The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard "cheapness" debate

[weapdeth]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard "cheapness" debate

chrome looks good on some guitars, gibson, fender. but for my jacksons i want the hardware and fingerboard to be BLACK [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
its not that i don't think they should offer chrome, but more as an option than a default. like on these transparent black guitars and everything, the chrome hardware really turns me off to them. i have yet to see one in black, but i'd imagine it'd look infinitely sweeter(to my eyes anyways). i mean i honestly cannot think of a USA Select finish i'd rather see in chrome hardware than black when i think about it, perhaps one of them amber or cherry sunbursts, but those aren't my kind of thing anyways. not on a jackson.

[Newc]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard "cheapness" debate

That's a subject for another topic I'd like to try to understand - why do people want to have an all-black guitar on a stage [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
I mean, you go on stage and you're wearing all black (whether it is leather and has some shine to it or if it's fabric that has no shine at all), and then you want a guitar that is absolutely unseeable beyond the first row?
What's the point of going on stage in front of people if they can't see you and your guitar clearly? May as well be spinning a disc IMO.

But back to the topic at hand: I certainly don't associate rosewood and chrome as being "lesser quality", as many on the JCF have said. Maple and ebony are tonally bright and brittle. While they're perfect for shredding where each note lasts maybe a millisecond, only rosewood can give a sweet, soulful singing tone (excluding other more exotic woods like pao ferro, etc, which are not being discussed here).
However, given Jackson's pigeonholed image of senseless masturbatory shredding, many Jackson fans are expressing the opinion that to try and grow outside that image (such as offering the SweeTones or other "non-shred/non-metal" models) is cheapening the name.

As for my preference of wood/hardware color:
-Chrome on solid black or light trans finishes, except Natural (blends in too easily) or green (too "bright")
-Gold on reddish trans colors (like Cherry Sunburst)
-MOP fins on ebony
-blocks or other "non-fins" on rosewood
-dots on maple (though other styles are preferred - like the Vandenburg double-bar inlays or ebony fins - never put MOP dots on maple [img]graemlins/puke.gif[/img] )
-black tuners/nut on maple necks - regardless of bridge/body color as Shawn said
-black bridge on graphics so the eye is draw more to the graphic than the hadware (black rings/pickups unless they are painted or otherwise associate with the graphic, such as zebra pickups on a zebra graphic, or black pickups in white rings on a Zakk Wylde bullseye, etc)
-black hardware on non-burst trans finishes looks best IMO - it doesn't distract the eye from the grain.

Newc

[eaeolian]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard "cheapness" debate

Quality rosewood is just as nice as ebony, IMO. It does sound different, though - my guitars with rosewood boards are a bit "warmer" than the ebony ones. I certainly don't think it looks "cheap", when it's of like quality to the ebony.

I think the rosewood=cheaper idea comes from both the use of cheap rosewood on cheap guitars AND that the guitars with ebony boards tend to have binding and/or "fancy" inlays, and so are associated with higher-end isntruments.

(I know there are exceptions to this, but I'm speaking in generalizations.)

After all, some of the only guitars I see with ebony, no binding and dots are the '80s Jackson bolt-ons.

As for hardware color, I think the chrome looks great on most trans finishes, and a lot of solid colors, too, especially dark ones. Black looks good on most - although it looks very bad on trans reds to me - and gold really only works on certain "rich" colors, IMO.

Mike

[Sunbane]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard "cheapness" debate

Originally posted by Newc:
That's a subject for another topic I'd like to try to understand - why do people want to have an all-black guitar on a stage [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
I mean, you go on stage and you're wearing all black (whether it is leather and has some shine to it or if it's fabric that has no shine at all), and then you want a guitar that is absolutely unseeable beyond the first row?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's a good question. All I can say is that I like clean black guitars. =) Binding and pinstripes is a nice addition to black though, and would make your guitar stand out more.

Black goes well with everything. Chrome hardware, black hardware, gold hardware - it all looks gorgeous on black - especially with matching pickup rings and knobs. =)

Pointy guitars in particular look better in black. White only looks okay - as do natural finishes. Dark blue is a stretch and I'm staying faaar away from red/yellow/green/pink guitars. I wouldn't be caught dead playing something looking like a lollipop like that. [img]graemlins/refuse.gif[/img]

Metallic/pearl/sparkle finishes also have too much of a glam factor for me - not on a pointy, I beg of you. [img]graemlins/help.gif[/img] Having said that, I must make an exception for metallic black. It must be one of the most pointless metallic finishes ever invented. From a distance it just looks like black and you'll have to get really close to even notice that it's metallic.

Graphics are okay, as long as they're not too fruity. =)

My favorite trans finish? Transparent Black! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

- Sun "black" Bane

Yeah, I'm freak. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Sephiroth]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

How chrome looks depends on the finish to me. On trans blue and Eerie Dess, it looks killer. On solid finishes it tends to look cheap.

[charvel750]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

It takes a real man to play a pink sparkle guitar, 'bane! I sold Tom my '85 Dimas Soloist in magenta sparkle. It still has the battle scar from a gig where some drunk punk came up to me between sets and said, "Only pussies play pink guitars." I told him it wasn't pink, maybe if he took a closer look he could see that. So, the dumba$$ gets right up on it while the guitar was strapped on me. I clocked him in the teeth with it, left a scratch near the volume knob from where his filling scraped it. His mouth, gushing blood with a lose tooth or two, is quivering as he says, Well, I guess it ain't pink now, is it?" [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[j2379]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

depends on the guitar. most of mine have chrome hardware & natural finishs. my painted guitars have black hardware except the black one w/chrome hardware.

as for brazillian rosewood i finds it more like ebony than cheap rosewood. its much tighter grained & heavier without the pores like rosewood/mahogany have. its also much nicer looking or at least the ones i have. alot of variation in color with a really nice grain patern

[Jim Shine]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

All Brazillian I have seen and owned has pores. They are larger and fewer than most species of rosewood, but they are there.

While we are talking about traits of Brazillian, I have learned while repairing guitars with Brazillian rosewood that the darker species is loaded with natural oils which are pigmented in a dark maroonish/purple color. If you soak a piece of dark Brazillian in a jar of lacquer thinner, after a while it will strip out all of those oils and the wood will come out looking like the lighter species of the wood.

[ December 17, 2003, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: Jim Shine ]

[VitaminG]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

Originally posted by Newc:
That's a subject for another topic I'd like to try to understand - why do people want to have an all-black guitar on a stage [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
I mean, you go on stage and you're wearing all black (whether it is leather and has some shine to it or if it's fabric that has no shine at all), and then you want a guitar that is absolutely unseeable beyond the first row?
What's the point of going on stage in front of people if they can't see you and your guitar clearly? May as well be spinning a disc IMO.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">when I finally get my concept band up and running, we'll all be playing black instruments & wearing totally white outfits - turtle-necks, slacks, Chuck Taylors - on a stark white stage (unsightly amps, etc. mic'd & stowed backstage). General lighting will be courtesy of overhead fluoros to heighten the stark appearance of the stage area & so we can fully utilise the 60-cycle hum which will be an integral, nay, feature component of our signature sound.

[nor]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

Some band names for ya, Gary...
The 60-Cycle Hummers
The Buzzy Kiwi's
Buzz and The Dark Albinos

[toejam]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

LOL @ Gary. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Can I join? I've got a couple of black Jacksons. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[straycat]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

I had a 63 fender strat special, olympic white with an ebony fingerboard and it looked good to me.I have not seen an ebony board fender strat in a long time.

[VitaminG]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

Joe, of course. You have to be there. Where would Smith be without Murray, Tipton without Downing, Siegried without Roy, Abbott without Costello?

United, The 60-Cycle Hummers (thanks nor) shall propel Mediocre Metal into the new Millenium!!

[Jim Shine]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

Originally posted by Richard:
I had a 63 fender strat special, olympic white with an ebony fingerboard and it looked good to me.I have not seen an ebony board fender strat in a long time.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If it is truely a 1963 that is unmodified and is truely ebony, you had a very rare guitar. I have seen numerous 'ebony board' vintage Fender's, every single one was brazillian rosewood. It is very easy to confuse the two as they are both more similar than not.

[DumpyWumpy]

Re: The chrome hardware and rosewood fretboard &quot;cheapness&quot; debate

I don't know about you guys, but nothing says 'class' to me like one of these bad boys...


Call me your typical Jackson fan or what not, but I'm gonna like it more if it's got binding, no dots, an ebony board and black hardware. A nice flame on a nice transparent finish is always gonna look nice too [img]graemlins/drool2.gif[/img]