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Why Won't PRS Use Ebony Fingerboards On Their Guitars?
It really rankles
me that PRS refuses to offer Ebony fingerboards. I mean what's the deal, I
thought PRS was supposed to be a Premium High End Guitar?
Well Excuuuse Meeee!!! Ok there is a reason and here it is:
Since most people
don't know, I must first state the fact that PRS is an entirely machine made
guitar.
"PRS Guitars Are Entirely
Machine Made"
got that... are you sure?
Ok, because when the
next time you are in a
Sam Ash Store or a Guitar Center, the 17 year
old
commissioned sales boy
automaton will more than likely tell you it is entirely
hand made
with violins playing in the background.
That's BS to the
tenth power!!! He's not necessarily lying, he's just ignorant. Ok, enough bashing of
ignorant salespeople and on with the show.
If you use an automated fret installation system that rams the frets down into
the fingerboard there is a very good chance you will split the ebony. In fact I
have seen it done at the old PBC Guitar shop in Pennsylvania when they were
Ghost building all of the Ibanez USA guitars back in the mid 90's.
Consequently, I don't think that PRS will be
doing any ebony fretboards now or in the future. They are concentrating more on
automation than on hand building.
When I took the tour of the Jackson factory, I
saw a custom made machine for pressing the frets in, but they were hand
installing each one when I was there. They have semi automated it and therefore
they have achieved an intelligent balance between hand made and robotic made.
Instead of ramming the frets in like most systems I have seen, They were
chattering them in. They actually vibrated the frets until they sank
slowly into the wood.
All of the small builders are installing & hand
fitting frets one at a time. This process is time consuming and requires skill, This gives the hand builder the definite edge.
Ebony is a great wood for fingerboard. It
costs about 11 times as much as Rosewood
but
on many guitars I like it better. There are only a couple of exceptions.
Ebony on a Les Paul style guitar is not the
preferred fingerboard. The guitar just does not sound like a Les Paul when there
is an Ebony fingerboard. Zack Wylde, Peter Frampton, & Ace Frehley to name a few
use Ebony fretboards on Les Paul's but their sound is not the true Les Paul
sound.
Ebony sounds great on a guitar with a long neck,
it's more percussive, as long as you don't have a real hard wood body like solid
Maple or solid Bubinga it makes for a great tonal combination.
Good tone is derived from combining different
woods. We hang up fingerboards, & body woods & tap them for resonance &
pitch. Most small hand builders will at least attempt to marry the different
woods together sometimes in thirds, fifths or in unison pitch. I am sure Paul
Reed Smith was doing that in the first 2 to 3 years they were building their
guitars. I am positive they are not doing it today.
Ed Roman
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