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It machines much like wood, it rings like a bit of wood, it's very consistent... just a shame it's so dull looking.
Really, I can't see a legit excuse that's obvious, other than the greed angle. Taylor mills most of the world's easily moveable ebony and they sell to everyone, other manufacturers and wood suppliers alike (as well as using it for themselves of course). Maybe Henry J pissed off Bob T somewhere along the line and they got cut off...
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
bob's done a lot for the acceptance of streaky ebony, but I reckon most custom owners still want solid black. The obvious answer is to suck up to Taylor and dye the stuff.
Richlite is okay though. I just don't find it massively exciting and would need to refret a few more before I am convinced. I have had a few bits, and the offcuts had none of the strength of ebony and delaminated when I was breaking it up
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I have no issue with that or any other synthetic material for fretboards, if it saves the planet a couple of trees that could otherwise have stayed standing, I'm happy with that. I don't think it makes that much of a difference to the instrument itself.
Plus, surely if it's a manufactured material it's possible to get a bunch of weird and wonderful finishes from it and make it look cool? You could do a multi-coloured swirly Ibanez with a multi-coloured swirly fretboard, for example.
They're only guitars FFS.
at this point I still prefer hardwood, even sustainable ones, to paper and resin.
what we really need is more sustainable woods impregnated with coloured resin. Maple can be any colour you need it to be, and harder than ebony. It has more strength than richlite because of the wood grain.
are these resin and wood/paper solutions actually better for the environment? I don't actually know
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I've manufactured elephants' feet umbrella stands as a sideline for some years - and have got four out of each elephant - but due to the world-wide ban on ivory-trading, I have no option but to simply throw the tusks away.
It seems a terrible waste to me....
Seems a bit off that you can get Ebony on a Chapman but not a Gibson.
Hey ho Gibson on so many levels is in denial.
Gibson must have run out and lost it all in the Federal raid they suffered some years ago now.
Bob Taylor took control over a large chunk of the supply and realised a lot of good, but not perfectly black ebony was being left on the forest floors. It was a ridiculous amount, iirc about 80% was rejected before it left the forest.
Taylor basically said we can still have ebony, but we need to accept streaks.
They now now have a lot of control over the ebony market from source upwards
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