Fret Board Wood

[bil]

Originally Posted by vintageparlors

Countless vintage flat tops built between 1930 thru the mid-1970s had poplar fretboards. A majority of what I find come through the shop have held up rather nicely.

That's nice to hear. In light of that, I think since this one is for a CBG that will be mostly played with a slide, I'll be okay.

However, for future builds I've ordered 1 each of the four following woods to make fretboards from: Paduak, Zebrawood, Maple, and Wenge. I especially like the look of the Zebrawood. I should have them by next week and one of them will be the FB on #4.

[Tom West]

Originally Posted by vintageparlors

Countless vintage flat tops built between 1930 thru the mid-1970s had poplar fretboards. A majority of what I find come through the shop have held up rather nicely.

That is truly a surprise to me. Any poplar that I have seen was not much harder then pine.
Tom

[H165]

I think the Harmony H165 and H162 necks are poplar. Can anyone confirm this?

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by bil

That's nice to hear. In light of that, I think since this one is for a CBG that will be mostly played with a slide, I'll be okay.

However, for future builds I've ordered 1 each of the four following woods to make fretboards from: Paduak, Zebrawood, Maple, and Wenge. I especially like the look of the Zebrawood. I should have them by next week and one of them will be the FB on #4.

FYI...

Wenge is formed with alternating super dense super hard dark wood which, when splintering, gives splinters that fester pretty badly. Its softer lighter colored grain is as soft (or I think softer) than mahogany, so probably won't hold up well as a fingerboard.

Zebrawood, while beautiful, has a very high rate of shrinkage. This could very well affect its long term stability.

There are reasons certain woods have become standards over time. Availability and stability are very likely the top 2 reasons. Next in line would be beauty. (IMHO of course.)

[John Arnold]

I think the Harmony H165 and H162 necks are poplar. Can anyone confirm this?

True.
Poplar was used extensively for the necks of Chicago guitars.

[bil]

Originally Posted by Ned Milburn

FYI...

Wenge is formed with alternating super dense super hard dark wood which, when splintering, gives splinters that fester pretty badly. Its softer lighter colored grain is as soft (or I think softer) than mahogany, so probably won't hold up well as a fingerboard.

Zebrawood, while beautiful, has a very high rate of shrinkage. This could very well affect its long term stability.

There are reasons certain woods have become standards over time. Availability and stability are very likely the top 2 reasons. Next in line would be beauty. (IMHO of course.)

I very much appreciate the input from someone at your level of builder! I just finished one the other day using the Paduak. I was curious what your take is on it and the maple for fret boards? Again, these are CBG's I'm making and they don't get hard daily use (I wouldn't think). They're more of a novelty item I make for friends and family.

[redir]

I've used white oak for a fretboard and bridge before. It is porous but it's not that bad, I didn't even fill it. But the cool think with white oak is that you can blacken it with an iron rich solution and it comes out as black as ebony. It's slightly starting to wear through on the common frets now but I think that even looks cool.

[The Bard Rocks]

In addition to others mentioned, Ironwood, Hop Hornbeam, Persimmon, & Pear should all work nicely. I would not even consider poplar if it were my guitar.