Anyone have a guitar with a Pau Ferro fretboard?

[quiksilver]

Its PF..I only know this because this is what the brochere said.

Thanks, Bill!

[Flatpicker]

Some people can't hear some things that others can and there's nothing wrong with that.

Just remember that we hear with our eyes also.
We hear what we expect to hear and they will market to us based on that.

[chrisolson]

Not a great pic, but this one did...

[El_Kabong]

It is brighter than rosewood and has a smoother, sanded feel as compared to the former. Grain patterns vary as some boards are monochromatic and others are analagous with different shading. Save for visual tonal variations, the quality of board is quite consistent as I found on from my Art Esperanza tele to a Warmoth neck I had.

[chrisolson]

I didn't find anything particularly special about mine. I'd prefer ebony if I wanted that guitar I posted to look better.

[HiOctane]

The Suhr description is excellent.

My personal comment would be that it sounds/feels somewhere in-between rosewood and maple. A good compromise between the two.

Probably has the best of what ebony has to offer without the brittleness and far more warmth.

[ADR]

Sheddermon has a Charvel I believe with it,wasn't it a run from "Matts"? CAR w/Pau Ferro.

[shreddermon]

Pao ferro is great. IMHO, it's like the secret love child of ebony and rosewood. Feel-wise, it's much more like ebony. Very tight and smooth grain, not a lot of open "pores" like rosewood sometimes has. Hard and slinky. It's not anywhere near as prone to shrinkage nor cracking, though, as sometimes happens with ebony.

Looks-wise, it has a lot of similarity to rosewood. (IIRC, it's actually a specialized species of the rosewood family.) More often than not, though, it's not as dark as rosewood. More of a medium "milk chocolate" brown, sometimes having some red-ish or rust-like shades of color running through it. Some of them can be pretty stripey, too, like what folks look for in brazilian rosewood.

Tone-wise? You'll get different answers from different people. IMHO, the description on the Warmoth website is pretty close. But I also think I'm in the minority of folks, who don't agree that fretboards contribute a lot to a guitar's tone. Body and neck woods are much bigger "tone" factors, IMHO. So, from that perspective, I make my fretboard decisions more on feel and appearance, rather than tone. ...But you know what they say about opinions.

there was that custom charvel run a while ago that had half maple half pau ferro boards

Sheddermon has a Charvel I believe with it,wasn't it a run from "Matts"? CAR w/Pau Ferro.

Yes, but it wasn't done half and half. I spec'd that run, and that was the original plan. However, based on demand with the pre-orders, it was changed to 3 with pao ferro and the other 7 with maple fretbaords. (Not counting the couple of "extras" - as we've seen done with other limited runs - made with maple.) Here's mine (bad pic, sorry). This one's nice and stripey:



I have several with pao ferro boards, actually. It's my favorite fretboard wood for sure...





And another on order.

[ADR]

Sweet.

[DocNrock]

Nice fretboards...and axes!

[Robert Burns]

Pao ferro is great. IMHO, it's like the secret love child of ebony and rosewood. Feel-wise, it's much more like ebony. Very tight and smooth grain, not a lot of open "pores" like rosewood sometimes has. Hard and slinky. It's not anywhere near as prone to shrinkage nor cracking, though, as sometimes happens with ebony.

Looks-wise, it has a lot of similarity to rosewood. (IIRC, it's actually a specialized species of the rosewood family.) More often than not, though, it's not as dark as rosewood. More of a medium "milk chocolate" brown, sometimes having some red-ish or rust-like shades of color running through it. Some of them can be pretty stripey, too, like what folks look for in brazilian rosewood.

Tone-wise? You'll get different answers from different people. IMHO, the description on the Warmoth website is pretty close. But I also think I'm in the minority of folks, who don't agree that fretboards contribute a lot to a guitar's tone. Body and neck woods are much bigger "tone" factors, IMHO. So, from that perspective, I make my fretboard decisions more on feel and appearance, rather than tone. ...But you know what they say about opinions.





Yes, but it wasn't done half and half. I spec'd that run, and that was the original plan. However, based on demand with the pre-orders, it was changed to 3 with pao ferro and the other 7 with maple fretbaords. (Not counting the couple of "extras" - as we've seen done with other limited runs - made with maple.) Here's mine (bad pic, sorry). This one's nice and stripey:



I have several with pao ferro boards, actually. It's my favorite fretboard wood for sure...





And another on order.

** The second one, with white/orange/yellow HRF, is my all time favorite!!
And that's saying allot...cause i have a great one! Cudo's Shreddermon!

[btx109]

Pau Ferro is not a true rosewood species. It is often mislabeled as such..."Bolivian Rosewood" is one term used for it...but it's not related to the Dalbergia family.

That has nothing to do with its effectiveness as a guitar tonewood. Suhr, for example, uses it on their Reb Beach model.

[shreddermon]

True. IIRC, the RB Suhrs have full pao ferro necks, actually. Not just the fretboard.

[daisp]

Wow! great looking fiddles!

[Rupe]

The Suhr description is excellent.

My personal comment would be that it sounds/feels somewhere in-between rosewood and maple. A good compromise between the two.

Probably has the best of what ebony has to offer without the brittleness and far more warmth.

I second this. Pau Ferro has been my favorite for 20 years now, ever since I bought my first Rand.