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Just Curious,
Has anyone ever used snakewood as a fretboard? Is it a high dampening wood like ebony, or is it closer to rosewood? Anyone have pictures of a snakewood fretboard? TIA!
Tracy

No idea what it's like as far as tone, but it looks amazing....

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[QUOTE=tl507362] Just Curious,
Has anyone ever used snakewood as a fretboard? Is it a high dampening wood like ebony, or is it closer to rosewood? Anyone have pictures of a snakewood fretboard? TIA!
Tracy[/QUOTE]

I saw a Linc Luthier all-Snakewood, solid body electric guitar, at the '96 NAMM and talked with the builder about it. He said, as I recall, it took three years to build this guitar because of it's cracking as soon as it came out of climate control, and having to go back for more climatization. Looked bloody amazing!! I mean everything was made of Snakewood on that thing! I've held a Snakewood fretboard blank and also worked a bit with the stuff for inlays, and my best guess is that it would probably act more like Ebony than Indian Rosewood, but maybe most like a Brazilian Rosewood. It's super glassy sounding when tapped.

Rob

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Thanks Rob! I haven't seen you around lately, where you been?
Tracy

I have one on a neck that is the finish area right now. It is still masked up so you can't see it right now I will snap photos of it later.

Oh I just found a shot of it in early stages.

I have pictures of snakewood fretboards for sale on my website. $125.each

Thanks John for sharing that pic. That is a beautiful guitar, and I love the fretboard. Do you think it will affect the tone? How hard was it to work with the inlay and fret slots? Did it split while working with it?

Brad, I think your #1 quality fretboards are THE most gorgeous fretboards I have ever seen. When I put a one on a guitar, I'll be sure to get it from you! Thanks for sharing.
Tracy

Very cool guitar John. I love the brown down the center and the inlay, very classy

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I have built one violin and one cello bow with snakewood, have used it as headplates and only once as a fingerboard for a classical guitar. I have not attempted snakewood bindings but have seen them once.

It is an amazingly beautiful wood but very prone to cracking and can be very unstable. I keep my fingerboard stock sealed with anchorseal and wrapped in clear plastic wrap until I start to build with it as I have lost more wood to cracking than I have used until I started keeping it stabilized until use. Once I installed the fingerboard I have had good success with it.

On thing to note is that it is a very scarce and precious wood so it is usually priced by the pound, with alot of waste.

It dampens similar to ebony (less but closer to ebony than rosewood) but glassy tone is definitely the way to describe it.

For the bows, once I got pieces that were stable and straight, they worked nicely. It was tough to get blanks that were straight and good figure. It is a small diameter tree so sizes of pieces are usually small.

When you factor in the amount of waste you go through to get a decent fingerboard blank, you will see that Brad Goodman's #1 quality snakewood fingerboards are a very good price. His #1 is maximum figure that one other wood can duplicate. The #2 is still better than what you typically find elsewhere. #1 is a very good price for premo quality, #2 if it is good enough figure for you is an awesome price.

One thing about bows, while pernambuco is the preferred wood for bows, premium bows have long been made of snakewood. It has always been reserved for the flashiest of bows. Sometimes bowmakers would try to disguise the wood in their bows to make it look (under finish) like it was snakewood by painting on the dots of figure!!

It has been a while since I worked on that guitar with the snakewood fretboard. I did the finish on it and let it sit for months. I am just starting to work on it again. I do remember going through a few pieces of snakewood trying to get a good piece for the bridge blank. The inlay on the fretboard was not too bad, but then again the inlay pattern is nothing special. I will have to take another look at it once I get the fretboard un-masked.

I am not sure what a snakewood fretboard will do to tone. Then again I would not comment on tone for an ebony fretboard vs rosewood because: 1, I am not really great at describing tone and 2, there are just soooo many things interacting on a guitar changing a relatively passive (accoustically speaking) part would be tough to pin down how it impacts tone. (I bet you rather an answer like ..."It make the sound much fatter or richer..." for whatever those mean

Here is the body just sanded out. Sheese I gotta finish that one ... (sorry about the dust)



I have been using snakewood for bindings quite a bit lately. I just did a floretine cutaway with snakewood appointment. It also makes nice rosettes.

I just slotted my #2 board I got from Brad. This stuff is as hard as rock! I thought ebony was hard but nothing like snakewood. I slot with the LMI manual set up and it was really hard work to slot that board. I lost a few teeth on my Japanese pull saw but still got the board slotted. I think it is the ultimate fretboard wood. Or the ultimate wood for that matter. I am working on a guitar that is to have SW fretboard, bridge, headplate, binding and Waverlys with SW buttons. I will post pics when it is done.

Josh

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Josh House

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[QUOTE=tl507362] Thanks Rob! I haven't seen you around lately, where you been?
Tracy[/QUOTE]

Hey Tracie, been pretty busy and not able to log on as much as I'd like.

Rob

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