African Obeche wood for fingerboards?

[Predator1]

A certain guitar company has started using this for fingerboard material on guitars as a sustainable alternative to Ebony. I googled it and as best as I could find it is a pale softwood similar to american Basswood? This doesn't sound anything like Ebony to me. Does anybody know if there is more then one type of Obeche?

[Hellbat]

There are other names for Obeche but there is only one 'type' of Obeche.

http://www.timbermerchant.co.za/obeche.html

I wouldn't call it a "sustainable" decision by a certain guitar company. It's cheap and readily available from countries that have traditionally had a poor quality of life, with easy to influence trade laws or lack thereof.

Think of it as Cedro 2.0

[TKEblue]

Wouldn't the fact that its cheap and readily available make it sustainable? Especially when compared to ebony which is expensive and becoming less and less available?

[Hellbat]

Sustainable would imply that they selectively logged their forests and are replanting trees after harvesting. I wouldn't bet on either of those happening in the countries that grow this wood...

[Predator1]

I guess I should have asked is it good choice for a fingerboard? I would much prefer Ebony or Rosewood however the guitar I was looking at getting has this Obeche stuff. I wonder how it would hold up? How would it take a refret?

[ginsambo]

It looks like a white version of African Albizia, probably Albizia falcata (Not the foxglove tree Albizia julibrissin, the Silk Tree) which, incidentally adds a great exotic touch to the garden in colder zones where an Acacia would freeze to death, as it is a deciduous tree with Acacia like foliage.

They probably stain it to look like ebony. Don't be fooled by the 'Not durable' status - that is only given to indicate its weathering charactoristics when used externally or in a marine environment, not its resistance to Jimi Hendrix. Take Sapele - Sapele is a pretty hard tropical hard wood, but it melts outdoors, actually its a pretty crap wood.

It is one of the legumes, of which Albizia, Acacia and Rosewood are included. They are essentially weed trees. These trees are the first trees to colonise and fix their own nitrogen in relatively nutrient poor open sites before succession gives way to larger, 'Proper job' forest trees, after the leaf litter and nutrient levels have built up. By design they are very fast growing, seed freely and can grow on impoverished soils, hence the sustainable tag I guess.

If you have ever had any experience of Acacia dealbata you'll know what I'm talking about - from 4' whip to 20' tree with 40cm girth of trunk at 1m in under three years on landscaped fertile soils in the humid and rainy British climate, before the cold winters started coming in the last few years and killed the things off, apart from around the coast.

I'd say it would be OK, just don't play underwater in the sea. I made some gates form Albizia a few years back for a client and they hold up as well as Iroko or Teak.

So who is the 'Certain company' then?

Edit: It should be as hard as rosewood with a similar pore structure and will not wear out from string wear and won't chip out or splinter it it takes a refret if that is what you are worried about. Wouldn't be as smooth and regular as ebony though. Its a far cry from Cedro (Cedar - which is coniferous and is softwood) as its a very hard hardwood, but it is very fast growing, easy to grow and seeds prolifically. Hazard a guess, I'd say it would be similar to rosewood.

[ginsambo]

I'd say it was more of a 'Cash Crop' than a plantation or rainforest tree in the traditional sense of the word. It will never grow that big or be that long lived. Its the type of thing that colonises cracks in the pavements, but that doesn't make it crap necessarily, just a pain in the ass if you are responsible for highways maintenance.

[TKEblue]

Sustainable would imply that they selectively logged their forests and are replanting trees after harvesting. I wouldn't bet on either of those happening in the countries that grow this wood...

I would think it implies that there is a seemingly endless supply. From what I read it grows fast and often

[ginsambo]

I wish manufacturers and timber suppliers would print pictures of the trees leaves in addition to the description of the woods, that way I reckon the general public at large would easily 'Get it' and see what is what and what is probably similar to something else and be able to form a picture in their mind themselves of a timbers suitability. As it is they use exotic sounding foreign provincial colloquial names, generalisms and confounding latin genus or full species names, if you are very lucky. Its like, in the UK if you went into a timber yard and ordered a 2 by 4 of Redwood, you'd get Scots Pine not Metasequoia. Two completely different genus, let alone species. Similarly rosewood describes a number of trees of various genotypes. Dalbergia sassoo heartwood is usually the fretboard one. But all Rosewoods are legumes so you pretty much know what you are dealing with. There are loads of 'Sustainable new hardwoods' on the market, but have I a clue what they are or what they are like?

[Predator1]

The bottom line! Is it a good choice for fingerboards. What are the negatives when used for such?

[Hellbat]

Try it for 5-10 years and see how it holds up. Nobody has really used it before on a mass production basis so nobody here can realistically answer your question. It's probably better than the phenolic resin fingerboard a certain same manufacturer uses on entry level models.

[ginsambo]

The bottom line! Is it a good choice for fingerboards. What are the negatives when used for such?

The bottom line?.....Nobody knows......for sure


Think of it as a cheap white rosewood.

If it was shite it wouldn't be fit for purpose would it.

Who is the Certain manufacturer.....its driving me mad...:think:

[ginsambo]

The deck on the back of my tipper truck is made of phenolic resin...

[Hellbat]

Who is the Certain manufacturer.....its driving me mad...:think:

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Flying-V/Gibson-USA/Flying-V-Tremolo.aspx

Looks like they may be doing the cooking the wood in a vacuum kiln to darken it up.

[Devotee]

Without wanting to derail the thread, you know that a guitar company is behind the times when they call a Floyd Rose "the most advanced vibrato tailpiece available".