Poplar Fretboard

[Nitefly SA]

Is it possible to make a fretboard out of poplar? I mean, I know it is possible but is it practical? will it just fall apart or anything? Thanks for any information.

[prauny]

Is it possible to make a fretboard out of poplar? I mean, I know it is possible but is it practical? will it just fall apart or anything? Thanks for any information.

I dont see why it should'nt work mate. If it can stand the strain of having the string tention as a body, it should be fine as a fret board. I dont know how it would effect the sound though.

Edited September 15, 2006 by prauny

[unclej]

Is it possible to make a fretboard out of poplar? I mean, I know it is possible but is it practical? will it just fall apart or anything? Thanks for any information.

not to start an argument but i'm not sure poplar is dense enough to stand up to the wear. not the strain of the string tension but the actuall physical wear of making chords. one of the reasons maple, ebony and rose wood are the standards is that they are very hard and last under that kind of use. someone may disagree with me but i'm not sure poplar's that tough.

would be kinda cool looking though. i've seen some nice color differences in poplar.

[deadmike]

im just thinking aloud here:

but what if you scaloped the intire fret board, the strings would never touch the board in order to wear it out?

i think weve done ebony and rosewood to death, time for change!!

[Matt]

Right simple answer

Poplar is very bad idea

becasue its about similar to alder, it just doesn't have the right characteristics to sound any good as a FB. You could try it but in my view, to put all the effort that goes into making a FB in the first place, you might as well use a decent wood such as ebony, rosewood maple or any other hard, dense wood.

Im making my Jem out of poplar, and while I think/hope it will be good for the body, I really wouldn't use it for the FB.

Anyway just hope this helps

Matt

[Nitefly SA]

Scalloped would be really cool. Well, It is going to be and odd length, fanned fret FB so I need a place where I can get a board like 4 incehes wide and 36 inches long. at home depot the have poplar which may work (may used lightly) and pine which flat out WOULD NOT work.. There's always oak, thats hard and stable, would oak work?

[jay5]

Oak would probably want to move on you quite a bit. Why not stick with the proven fb woods? Poplar would be a bad idea IMO. Rosewqood, maple and ebony have "been done to death" because they work.

[Nitefly SA]

My issue is with availability, i need a board 4 inches wide and 36 inches long, and I wouldn't know where to find sych a board, I'd go with mple though if I could find the right size piece.

[SwedishLuthier]

There's always oak, thats hard and stable, would oak work?

Robban Sahrling from Ares Guitars www.aresguitar.se, a fellow Swedish Luthier, uses Oak as a fretboard wood a lot with good results. He’s opinion is that it is somewhere between Ebony and Rosewood sound wise. It has the attack from the ebony and the warmth of rosewood.

Edited September 16, 2006 by SwedishLuthier

[prs man]

I would say to stay away from poplar I think it is to soft for a finger board.

it however would be cool in a body [paint grade]

oak finger board sound interesting I will have to keep that in mind.

[Mattia]

Poplar's way too soft, IMO, and not even mainly because of string wear issues; I'm not sure it's solid enough, without some kind of treatment (say acrylic/epoxy/CA glue impregnation, which triples the price or more up front) to hold frets securely. ESPECIALLY if you scallop.

[Ben]

I think Brian May's red special has an oak fingerboard

[Cerb]

The only problem I would see would be the holding of the frets well. The string wear is not an issue, because the strings will almost never touch it anyways unless you have a grip from hell.

[Nitefly SA]

I think I'll go with eiher scalloped or plain oak. It'll be pretty tedious to scallop fanned frets but, the look of them afterwards will be just plain cool.

[custom22]

Also, poplar has a reputation for splitting, and could easily do so during fretting. Definately go with something harder.

[brewu22]

Try this ebay auction number, 330026794930 or do a search on ebay for cocobolo. Hope it helps..

[Richard Felkel]

Rick here. I have restored a LOT of pre-WW2 guitars that had poplar fret boards, and a surprising number of them were still in very good shape. The trick is to cure and seal the wood correctly. I have built about 1,700 instruments to date, and oak is a GREAT wood for fret boards. Again, it is all in the curing and sealing.