Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

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Shadoweclipse13
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:47 am

Trout wrote:
Tue Aug 20, 2019 2:11 am
Dan, you have a pm :?
You have good taste Trout, and are very much like me in that regard ;D 8)
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Larry Mal
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:53 am

I don't have that much to add here, but I am absolutely impressed with the pau ferro that I've seen and played. It's a great wood, as good as ebony or anything else. If you are at all on the fence about it, jump on it, it's a very nice wood.
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Rgand
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by Rgand » Tue Aug 20, 2019 5:16 am

Man, that's beautiful! Love that Juniorbird design.

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Deed_Poll
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by Deed_Poll » Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:18 am

Cheers for the kind words, guys!

Yes, Pau Ferro is a great all-rounder. The only drawback is one of its strengths - because it exhibits such a wide variety in colour, it's hard to know what you're going to get if you buy sight-unseen. If you're speccing your own Warmoth neck, for instance, or buying a factory guitar from a large online retailer with a Pau Ferro board.

But if you can choose the board by hand, that variety in colour can be an advantage.

I would also have said that its grain pattern is typically very uniform, but these handful of boards show that some variety exists. It just might not be the easiest thing to get hold of boards with unusual grain pattern - it's typically very straight and even grained. A little bit like teak in this regard?

It's also fairly inexpensive, abundant and sustainable (IIRC). I'd be really interested to see how some light torrefaction would change the colour, perhaps towards an old rosewood appearance, since some boards have a tendency to have a lighter honey-like shade which is not unattractive, bit will probably have trouble contrasting with a mahogany or darker neck shaft.

I photographed this board mounted on a dark torrefied maple shaft, I would probably be tempted to finish this neck in body colour ala Gibson rather than natural, but it's horses for courses.
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by Maggieo » Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:09 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:53 am
I don't have that much to add here, but I am absolutely impressed with the pau ferro that I've seen and played. It's a great wood, as good as ebony or anything else. If you are at all on the fence about it, jump on it, it's a very nice wood.
What Larry said.

The pix here are gorgeous.
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UlricvonCatalyst
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Re: Best looking pau ferro I've ever seen...

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Wed Aug 21, 2019 1:34 am

Very interesting write-up (and great pics too). I was dubious about pau ferro (and laurel) boards, knowing nothing about them, but assuming they were a poor relation to rosewood. Probably mainly conservatism on my part. Definitely looks better a few shades darker in my opinion, but I've seen rosewood boards looking too light for my liking too. Will be interested to try out the smoothness for myself some day.

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