MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (LP pg. 3, PP JM pg. 6)

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:53 pm

Surfysonic wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:41 pm
Congrats! I've been impressed with some Epi's of late. I'm GASsing for an Epi Les Paul Special even though I really don't need one since I have my Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute...but the Epi version is very nice. A friend stopped by a few weeks back and brought his over to compare with my Gibby. Thicker neck on the Epi but both sounded great. Compared to the Gibson Les Paul Special (not the Tribute), I'd rather get the Epi.
I had a free afternoon and ant and played Gibbys and Epis and man, with this one, at least, Epiphone has made a better Les Paul than Gibson can at $2K, all IMO, of course. The finish is super-thin poly and not nitro, but it feels better than the open pore nitro Gibson does on the low end stuff.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by MKR » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:00 pm

Maggieo wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Indian Laurel, which I like a whole lot more than Pao Ferro. It looks and feels more like Rosewood, IMO.
I’m with you there. I’ll never understand why guitar manufacturers started putting pau ferro on some pretty expensive guitars. Don’t get me wrong there are some with nice grains and some are darker, but for the most part they make a nice guitar feel cheaper and lower end. Indian laurel looks much better on average. Yours looks awesome. I thought it was rosewood.

I got lucky with the xii I bought today. It’s pau ferro but a darker variety so it looks fine.

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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:11 pm

MKR wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:00 pm
Maggieo wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Indian Laurel, which I like a whole lot more than Pao Ferro. It looks and feels more like Rosewood, IMO.
I’m with you there. I’ll never understand why guitar manufacturers started putting pau ferro on some pretty expensive guitars. Don’t get me wrong there are some with nice grains and some are darker, but for the most part they make a nice guitar feel cheaper and lower end. Indian laurel looks much better on average. Yours looks awesome. I thought it was rosewood.

I got lucky with the xii I bought today. It’s pau ferro but a darker variety so it looks fine.
I didn't know it was Indian Laurel until I look up the specs, to be honest. So much for being a scholar of the electric guitar, huh? :fp:

Congrats on the XII!!!! Glad you got a good-looking Pao Ferro! How does it feel under your fingers? I played a Vintera Strat and it was as dry as the Sahara.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Embenny » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:49 pm

MKR wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:00 pm
I’m with you there. I’ll never understand why guitar manufacturers started putting pau ferro on some pretty expensive guitars. Don’t get me wrong there are some with nice grains and some are darker, but for the most part they make a nice guitar feel cheaper and lower end. Indian laurel looks much better on average. Yours looks awesome. I thought it was rosewood.

I got lucky with the xii I bought today. It’s pau ferro but a darker variety so it looks fine.
Maggieo wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:11 pm
Congrats on the XII!!!! Glad you got a good-looking Pao Ferro! How does it feel under your fingers? I played a Vintera Strat and it was as dry as the Sahara.
See, this is the thing that irks and confuses me. There is absolutely no reason that Pau Ferro should be a "downgrade" from Indian Rosewood. It's an incredibly beautiful wood that was known to me for many years as a high-end option for the back and sides of acoustic and classical guitars:

Image

Image

Image

So the real question is, "why the hell can't electric guitar builders figure out how to finish Pau Ferro?" I mean, for the longest time it was a "high end" fretboard in the Fender world, as it was used for years on the SRV signature Strat as one of those "you can only get it here or from the Custom Shop" specs meant to make it more appealing.

Having said that, I've got a few cheap guitars with Indian Laurel fretboards, and they're lovely. All of these dark hardwoods function perfectly as fretboards and can look great if just a small amount of effort is put in to finishing them instead of leaving them looking like dry, sawdust-covered blanks fresh off the factory shelf.

Indian Laurel can also be as beautiful as any wood you could ever put on a guitar.

Image

Image

Hopefully Fender and Gibson can get players to realize that they're as nice as anything else that could be on there. I have played a bunch of PF & IL fretboards that have been dry and dusty-feeling. There's really no inherent, wood-related reason for that at all. Your Laurel fretboard on that Les Paul looks gorgeous by the way, Maggie. They should all come looking like that stock.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 6:17 pm

I concur- there is no reason that Pao Ferro shouldn't look as fantastic as Rosewood or Indian Laurel, or, for that matter, my favorite, Padauk!

Those examples you posted are dead-sexy gorgeous. WTF, Fender & Co.?!?!?
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 6:21 pm

I'd like to take a moment to remind folks that the only reason I've got this "Big NGD Thing" going on is because I've sold off a bunch of my photo equipment, and, more significantly, my dad's old working kit. Dad taught me eveything about photography, and even though he was tone-deaf before his 2002 stroke, he supported me playing music 100%. So, I kind of look at these guitars as part of dad's legacy, and that makes them extra-special to me.

Of course, it helps to be a DINK couple. I don't have to send Skippy or Nelivs to college or to that rehab with horses and dolphins and shit.
“Now I am quietly waiting for/ the catastrophe of my personality/ to seem beautiful again.”- Frank O'Hara
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Jun 11, 2021 7:39 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:49 pm


See, this is the thing that irks and confuses me. There is absolutely no reason that Pau Ferro should be a "downgrade" from Indian Rosewood. It's an incredibly beautiful wood that was known to me for many years as a high-end option for the back and sides of acoustic and classical guitars:
I have Pau Ferro on my fretless bass, an inexpensive Player series instrument. I think it's a wonderful fret wood, and it really shines there since it's so tight grained. It's more like ebony in that regard.

I have never found a fingerboard wood that I had any complaints with. This one on Maggie's new guitar looks wonderful.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:28 pm

The only finergboard I haven't cared for is a super-dried-out rosewood one on a really old Jaguar. The blocks were almost falling ft and oil didn't do shit for it. And that was the least of its problems.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by s_mcsleazy » Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:11 am

the first min of this car review is maggie when deciding what guitar to buy
https://youtu.be/NLBHDjlpm1A

i approve of the brown
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by MKR » Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:11 am

mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:49 pm


See, this is the thing that irks and confuses me. There is absolutely no reason that Pau Ferro should be a "downgrade" from Indian Rosewood. It's an incredibly beautiful wood that was known to me for many years as a high-end option for the back and sides of acoustic and classical guitars:



So the real question is, "why the hell can't electric guitar builders figure out how to finish Pau Ferro?" I mean, for the longest time it was a "high end" fretboard in the Fender world, as it was used for years on the SRV signature Strat as one of those "you can only get it here or from the Custom Shop" specs meant to make it more appealing.
It's because we have been conditioned to prefer darker fretboards. At least i know i have. Rosewood looks a certain way (on a fretboard) and that's what we've become used to to for decades, so when you see a pale ashy light brown it just looks abnormal. Like it sort of looks right, but it ultimately looks off.

Those examples you posted of the backs and sides look great but also it's because they're larger surfaces and really show off the grains. By all accounts pau ferro does have really striking grain patterns more so than rosewood (?), so i can see how on guitar bodies it would look cool. My casino has a pretty cool grain pattern which i like, but it still bugs me that most the fretboard is a lighter shade of brown than i am used to.

Guitar builders should IMO stick to darker varieties on fretboards (as i am sure they try to) to keep with guitar buyers inherent preferences. I can see how they are less picky on low range mexican made fenders and will use less desirable pieces on those models.

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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by MKR » Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:14 am

Maggieo wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:11 pm


Congrats on the XII!!!! Glad you got a good-looking Pao Ferro! How does it feel under your fingers? I played a Vintera Strat and it was as dry as the Sahara.
thanks! it is on the dryer side, but it feels pretty normal when playing. NOw that you mention it. I regret not putting some lemon oil down when i had the neck off. I am less tempted to loosen 12 strings than i would on a normal 6 string lol.

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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Scout » Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:20 am

Doesn’t anybody treat their fingerboards? I always clean and oil as part of a string change or when
getting a new to me guitar, most of the rosewood family fingerboards respond great to a little
lemon oil rubbed in. I thought it was common practice.

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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:49 am

Scout wrote:
Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:20 am
Doesn’t anybody treat their fingerboards? I always clean and oil as part of a string change or when
getting a new to me guitar, most of the rosewood family fingerboards respond great to a little
lemon oil rubbed in. I thought it was common practice.
I do, yes. About once a year, maybe more, I will put some oil on the fretboard (not my one guitar with ebony fretboard, though).

And when I get a new guitar I always oil that. Frankly, I've noticed that guitar makers ship guitars out bone dry these days, especially Gibson. I really don't think they oil the fingerboards at any level at the factory anymore.
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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Scout » Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:07 am

I wouldn’t think they would oil them at the factory, imagine the stench and staining
when they open a freshly shipped guitar. Any of the new sustainable woods are a great and well
researched option for the true rosewoods, of course an unfinished fingerboard will never have the
pop of a side and back set on a high end acoustic that’s been highly finished but with a little time and oil,
even body oil, it will get a nice luster and feel.

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Re: MNGD: Multiple New Guitar Days! (first one has arrived! pg. 3)

Post by Maggieo » Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:58 am

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:11 am
the first min of this car review is maggie when deciding what guitar to buy
https://youtu.be/NLBHDjlpm1A

i approve of the brown
:D :D :D :D :D

God, I love RCR!!!
“Now I am quietly waiting for/ the catastrophe of my personality/ to seem beautiful again.”- Frank O'Hara
I am not an attorney and this post is for entertainment purposes only. Please consult a licensed attorney in your state for legal advice.

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