The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Posts 26 to 32 of 32
  1. #26

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
    Many violin/cello/bass makers don't have a problem with using streaked ebony and dyeing it black, using india ink is a traditional method.
    I have long assumed that most if not all of the ebony fretboards on Gibson instruments were dyed black.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by QAman
    Bill Comins GCS-16 series utilizes Richlite on the pick-guard and tail pc overlay , and he retains ebony on the fingerboard. I think this was a good choice for the use of Richlite - which by the way looks and feels great on Bills GCS series . It’s contains over 80% wood product.

    Many purists will never accept Richlite on a fingerboard - and I certainly respect that opinion. But quite frankly , I owned an ES-275 with a Richlite fingerboard and was never disappointed - it played and sounded just fine , but for me the neck was too small.
    So Bill can bring to market a guitar with an ebony board that streets for ~ $2200, yet Gibson can't supply on guitars selling for multiple times that?

  4. #28

    User Info Menu

    It's funny to me...forever everyone said "I only want the blackest ebony". Then they ran out of black ebony and now they come up with something that looks exactly like ebony, is environmentally superior in every way and now everyone is "ok cool so I really like white stripes in ebony".

    Personally I think black black fingerboards look cool. It's cool they invented this stuff.

  5. #29

    User Info Menu

    Thomann in Germany had several L5 CES guitars a little while back with rosewood boards, and even, I think, a Wes. I think they may all be sold now. Never saw a richlite one.
    Like QAman, I had a 275 with richlite board which I had no problem with but sold it for the same reason he did - neck too small.

  6. #30

    User Info Menu

    Times and tastes change.

    I distinctly remember when any Fender guitar made after the sale to CBS was automatically grounds for a BIG discount. In particular, nobody wanted Stratocasters with the big "paddle heads." Folks were actually sawing these headstocks down to pre-CBS dimensions--particularly if you had a transitional example from '65 with an "L" prefix serial number. I saw a bunch of those with cut-down headstocks and reapplied decals, to make them look like the earliest '65 examples. (Big pain to go through, given that they were all CBS instruments, as near as I could tell.)

    NOW, plenty of people are happy to play a paddle head because Jimi Hendrix and others did. (Not to mention the fact that many of the guitars made from '65-'68 feature pickups from '65 and frankly sound and play marvelously.)

    I suspect that with time people are going to really warm up to the Mr. J-era archtops and be glad that they exist.

  7. #31

    User Info Menu

    I think streaky ebony looks cool.

    I also had a student with a richlite-boarded Martin. You'd never know it wasn't ebony, except for looking REAAAALY close and noticing there's no grain at all.

  8. #32

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    I think streaky ebony looks cool.

    I also had a student with a richlite-boarded Martin. You'd never know it wasn't ebony, except for looking REAAAALY close and noticing there's no grain at all.
    I have a custom Martin 00016 with a Richlite board and bridge. Indeed, it is hard to tell a difference.