Fender announcement. No more rosewood 'boards.

[fretmeister]

https://www.reidys.com/blog/rosewood-no-more-fender-cites-1901/

Pau Ferro is a lovely wood to use instead, but no doubt the rosewood ones will sell out fast now.

[Fisheth]

Saw this coming, looks like I'm keeping my Japanese Precision I was contemplating selling then!

[Trueno]

Yep... been waiting for this. I'm not panicking, though, as long as they don't use it as an excuse to jack up the prices (as if). I wondered if they might use heat-treated maple. Could use wenge, like Warwick, but I don't know how expensive it us. Don't know much about pao ferro. Having once had a phenolic Status neck I'd settle for that any day of the week.


Funnily enough I currently have one bass with a maple board and one with an ebony board... don't have any rosewood.

[Cato]

I was suprised that most of the new Yamaha BB range have rosewood boards.

I expect every manufacturer with an export market will stop using rosewood over the next 12 months.

[Machines]

So my prewall Mexi P bass with rosewood board is gonna be worth MEGA BUCKS !!!!!11

Edited April 10, 2017 by Machines

[RhysP]

Pau Ferro is very similar to rosewood. Sadowsky has been using it for donkeys years.

[karlfer]

Even Reidy's are ASSHAT'S!!!!!!

It's not a bloody rosewood neck it's a rosewood FINGERBOARD

ANNNND breathe................

[itsmedunc]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1491849740' post='3275878']
Even Reidy's are ASSHAT'S!!!!!!

It's not a bloody rosewood neck it's a rosewood FINGERBOARD

ANNNND breathe................
[/quote]

Try their price match offer then! They always wriggle out of it!

[Grangur]

I'm sure the main advantage of the rosewood over the replacement timber will only be that rosewood was slightly cheaper per cubic yard.

The tone might possibly be a tad different, but if you don't believe in tonewood then you won't have anything to stress over. That said, if you don't believe in tonewood then why not go for ebonol and a plastic-foam, lightweight body. [/gripe]

[mark76]

I'm not surprised rosewoods's been CITEd. It's so ubiquitous (especially on guitars from Far Eastern manufacturers) that I'm surprised it wasn't done years ago.

[Grangur]

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1491848147' post='3275859']
So my prewall Mexi P bass with rosewood board is gonna be worth MEGA BUCKS !!!!!11
[/quote]

You'll be long gone before you see any difference in the value... IMHO of course.

[Chiliwailer]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1491850862' post='3275891']


The tone might possibly be a tad different, but if you don't believe in tonewood then you won't have anything to stress over. That said, if you don't believe in tonewood then why not go for ebonol and a plastic-foam, lightweight body. [/gripe]
[/quote]

[Muzz]

Never liked rosewood (to look at), can't recall much I've had that had a rosewood board, so it's a big Meh from me, but even now I sense the EBay sellers warming up their keyboards by repeatedly typing ULTRA RARE ROSEWOOD NECK!!!!!

[CamdenRob]

All of my basses have ebony fretboards... not out of choice on my part, they just all came that way 😕

[fretmeister]

Interestingly Peach Guitars are saying that Reidys are using it as a sales ploy and that the Fender Professional Series and AVRI will still have rosewood but the mex, elite, etc won't.

[Manton Customs]

[quote name='mark76' timestamp='1491850911' post='3275894']
I'm not surprised rosewoods's been CITEd. It's so ubiquitous (especially on guitars from Far Eastern manufacturers) that I'm surprised it wasn't done years ago.
[/quote]

It's actually pretty ridiculous, they didn't add the restrictions to protect Indian Rosewood (the Rosewood which 99% of all guitar manufacturers currently use). But it's to protect Brazilian Rosewood and a couple of other rare Rosewoods. So the easy option was to restrict all Rosewoods including the very sustainable IR. The knock on effect of this could be devestating to woods like Ebony. So there will almost certainly be tighter restrictions on Ebony soon also.

Indian Rosewood is one of the most sustainable trees out there, grown in huge plantations. It's in literally no danger. Ebony is.

Brazilian Rosewood is endangered and has been for years. Thats partly due to us guitar/bass player insisting that the original materials Fender/Gibson/Martin used were best and getting so stuck in the past that we can't see forward.

There are other species of Rosewood also but the two above are the ones used most frequently in instruments....just most people stopped using BR years ago.

Edit to say also that it's not that difficult to get the required paperwork (in bulk) for companies like Fender. So I'd be surprised if they stopped all together throughout the range

Edited April 10, 2017 by Manton Customs

[Grangur]

[quote name='Manton Customs' timestamp='1491858226' post='3276000']

Edit to say also that it's not that difficult to get the required paperwork (in bulk) for companies like Fender. So I'd be surprised if they stopped all together throughout the range
[/quote]

But it will give Fender an opportunity to increase the cost for "custom shop" instruments for those looking to still be able to buy a rosewood fingerboard neck. Or is that too cynical?

[drTStingray]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1491859484' post='3276015']


But it will give Fender an opportunity to increase the cost for "custom shop" instruments for those looking to still be able to buy a rosewood fingerboard neck. Or is that too cynical?
[/quote]

Almost certainly not too cynical.

This issue was discussed on the Musicman forum a while back and it emerged that one of the issues this has created is a shortage of the biologists required to certify - creating logistic issues and hold ups shipping product.

Sounds like Fender have taken an alternative route with their regular production - of course they make far more instruments than anyone else so it must have created a huge problem for them.

Edited April 11, 2017 by drTStingray

[Kiwi]

Paul Reed Smith has been critical of the CITES requirements. He says the Indian rosewood he uses comes from salvaged trees auctioned off by the Indian government after monsoons. Failing that he uses plantation grown rosewood from Indonesia. The point he's making is that there's no shortage of rosewood and there are plenty of sustainable supplies available so asks what's the point of the regulation?

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhjOTEbNxU&spfreload=10"]https://www.youtube....xU&spfreload=10[/url]

Skip to 54:30

[fretlessguy]

It is going to be alright, at least for me. I actually prefer maple boards on Fenders.

[margusalviste]

Pau Ferro is an amazing choice. Always loved it.

[blackparkas]

It´s interesting that Reidys saying that "Fender announces".
Has anyone seen Fenders announcement?
It would certainly seem a bit more serious if you show some kind of source...


For some standard guy in Little Rock Arkansas, it´s might not be a problem to get the right papers for his Rosewood fretboard.
But there´s a big difference when you´re trying to get papers for truckloads of RW-logs, and especially so if you´re going to export guitars with that material.
The swedish distributor for Gibson hasn´t got a single guitar this year because of the new regulations.
A lot of other distributors for other brands has the same problem, such as Ibanez etc...

It might not be worth all the paperwork, the time this consumes, to keep having Rosewood on the guitars.

That said.
It´s ridiculous if it would be this hard to trade with RW from plantations and as someone mentioned, salvaged logs from monsoons....
The problem there I guess is that even if Fender/Gibson/Ibanez is doing everything by the book, som jackass in another part of the world will probably keep harvest these woods NOT by the book...

[Grangur]

The people I feel sorry for are the people working on the plantations of Indian Rosewood. The US speaks and all of a sudden all the trees they have been growing for the last 20 years have potentially dropped in price. They might even be worthless! Who's going to pay their food and housing bills now?

[jazzyvee]

All my basses have ebony fingerboards.
Over the years I've avoided rosewood purely on cosmetic grounds on guitars and bass fretboards. I have no idea what the tone benefits are compared to maple or other woods. Well I guess now I'll never know.

[chris_b]

I thought the CITES announcement acknowledged there were many types of rosewood that weren't in danger, but the differences between them and the types that are in danger is so slight that the decision was made to ban all rosewoods so they could protect the stuff that is endangered.

What is needed is a system of provenance that can be policed and then the rules might be amended. If enough Governments get involved then that might happen. It's unlikely to be retrospective and if manufacturers find alternatives the use of rosewood in musical instruments is likely to have come to an end.

The main aim of these regulations isn't the instrument business but the furniture business, which is using tons of illegally logged woods from forests all around the world.