Future of pau ferro?

shaunk26

Now that cites restrictions have been relaxed for rosewood what do you think will will happen with Pau ferro fretboards that are on the likes of fender player series models? I wonder if they're here to stay on more affordable guitars. 

S56035

I'm hoping my Vintera Tele will turn out to be a massively successful investment. 

Schnozz

Pau Ferro used to be an upgrade on Rosewood.

Indian Laurel is the one that sucks ass in my opinion - Looks horrid.

That said...Gibson and Fender have been using some limp looking Rosewood for a while now too.

thegummy

I think that, even though Pau Ferro used to be on higher end guitars, the fact that it was brought in as a replacement for rosewood when they weren't allowed to use that has created the idea in a lot of peoples' heads that rosewood is "the real one" and that PF is a poor man's rosewood.

I think Fender will continue to exploit that misconception by having rosewood on their higher end models and pf on the lower end models with the idea that some people will pay extra to get "the proper one".

Personally, every PF board I saw didn't look right when I was used to rosewood and they all seemed to have an orange tint to them. Then I saw a Capri orange bass with the PF neck and the orangeyness of the PF was so perfect so it's become my current most desired instrument.

Whitecat

PF is more expensive per board foot than rosewood... although Fender does appear to buy the dregs.

That said, there are additional expenses and paperwork involved in Fender getting the rosewood in the first place which may offset that additional expense. You can move finished instruments without permits now, but moving raw timber or unfinished blanks still requires paperwork... so perhaps they want to avoid that by keeping rosewood out of Mexico entirely.

sbarker1978

I could imagine the major manufacturers being put off by all of the negative press and legislation surrounding rosewood in general. It may have been granted a temporary reprieve from the powers that be today, but those powers will change in the future. I would guess rosewood won't be part of any major brand's long-term strategic plan. I'm sure we'll get something close that is in a similar family and will have a fancy marketing term like "Icelandic Rosewood" to pitch to the masses. 

jeztone2

Forgive me but my understanding was that Pau Ferro was a totally different wood in terms of its tonal properties? That it was dense and percussive sounding and had more in common with ebony than Rosewood. Which to my ears has a warmer, darker tone. 

thegummy

jeztone2 said:

Forgive me but my understanding was that Pau Ferro was a totally different wood in terms of its tonal properties? That it was dense and percussive sounding and had more in common with ebony than Rosewood. Which to my ears has a warmer, darker tone. 

It seems quite far fetched that the type of wood the fretboard is made of would actually make a noticeable difference to the sound of the guitar.

skullfunkerry

thegummy said:

jeztone2 said:

Forgive me but my understanding was that Pau Ferro was a totally different wood in terms of its tonal properties? That it was dense and percussive sounding and had more in common with ebony than Rosewood. Which to my ears has a warmer, darker tone. 

It seems quite far fetched that the type of wood the fretboard is made of would actually make a noticeable difference to the sound of the guitar.

It's certainly way down in my list of things that affect my decision about buying a guitar. One of the only things lower is "how dark is the fretboard wood?"

Musicman20

I think Musicman used to use Pau Ferro on their Musicman Stingray fretless bass fretboards. 

I think Sadowsky also use it, and have done for some time, for the majority of their basses, and they usually are high end basses.

Whitecat

Musicman20 said:

I think Musicman used to use Pau Ferro on their Musicman Stingray fretless bass fretboards. 

I think Sadowsky also use it, and have done for some time, for the majority of their basses, and they usually are high end basses.

There are loads of examples of top luthiers who love Pau Ferro and use it often. Just off the top of my head I can think of John Suhr, Chris Kroenlein (K-Line), Grover Jackson, the late Mike Lipe was also a proponent - heck, even Gibson Custom used it as an alternative fretboard choice on their 60th Anniversary 59 Les Paul run because their luthiers claimed that "it sounds more like Brazilian rosewood than EIR" (to paraphrase - it's in an article somewhere on Guitar.com).

Unfortunately, Fender's decision to blanket slap-it-on-all-the-Mexican models has probably tarnished its image as a premium wood which used to be an upgrade/upcharge over rosewood in most shops.

ICBM

thegummy said:

It seems quite far fetched that the type of wood the fretboard is made of would actually make a noticeable difference to the sound of the guitar.

But it does .

It’s another of those subtle but distinctive differences which is quite noticeable once you hear it - I’m pretty sure it’s almost all down to the hardness. Ebony is the most different from the other woods, there’s less between maple and rosewood.

Pau Ferro is somewhere between rosewood and ebony. As already said it’s actually a premium wood which is traditionally seen as an upgrade from rosewood. Guitarists can go back to cheap rosewood and leave the Pau Ferro for bass players now .