Pao Ferro

WezV

ICBM said:

Here's a good comparison - 

In fairness, as they are raw boards both will go a shade or two darker once finish sanded and oiled.  

Some rosewood will be a similar colour to the pau ferro in that pic, but very little Pau ferro will be as dark as the rosewood

noisepolluter

hotpickups said:

noisepolluter said:

Came up lovely on my mate’s new Epi Dot.

https://flic.kr/p/2itsTX1

Did you stain that @noisepolluter ?

No @hotpickups , just some lemon oil after giving the frets a serious polish. 

Before that the board looked a fair bit lighter and almost grey, with far less contrast in the grain, and was oddly shiny. It looked like wood-effect lino! Came up a treat though, should have done a before/after photo really.

hotpickups

noisepolluter said:

hotpickups said:

noisepolluter said:

Came up lovely on my mate’s new Epi Dot.

https://flic.kr/p/2itsTX1

Did you stain that @noisepolluter ?

No @hotpickups , just some lemon oil after giving the frets a serious polish. 

Before that the board looked a fair bit lighter and almost grey, with far less contrast in the grain, and was oddly shiny. It looked like wood-effect lino! Came up a treat though, should have done a before/after photo really.

I’ll do that to mine next time I change strings then @noisepolluter  

noisepolluter

hotpickups said:

noisepolluter said:

hotpickups said:

noisepolluter said:

Came up lovely on my mate’s new Epi Dot.

https://flic.kr/p/2itsTX1

Did you stain that @noisepolluter ?

No @hotpickups , just some lemon oil after giving the frets a serious polish. 

Before that the board looked a fair bit lighter and almost grey, with far less contrast in the grain, and was oddly shiny. It looked like wood-effect lino! Came up a treat though, should have done a before/after photo really.

I’ll do that to mine next time I change strings then @noisepolluter  

Good stuff @hotpickups , I reckon you’ll notice a fair difference.

stonevibe

Fender SRV signature models come with Pau Ferro as standard and have done since the '90s. Okay, there are supposedly a few Braz Rosewood 'Holy Grail' versions of that model made with leftover custom shop necks, but the standard models are Pau Ferro.

ICBM

With apologies to Wez, who was the only one who responded... there is something that's not quite what you might expect about that comparison pic above.

*Both* of the pieces are Pau Ferro. The comparison is between light and dark shades of it.

Not my pic, just one I found on the web - https://zerofret.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/pau-ferro-fingerboards/

WezV

And I'm happy to be wrong, because it just shows how unimportant wood species alone is if you ignore it's inherent variability.... You need to judge the bit you have in front of you, not the species name.

WezV

The really weird thing for me is I have know of the wood for at least 20 years and it was always seen as a superior choice to Indian rosewood... Often cited as a good alternative to braz.

Shame that people now see it as inferior just because the species isn't protected

Whitecat

WezV said:

...for at least 20 years and it was always seen as a superior choice to Indian rosewood... Often cited as a good alternative to braz.

Which is exactly the reason the Gibson custom shop used it on their 60th anniversary R9s last year... but they did chicken out and still ran some EIR too.

fretmeister

I have PF on my quite pricey Fender Stu Hamm sig model bass.
It looks great and sounds great.

earwighoney

WezV said:

The really weird thing for me is I have know of the wood for at least 20 years and it was always seen as a superior choice to Indian rosewood... Often cited as a good alternative to braz.

Shame that people now see it as inferior just because the species isn't protected

I think a lot of people see it be inferior as it's lighter than EIR.

As for it being protected, even though EIR is on CITES it's largely plantation grown whilst PF AFAIK isn't.  I went out to India last year and pretty much right in front of my cousin's house there were was a Honduran Mahogany tree and on the other side of the road there were quite a few EIR trees. 

Back to PF, I had a nylon string guitar with PF back and sides and it was the best sounding guitar I've ever come across.  I stupidly sold it though

WezV

Yeah, I have been India and seen the rosewood industry there .. Shame I couldn't sneak a log or two back.  

It's a shame people think paler means lower quality.  A lot of good old braz shares the reddish tones of Pau ferro ... 

WezV

Here are some braz examples

https://i.imgur.com/1usF0k1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/enZYoLp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vxcyCaW.jpg

The pale boring straight grained one is far superior to the other two.  It also happens to be on a 40's Martin.  Braz like that is almost impossible to find these days.  It will have been a big straight tree to produce a quarter sawn back set like that.  It will be stiffer and stronger.

The dark one is very nice, but more flatsawn.

The pale figured one is pretty much stump wood.   It will still be good, but a lot more unpredictable and won't have the stiffness of the others.  

Babones

WezV said:

It's a shame people think paler means lower quality.  

That's not my thought, personally. Maybe others. I just don't like the pale, streakyness or 'orangeness' of PF. It's not what I want aesthetically. While I use guitars as tools, they are also (beautiful) objects to me.  

WezV

It's okay to not want the look, no one will force it on you.  

I will say that all woods end up brown in the end, more so if it's played in the open than kept in a case.. Any orangness will darken over time, streakiness evens out a bit.   It's quite annoying when you are after the bright colours  in woods like purple heart, paduak and even stuff like cocobolo which can be very red

crunchman

ICBM said:

With apologies to Wez, who was the only one who responded... there is something that's not quite what you might expect about that comparison pic above.

*Both* of the pieces are Pau Ferro. The comparison is between light and dark shades of it.

Not my pic, just one I found on the web - https://zerofret.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/pau-ferro-fingerboards/

The Brazilian Rosewood board on my old PRS was lighter in colour than either of those.

soma1975

So if one was getting a 2 piece Strat neck built today with what is available would you go Pau Ferro or Indian Rosewood?  

earwighoney

soma1975 said:

So if one was getting a 2 piece Strat neck built today with what is available would you go Pau Ferro or Indian Rosewood?  

IMO either what you think looks the best or IMO (a generalisation) PF looks like a rosewood but in terms of sound I'd say it adds a bit brightness like Ebony or Maple, EIR adds a bit more warmth (that is if you think the fretboard makes a difference)

JayGee

fretmeister said:

I have PF on my quite pricey Fender Stu Hamm sig model bass.
It looks great and sounds great.

Bass players have always been a bit[1] more adventurous than guitarists - I seem to recall Pau Ferro being listed as a premium option by some bass manufacturers a few years back...

[1] The proverbial metric fuckton in fact...

carlos

Can I just say that Pao Ferro means Iron Bread, whereas Pau Ferro means Iron Wood. Don't mind me, as you were.