played some Black Palm fingerboards that we’re absolutely beautiful! It sounded just like ebony, feels like ebony, looks like ebony, & most importantly its a very sustainable fast growing hardwood. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll start seeing Black Palm on fingerboards in coming years...

Thanks for that info. great post.

 

[GreatOz]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I actually like Pau Ferro on my Warmoth build a lot. Feels a lot like Rosewood.

Tonally, there could be a difference, but not much. Maybe a touch snappier and a touch brighter?

I went with Pau Ferro because I liked the way it felt to play and it matched my aesthetic on the guitar better because it is slightly brighter in color.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

The problem with Ebony is that it’s very hard to buy it in bulk without going into black or gray market territory. There’s Chinese logging companies that go cut down beautiful & very old growth trees without any permits or any right. Then it gets loaded onto ships where where it’s sold in international waters (A lot like what North Korea does with oil & coal to subvert US sanctions.) where nobody really has any authority to do anything about it.

Personally I’ve played some Black Palm fingerboards that we’re absolutely beautiful! It sounded just like ebony, feels like ebony, looks like ebony, & most importantly its a very sustainable fast growing hardwood. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll start seeing Black Palm on fingerboards in coming years...

There are a lot of new and great woods (previously overlooked) that work well with guitars and the sort of tone you want to have - as well as the stability and workability you need from a construction aspect. Its just the drag weight of player traditionalism that stops many of the main brands from including them. Both Gibson and Fender use Pau Ferro, but you should hear the ignorant punters whinging on the specialist forums over those guitars......its like the apocalypse has arrived.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

Pau Ferro adds the most snap to the note attack among the common rosewoods to me. Not on maple level and not nearly on ebony level. If it is up to a choice and on the same type of guitar the Indian rosewood is too soft or the maple is too snappy, Pau Ferro is a nice one in-between, more towards the rosewood side.

It is all about the feel / response. On a measurable output for some objective result, they are not more than a couple of percents away from each other I guess. Pickups make a vastly bigger change.

 

[chadd]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I actually like Pau Ferro on my Warmoth build a lot. Feels a lot like Rosewood.

Tonally, there could be a difference, but not much. Maybe a touch snappier and a touch brighter?

I went with Pau Ferro because I liked the way it felt to play and it matched my aesthetic on the guitar better because it is slightly brighter in color.

I went with Pau Ferro and baked maple on my Warmoth strat neck and I absolutely love it.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I've noticed a lot of you are saying that certain fretboard woods play better. How do you figure? I can see how a finished fretboard would play different from an unfinished one if you had really low frets, but I personally only notice that I touch the fretboard when I'm doing insane bends, and never do my strings touch it. My frets tend to be medium jumbo or jumbo by the way.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

Ebony has a closer tighter grain
And even unfinished it feels smooth

Rosewood is a bit coarse
And even unfinished feels warmer under the fingers

Oiled maple feels slick like ebony but kinda cold

The smooth boards makes bends easier
As does taller frets

 

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

My favorite feeling fretboard is Ebony -and its not even close -I know it's bright and hard but you can play so much faster and smoother...

not sure why its not more popular -maybe the cost?

Well, in metal it is THE fingerboard wood, so maybe it depends on genre...

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

Well, in metal it is THE fingerboard wood, so maybe it depends on genre...

I think that's more to match the black aesthetic of the rest of the guitar than anything.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

I think that's more to match the black aesthetic of the rest of the guitar than anything.

Respectfully disagree. Ebony is a faster fingerboard wood for most players, and if you're playing metal, chances are you're playing fast. I mean, I'm sure the "none more black" aesthetic doesn't hurt, but playability is key.

 

[chadd]

Re: Rosewood vs Pau Ferro

Respectfully disagree. Ebony is a faster fingerboard wood for most players, and if you're playing metal, chances are you're playing fast. I mean, I'm sure the "none more black" aesthetic doesn't hurt, but playability is key.

Most metal players I know use frets tall enough to make the wood on their fretboard utterly irrelevant to their speed.