American Cherry For A Fingerboard

[balooka]

* I did use the searchfunction as always *

I have some cherry that I used to laminate a mostly mahogany neck with, and I still have alot left over (I'm gonna use it as a top also). Anyway, I did order a fretboard (which is taking a long time to get here I now realise) but I want to use the cherry to make a fretboard that matches the top. Is american cherry good enough for that or is it too soft, or any other reasons why this would probably fail?

TIA

jP

[Doeringer]

I have not used Cherry, so I can't speak from personal experience, BUT... I think it will be too soft. Even if it seems fine when completed, you need to consider the archival qualities for a lasting quality instrument.

Good luck.

[unclej]

what doeringer said..i've use a good bit of cherry to make bodies from and i'm afraid that it wouldn't hold up well on the fretboard..just a little too soft.

[Hunter]

You could finish it, like a maple fretboard, and it would probably hold up well enough... I'm probably wrong though.

[blackburncustomguitars]

Hi,

In my humble opinion, cherry would look cool as a fretboard, but it is WAY too soft for a fretboard. Sorry. It IS a great tone wood, however. I use a lot of it.

Peace,

Dave

[balooka]

ok thanks, too bad it wont work, i'll go with ebony then. Since we're on about cherry anyway and some of you seem to work/have worked with it, can you stain it, let's say, blue or green and keep the grain, like with maple? My soon-to-be-droptop has some nice figure, but if I put some naphta on it, its a tad too brown/warm... if you catch my drift

[fryovanni]

ok thanks, too bad it wont work, i'll go with ebony then. Since we're on about cherry anyway and some of you seem to work/have worked with it, can you stain it, let's say, blue or green and keep the grain, like with maple? My soon-to-be-droptop has some nice figure, but if I put some naphta on it, its a tad too brown/warm... if you catch my drift

←

As far as a fretboard, it is similar to big leaf (or just a bit harder and stronger) but not nearly as hard as Hard Maple, Rosewoods, Ebony. I would hesitate to use it for a fretboard. As far as dye. You won't add brightness, but may be able to add definition or contrast to the figure. Don't expect to get the same results as a piece of white Maple.

Peace,Rich

[verhoevenc]

Cherry fingerboard would look rather cool. And I'm thinking there MAY be ways to do it... and someone back me up here if they agree, or shoot me down here if I'm totally wrong so this guy doesn't go on what I'm saying and it doesn't work.

Either way, you MIGHT be able to epoxy the whole piece, like REALLY get the epoxy down in there with something that starts off very thin, little viscosity, but ends up hard as a rock. Almost like a grain fill, but simply used to reinforce. And like someone mentioned before, adding some finish on top of that might not hurt either. With all that it might work. And there was talk about finishing fretboards earlier, and the verdict was: "why not?" and "Rickenbacker basses are..." and "you can finish necks and fingerboards with super glue." So it might all be worth a try. Someone even mentioned fender goes so far as to finish over the frets! Lol

Chris

[skibum5545]

Cherry might be a little on the soft side, but there are a bunch of red tonewoods that are hard enough; bloodwood, jatoba, and padauk come immediately to mind.

[balooka]

Red tonewoods? Is cherry concidered to be 'red'? Mine is looking pretty pale, and not just on the freshly planed side... Thats also why I asked about the staining process. My brother owns an industrial paintshop and I'm gonna try some stuff on some leftover cherry to see what can be done about the colors.

The laminates are mahogany and cherry...

jP