What is the best wood for a fingerboard?

What is the best wood for a fingerboard?

The Big Three Fretboard Woods

• Ebony. Considered the supreme tonewood for fingerboards due to its solidity, resiliency, and firmness, ebony was the primary fretboard wood in use from the 15th century till very recently.
• Rosewood.
• Maple.
• Indian Laurel.
• Ovangkol.
• Padauk.
• Pau Ferro.
• Walnut.

What guitar Wood has the most sustain?

If you want to most sustain, ebony or maple is the way to go. Rosewood is a little soft, and soaks up sustain more then a good solid rockwood maple.

What wood is best for guitar necks?

Mahogany is the most common wood used for building necks for acoustic guitars. It is strong, dense but light and easy to carve.

Which is better rosewood or ebony fretboard?

It’s often said that ebony fretboards are the best of both worlds. THE VERDICT: Ebony fretboards offer players a similar tonal quality to maple necks but are commonly known as hardier and longer-lasting than rosewood fretboards. For those who want a darker neck with a brighter tone, ebony is for you.

What is NATO wood for guitars?

Nato. Often referred to as ‘Eastern Mahogany’, Nato is a species which offers similar looks and similar characteristics to regualr mahogany. It offers a cost effective way to build a guitar with great looks and great tonal output.

Is Amaranth fretboard good?

PURPLEHEART (also known as AMARANTH) – the pretty purple wood we’ve all come to love. Beyond the pretty hue is an extremely stable tone wood for necks and fingerboards. It is technically a “harder” wood than Maple, when looking at the Janka Hardness scale. WENGE – a well balanced tone wood for necks and fingerboards.

What woods are used for fretboards?

The fretboard of traditional string instruments is mainly made of tropical hardwoods, such as ebony, Indian rosewood, African blackwood, and other precious woods that are characterized by a high density, high strength, and hardness, good wear resistance and dimensional stability, and a beautiful color [1, 2].

What is the best fretboard wood for a guitar?

Rosewood is the most common fretboard wood that you are likely to find on a guitar. It is a naturally oily wood which results in a richer fundamental tone than maple due to the unwanted overtones being absorbed into the oily pores.

Should you choose a rosewood or ebony fingerboard for your guitar?

If you were to pair it with a rosewood fretboard, the sound would be rounded out with a warmer tone to the top-end. Whereas if you were to add an ebony fingerboard, the sound would likely become even brighter! So it’s important to select the choice that’s appropriate for you.

What are the alternatives to Indian rosewood fretboards?

With East Indian Rosewood on CITES, Pau Ferro is the logical Rosewood alternative. For example, musical instrument manufacturers such as Fender increasingly use Morado in their production. To clarify, Fender cites the hardness, oil content, tone and color of Pau Ferro as reasons for switching from Indian Rosewood to Morado fretboards.

How does wood type affect guitar builds?

The type of wood used to design a guitar will definitely affect its weight, sound, tone, and look, standing the wood out as one of the most important parts of the guitar. Here, we will be taking a broad look at guitar wood types, as well as how each type affects the overall build of the guitar.