I wonder if you folks can help me out. I have a Jackson Soloist that I bought recently, and I'm starting to think I need to return it. I *love* the guitar, but the fretboard is starting to look a little odd to me.
This is a Sam Ash exclusive model. It's made in Japan, but has all "real" parts on it like the Floyd Rose, Seymore pickups etc. It plays really well and I love everything about it.
A couple of days ago I was going through my normal monthly guitar cleaning regimen and discovered that the fretboard seems to be growing some fine white cracks all over. Here is a pic:
For comparison, here is a pic of the fretboard from my $300 three year old Ibanez Artcore:
The cracks don't seem to affect playability. My Ibanez has little micro-cracks in the wood, but they're not white. Is some cracking like this normal in Rosewood? I've never looked in such detail before, but then I guess I also never had white cracks either...
The Jackson is only 25 days old (to me), but I'm realizing that it could have been hanging in the store for who-knows-how-long. I have (in theory) five days in which I can still return it for a refund.
So what do you think? Is this normal? Is it cheap rosewood? I'd think the Ibanez would be even cheaper, but who knows. Should I get a refund and look for another guitar?
I will say that I'm not happy with the look of the fretboard. I've seen a lot of guitars and I've never noticed anything like this that I can recall.
GAD