Does anyone prefer rosewood fingerboards?

[VitaminG]

I hate the look of a dried out, grey-looking piece of rosewood. But then, most of guitars have rosewood fretboards and they all look great. My Model 2 has one of the darkest, densest pieces of rosewood I've seen and I wouldn't swap it for a piece of ebony for anything.

The lightest piece I have is the fretboard on my N2, and it's a streaky red rosewood. It still looks good, but clearly won't be mistaken for a piece of ebony. I don't see that as a bad thing.

If your main concern is that the fretboard looks dark, smooth & uniform, I remember Series 10 making guitars with some kind of black plastic. Was it a solid sheet of delrin? I don't know. But you wouldn't have all of that annoying grain and variations in colour that you get from these awful organic wood thingies.

[Dave L]

I believe manufacturers use rosewood instead of ebony partly because ebony is more prone to cracking if you´re not very careful when installing the frets. I don´t know where I heard that, but it kinda makes sense.

My preferences are ebony or maple, depending on the guitar, with pao ferro and rosewood bringing up the rear.

[Newc]

Ebony is fairly hard to work with, and when/if the neck warps, an ebony board will rarely if ever warp in the same direction as the neck wood.

For those who love the look of rosewood and the tone of ebony (which is a micron's pube different than the tone of maple), I suggest striped ebony. Looks like a highly figured rosewood but the bright attack of ebonaple.

[ihocky2]

Ebony is actually a lot harder to work with than rosewood. Ebony is one of the hardest woods. It wears down tools very quickly, and the cost of tools wear is included in what we pay. Being very hard, ebony chips easier when tools are not extremely sharp. Ebony is also a nightmare to sand. For large companies it is not a big deal since they have automatic sanders, but try hand-sanding a radius into ebony. You're arm will be ready to fall of until you are done. Ebony is also harder to fret because the wood will nto compress as much for the fret tangs. Ebony is also less common than rosewood so the boards cost more right up front. Depending on the species of rosewood and species of ebony and the quality of both, ebony can be over twice as expensive.

[Sanctuary]

Macassar would be my choice.

[max]

I like them all. There's a little bit of a rosewood "inferiority complex" around here. IMHO, that's a perception issue caused by the imports (= "cheaper") having rosewood instead of ebony. But all three are great, as is pao ferro. My preference usually depends on the guitar's other specs.

Exactly. Same with basswood bodies. You can buy ebony that is cheaper than rosewood. Depends on the quality.

I dont like most maple fretboards except the one on my PC-1. Its a very dark quilted maple that looks and feels better than anything I have played yet.

Some Ibanez guitars I own have very dark rosewood fretboards. Those are nice. I cant stand the light brown rosewood fretboards of 80s Jacksons, all grainy and stuff. It just looks cheapo.

[Postal]

Ebony is actually a lot harder to work with than rosewood. Ebony is one of the hardest woods. It wears down tools very quickly, and the cost of tools wear is included in what we pay. Being very hard, ebony chips easier when tools are not extremely sharp. Ebony is also a nightmare to sand. For large companies it is not a big deal since they have automatic sanders, but try hand-sanding a radius into ebony. You're arm will be ready to fall of until you are done. Ebony is also harder to fret because the wood will nto compress as much for the fret tangs. Ebony is also less common than rosewood so the boards cost more right up front. Depending on the species of rosewood and species of ebony and the quality of both, ebony can be over twice as expensive.

This is dead on- however, even with large expensive automated sanders, the ebony will wear out the ridiculous large/expensive sanding belt a lot faster than a softer wood, and add to the cost as well. If you have a sander with 3 4" wide 24 ft long belts, each of the 3, a different grit to sand the FB.... They're gonna cost a good chunk...... That stuff is REALLY hard on tools, sandpaper, and your arm.....

I've heard that ebony is on the short track to becoming "rare" and that will only drive the price through the roof until it is finally banned under a cites treaty like brazilian rosewood. Hadnt confirmed that yet though....

I like figured maple boards like the PC1, or ebony though. I dont even mind seeing grey streaking in my ebony..... it doesnt "have" to be solid black.