Fretboards for Acoustic Guitars

Fretboards are like the handle and trigger of a gun. If you don't hold it right or the trigger is too soft, you won't be able to shoot accurately. This is a similar situation with an acoustic guitar, if the fretboard is not smooth or dense enough, the notes, playability, and tone will not come out the way that you would want them to. There are various types of solid woods that can be used for fretboards. The woods that we supply at Wood-n-Guitars for fretboards are Cocobolo Rosewood, Granadillo, and Macacauba A.K.A. Coyote. Other woods used for fretboards on acoustic guitars are Ebony, Indian Rosewood, Ziricote, Palo Escrito, Honduran Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood, Walnut, Palo Escrito, Pau Ferro, and much more.

Choosing the right fretboard for your next guitar project or even if you just want to change the fretboard on your current playing guitar, is an important decision. You will have to decide on what tone you want it to deliver, the figure it should have (quartersawn or figured), how dense it is and its weight. There are types of woods, such as Granadillo (56 lbs/ft³), that are very dense but don't weigh as much as others such as the Rosewood family. Granadillo is known the be the "wood that sings" due to it's bright and high quality tone. The best type of Granadillo fretboards to use are straight quartersawn blanks, they make for easy transitions and they are the most dense of its species.

Cocobolo Rosewood fretboards are the most sought after blanks in the market right now, especially for bass guitars. Cocobolo is known for its bassy and deep tone, it's very dense and does have some weight on it (69 lbs/ft³ or 1,095 kg/m³). Cocobolo Rosewood fretboards are favored for their striking beauty and pearl white sapwood. When slab sawn, the blanks tend to display very aesthetic figures. There have been a few times that I've seen faces on the fretboards with other weird artwork. The wood gives out sharp black streaks across the blank and sometimes they might curl. It's recommended to purchase straight quartersawn Cocobolo Rosewood fretboards to get the best value out of the wood. Cocobolo Rosewood is a wood that tends to warp so when purchasing slab sawn fretboards, make sure that they have been properly seasoned. If your strings ever start buzzing, your neck might be warped due to the fretboard, believe me I've seen this happen many times.

Macacauba or, as we like to call it, "Coyote" is a fairly new wood to the fretboard world. Macacauba is very similar to Granadillo in density and weight (59 lbs/ft³) but is a little easier to work with. The smell characteristics of Macacauba are remarkable, when cutting Macacauba, the smell resembles that of cotton candy or something sweet in nature. The wood is very stable and delivers a nice tap tone. Macacauba fretboards are not easy to come by online , but here at Wood-n-Guitars, we have plenty to go around. The price of this wood in fretboards should be about the same as Granadillo. You can pay around $20usd for a first grade straight quartersawn fretboard. This wood is definitely enjoyable to work with.

Different species of fretboards have their own characteristics and reason for use. Investigating what kind of fretboard suites your needs best would be very wise before building or purchasing a wooden guitar. Electric and Acoustic guitars have distinct uses, which is why species of wood that are used on electric guitars might not work for acoustic guitars. To get the tone that you desire out of a wood guitar, you must pick out the woods that will deliver that tone. Not only in back and sides, but also the top, fretboard, and even the bridge blank. We have a variety of figured and quartersawn fretboards for you to choose from on our online store. Our inventory keeps renewing on a weekly basis to give you fresh products. When purchasing figured fretboards from us, you should have no worries. Our Luthier supplies go through an extensive drying process and only fully seasoned fretboards are sold. You can even ask to have a bridge blank match a fretboard of your choice in color and figure. Don't hesitate to contact us for custom fretboard orders as well.