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I dropped into a guitar store yesterday to try some acoustics and I spent most of my time playing a Martin GPC 11e. It's one of the made in Mexico Martins and actually a pretty nice guitar ... all solid woods EXCEPT for the fingerboard which is Richlite. I loved the fingerboard. It looked good, felt good and was flawless. It's unfortunate that it's mostly viewed as a budget replacement. I think it's a great solution and is reportedly entirely non-responsive to humidity changes.
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10-28-2023 01:11 PM
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Guitarists are a very conservative bunch on the whole. It took years for Fenders to really take off and they almost quit making the Stratocaster in the late 1960’s.
While I can appreciate aesthetics and classic design I’ve always been open to whatever works best for me and realizes the tone in my head.
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Richlite is my preferred material but it's something I underplay because everyone wants ebony. I also happen to know that ebony 50 years ago is nothing like ebony today where the vast majority of what passes for ebony is either NOT ebony or of such questionable picked through, stabilized or inadequately dried "ebony".
Don't even think about how the world's supply of slow growing instrument grade ebony was squandered on instruments that are now landfill.
If good builders begin using and singing the praises of sustainable woods and synthetic alternatives, and good players support and endorse those builders, it will become the New Ebony. Truly, better and more long lasting guitars can become the norm.
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My son has a Vigier bass with Richlite fretboard. It looks and feels like ebony with coating to me (which is positive !)
How does this material behave if you have to refret ?
Does anybody have an experience of that ?
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I have a US made Martin GPCPA4 from ca. 2015. The Richlite fretboard is perfect.
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Not opposed to synthetic fretboards at all. I'm just not gonna pay Gibson prices and get countertop material when there are more collectible actual ebony boards for the same money on the used market.
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Yup. It's a dream. The synthetics hold a tang solid, no inconsistencies of groove width and in a refret where you ALWAYS lose grain as the old dried grain pulls apart, no such affliction. Smooth fret tang release, pull, wedge, out. At least in the ones I've worked with. New frets go in solid, like new wood.
Originally Posted by 339 in june
I've only done a few but it's consistent. For my experience at least. The stuff doesn't get old and brittle, doesn't shrink over time, doesn't widen and require setting assistance, in my repairs so far. I can only wish wood were so easy to work with.
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Although all of my guitars are pretty conventional in terms of finish colors, a cool thing about richlite is that you can get it in some spectacular colors. If you really want to make a statement with a guitar a cool fretboard color could be awesome IMHO.
BTW, I had a Hagstrom for a while that had a richlite fretboard. Very nice feel.
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Even if the Richlite board is functionally better than the ebony board? And I suspect that may actually be the case ... more stable, less wear, less cracking, less chipping, more consistent appearance and maybe even feels better. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I would rather have a something that plays and sounds like ebony (no matter what is is made of) then the newer guitars that I have with “ebony” fretboards. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
I have played real ebony fretboard and they sound and feel a lot different then what passes for ebony now.
I think my epoxy fretboard on my Parker Fly Deluxe is closer to ebony then my ebony fretboard on my Eastman Romeo LA. The LA plays and sounds more like rosewood then a tight grain ebony.
I miss my LP Custom (that was stolen in the 80s). That had a nice ebony board. Have not really come across another ebony board like that in a long time.
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What put me off Richlite was the dull greyish black, that Gibson was getting with theirs when they tired it in the 2000's.
It just didn't look good (imo).
If others have managed to give it a nicer black polished look, that would be fine. I'm not a big fan of the tone wood debate anyway.
I think they use it to make skateboard ramps and kitchen tops. If it's good for the environment, I'm all for that.
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I had a Godin electric classical for awhile that had the Richlite board and it was perfectly fine and I'm an ebony snob - won't have anything else - hate rosewood fingerboards of any sort, but the Richlite is OK by me. Been thinking of ordering a Tele neck from Parklane Guitars in New Jersey and Richlite is an option and I might go that route instead of curly maple.
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Curious what you didn't like about Rosewood? Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
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Purely cosmetic - to me it looks cheap and not as rich as ebony. Keeps a lot of otherwise nice guitars out of my hands. I will only own ebony/Richlite or maple. Probably stupid but we all have our quirks. Originally Posted by Sleeko
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Good rosewood has a very distinct resonance. It's used to make marimba bars. It sings and when it's mated to a warm wood like honduran mahogany, it can impart a musicality that the sheer density of ebony can't, IMHO. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
It has taken on an association of cheapness simply because ebony was less easily found and harvested and therefore commanded a higher price when you couldn't just cut a road into the middle of a rain forest and fell a huge tree that would give you thousands of fingerboards and guitars.
That was initially the marketing criteria, but as with many things, commercial prestige has its own logic and can be divergent from function, utility or even musicality.
So much to the degree that guitar makers know that they can take a cheaper wood, dye it, plasticize it under pressure (stabilize) and sell it at an even higher price than a pure more musical wood, simply for the way it looks.
We have desires, and a concept of beauty is often stronger than the purpose it was designed for. We're only human in the end. Do we love a pretty face? Would we marry for it? It happens. Who wrote the book of love?
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Check out these Emerald guitars-all carbon fibre guitars:
Kestrel - Emerald Guitars
Look at other pages on the site as well. Rather impressive.
Also see:
TEN REASONS why I (as a professional musician) changed to a carbon fibre viola
Looks like the future is already here.
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If we were talking a 1-1.5k guitar that I was gonna gig hard then it wouldn't matter. Might even prefer richlite/micarta for the stability. It's not the board that bothers me, it's the lack of discount. At 5k for a ES355? I couldn't bring myself to buy a richlite board. There's too much money involved and the payback is greater if I just seek the ebony board. When I die, my wife would get better money for a guitar with an ebony board. Being of lesser means, I think about things like that. If the richlite model were priced a thousand or two lower, no problem. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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I think the difference in production cost is about $20 to $30. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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We all have our choice of how we dispose of our income.
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Quite so. I just wish it didn't have such a powerful influence on widespread production decisions, suppressing innovation and improvement but it is what it is. Originally Posted by sgosnell
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I wish I had a billion dollars. Our odds are about the same.
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You're almost certainly right. Originally Posted by sgosnell
I wish I had a billion dollars. Our odds are about the same.
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I retired from a major manufacturing company and after initial release of a product we scoured the bill of material (parts list) to cost reduce the product and save a nickle here and a dime there. Twenty or thirty dollars per unit is a HUGE number. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Anyway, I have a Les Paul Supreme that is truly Supreme and it has Richlite. In my case I bought it brand new for around the price of a LP standard because I suspect players couldn't get past the fact that it has a richlite board.
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I'd have no problem with Richlite
I also have no problem with Pao Ferro which is always lambasted by guitar nerdo types.Last edited by DRS; 11-04-2023 at 11:19 AM.
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This morning I ordered the guitar with the Richlite board that inspired me to start this thread. I can't say it was a deciding factor but I did consider it to be one of the positives.
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