Will Fender stop using Pau Ferro with the CITES ban being lifted?

[El Pelo]

Are the dark years of Pau Ferro possibly behind us?

Anytime I look at guitars, if I see Pau Ferro I'm out. I love a good dark rosewood fretboard!

What are the chances Fender will switch back to Rosewood? There are quite a few MIM guitars that could benefit.

[601210]

I'd be very surprised. Even with regulations being lifted, it's probably still more sustainable and cheap to acquire than rosewood (at least until we as a species run those to the ground, too).

Probably more importantly, it gives Fender an easy way to stratify models: you want rosewood, get an MIA.

[El Pelo]

...you want rosewood, get an MIA.

There is some truth to that!

[BoringPostcards]

I don't have any issues with Pau Ferro. I think it's a fine looking wood. It does look odd matched up with certain body finishes.

Custom builders have been using it on high end instruments for a long time and nobody seemed to care.

[Danley]

I don't have any issues with Pau Ferro. I think it's a fine looking wood. It does look odd matched up with certain body finishes.

Custom builders have been using it on high end instruments for a long time and nobody seemed to care.

Pau Ferro - I like the stuff. More interesting looking than Rosewood. And yeah - maybe if they go back to Rosewood, Pau Ferro will again only be offered as a fancy upcharge wood

[Embenny]

I remember PF being the "special" wood only used on the SRV model, and it's been a "high-end" wood in the acoustic guitar world for a long time, so it's funny to see it be stigmatized in the electric guitar world. On the Acoustic Guitar Forum, Indian Rosewood was looked down upon for many years as an inferior choice to ebony for fretboards and bridges, and to all the "sister" rosewood varieties for backs and sides.

I agree that it looks slightly wrong on vintage reissud guitars, just like modern "tort" looks wrong. There aren't any true reissues below MIA these days anyway, though, just "vintage-inspired" ones, so I don't see it as an issue personally.

PF and blocks look wrong so I'm not down for any of those necks, but as someone who leans toward either MIA or parts guitars anyway, I don't have much skin in the game I guess.

[daysleeperjeff]

I hope so. PF is good quality material but I can’t stand the look of it.

[Larry Mal]

Pau Ferro is a great fingerboard material, every bit as good as ebony and rosewood from what I can tell. But the Luddites of the guitar world probably won't accept it.

[timtam]

I heard one of the Fender senior staff say somewhere recently that they would probably keep using it. Can't remember where I heard it. I also recall another smaller scale US builder saying recently that the 'good' PF he buys from his US trader was no cheaper than rosewood had been.

But Fender likes to maintain the mystique of certain woods, and charge a premium for them.

[vistavision]

Fender CEO Andy Mooney talks about it in his Reverb interview:
https://reverb.com/news/interview-fende ... of-guitars

"There's a broader range of wood options now than we've ever had before. That seems to have worked. I don't think we're going to revert back to maple, rosewood, and call it a day; I think you're going to see pau ferro and ebony and other woods over time that I think will be incorporated in the line."

Another bit he talks about is Fender had to ship guitars to Europe the long way via the Panama Canal. It took so long to get a CITES certification the shipment otherwise might get to Europe too fast without the paperwork and then be confiscated and destroyed. Yeesh.

[sunburster]

I can't stand PF (the look, the feel, everything). I'll never buy a guitar that has it for a fingerboard. It will be nice if Fender offers more affordable options with rosewood in the near future. I'm cool with ebony too.

I don't care for maple fingerboards on guitars either, but I actually really like them on basses (both the look and the sound -- and yes, I can hear the subtle difference between a rosewood and a maple fingerboard). In contrast, I don't like PF on anything except a tree in the forest.

Thankfully, the American and Japanese Fenders have largely avoided being infiltrated by PF.

[Embenny]

I hope to hell they don't start using a lot of ebony. If people are getting their knickers in a twist over Pau Ferro they sure as hell aren't going to be into Fenders with streaked ebony.

The desire for dark ebony has been an absolute environmental scourge. The fast majority of the tree and the wood cut from it has lots of light, irregular streaks in it. Bob Taylor actually did a lot of good by moving into managing the supply chain and telling guitarists, "this isn't going to be uniform black, sorry, suck it up."

Something like 70-90% of the trees were going to waste because it wasn't worth milling and shipping the light stuff.

Personally, I think it's even more beautiful than the dark stuff, but guitarists are a stuffy bunch and I don't know how this stuff would go over on Fender designs that haven't changed in a half century.



A lot of it is less streaky and dramatic like that and there's huge variation. For example, lots of it can just look like "dirty rosewood" on a fretboard:

[Futuron]

Pau ferro was also used on the Jaco Pastorius fretless bass before the CITES thing, and considered a luxury upgrade feature.

I have nothing against it (though it isn't my favourite), it's often a bit different, sometimes a lot different. Dark rosewood is nice but a bit too plain sometimes. I really like the ebony with the streaks in it.

I hope all 3 keep being used, and not in limited quantities.

[vistavision]

Personally, I think it's even more beautiful than the dark stuff, but guitarists are a stuffy bunch and I don't know how this stuff would go over on Fender designs that haven't changed in a half century.

There's an FSR Am Pro Tele in LPB at my local dealer and it has a gorgeous ebony board with white streaks. It has a black guard and matching headstock which really helps.

[Jaguaruser123]

Pau Ferro is my new favorite. I never was a big fan of Rosewood and preferred Ebony. My least favorite is still Micarta.