Ebonol or ebony ? Why ?

[Musicman666]

On 27/04/2023 at 16:34, WinterMute said:

I had a Squire Jazz with an ebanol board, it was ok, didn't have any issues with it, I had an Ebony board on a Wal Pro 1 which I liked a lot, smoother to the touch but it cut up a little more than the Ebanol with round wound strings.

 

I now have an epoxied rosewood defretted SR5 which is lovely, and I had Alan fit an acrylic infused lava bubinga board to my ACG 5 string, which is absolutely perfect, combines the smoothness of ebony with the toughness of both the ebanol and the epoxy coated board.

 

I can't say I can hear much difference with the amount of processing I use, but the feel definitely changes between woods.

 

 

 ..i had a wal pro 1 with an ebony fretless neck which i had to sell because it had more worn grooves than a crazy golf course. 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Musicman666

[Russ]

Ebonol is basically just phenolic, isn’t it? I had an Ibanez GWB (the cheap black one) a while back and it was OK, but didn’t have much “mwah”. I also had a Cort Curbow years ago with an ebonol fingerboard, and it wasn’t bad. The body of the Cort Curbow was also made of some synthetic material that had a rather unpleasant smell!

 

I tried one of the new Ibanez EHB fretlesses recently, with the blue Richlite fingerboard (which is basically phenolic resin-infused paper!). It was pretty nice though, sang nicely and felt pretty solid. Better than the ebonol on the GWB. 

[kodiakblair]

16 minutes ago, Russ said:

Ebonol is basically just phenolic, isn’t it?

Just phenolic ?

 

There's a lot to be said in favour of synthetic materials over natural products. For starters there's consistency, it can be as hard or soft as the intended use requires.  The colour is uniform, unlike most ebony which is dyed black. You also have little to no waste,  one of life's ironies is Gaboon heartwood, the most expensive and desirable of ebony due to being jet black with no grain pattern; it's identical to black plastic 😀

 

It's a sobering fact that except for Macassar Ebony, which is listed as vulnerable, all the other species are marked as 'endangered' 🤬

[BlueMoon]

The eco-warriors have rightfully campaigned to protect vulnerable/endangered ebony species.
 

The “Just Stop Oil” guys  won’t like anything phenolic though!

[Hellzero]

Just a slight correction @Waddo Soqable: on the aluminium neck Kramer basses (and guitars) it's bakelite not ebonol.

 

That said, the mwah comes from the hardness of the fingerboard coupled to the close to no relief of the neck.

 

So, the harder the fingerboard and the straighter the neck, the more mwah you get.

 

I tried almost everything on fretless basses and my favourites are in order of preference:

 

1. Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) for its added low mids and singing highs.

2. Stainless steel or delta metal for their integrity and evenness, and no it's not zingy at all, it's in between Brazilian rosewood and Macassar ebony tone wise.

3. Macassar ebony (Diospyros celebica) for its faster attack.

4. Mozambican ebony (Dalbergia melanoxylon) for its over the top mwah.

5. Pau Ferro (Machaerium scleroxylon) for its rich and fat tone.

 

I really don't like maple nor ebonol or synthetic fingerboards, because they sound sterile to my ears.

[Waddo Soqable]

1 minute ago, Hellzero said:

Just a slight correction @Waddo Soqable: on the aluminium neck Kramer basses (and guitars) it's bakelite not ebonol.

 

That said, the mwah comes from the hardness of the fingerboard coupled to the close to no relief of the neck.

 

So, the harder the fingerboard and the straighter the neck, the more mwah you get.

 

I tried almost everything on fretless basses and my favourites are in order of preference:

 

1. Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) for its added low mids and singing highs.

2. Stainless steel or delta metal for their integrity and evenness, and no it's not zingy at all, it's in between Brazilian rosewood and Macassar ebony tone wise.

3. Macassar ebony (Diospyros celebica) for its faster attack.

4. Mozambican ebony (Dalbergia melanoxylon) for its over the top mwah.

5. Pau Ferro (Machaerium scleroxylon) for its rich and fat tone.

 

I really don't like maple nor ebonol or synthetic fingerboards, because they sound sterile to my ears.

Interesting that it's bakelite, didn't think they were still using it by the late 70s. One of the things I was a bit leery about with these synthetic boards was how they'd take refretting type issues, whether they'd be a bit brittle and chip out etc. The only other synthetic board bass I had was a Squier jazz thing with no fret markers, I only had it a short time as I don't really like J basses. 

[floFC]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Just a slight correction @Waddo Soqable: on the aluminium neck Kramer basses (and guitars) it's bakelite not ebonol.

I have always seen Kramer fretboards documented as being Ebonol. For instance this, which is credited on https://www.vintageguitar.com/14317/kramer-aluminum-neck-basses/ as being taken from Kramer’s 1979 catalog:

Have you got a pointer to documentation for a Bakelite fretboard?

[Hellzero]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol_formaldehyde_resin

 

Check the trade names section if you want to go faster.

 

Bakelite was confirmed by Christophe Leduc himself who knows these synthetic materials very well being a graduated architect (in the mid 70's), before being a master luthier.

[Bassassin]

12 hours ago, Russ said:

Ebonol is basically just phenolic, isn’t it?

 

I tried one of the new Ibanez EHB fretlesses recently, with the blue Richlite fingerboard (which is basically phenolic resin-infused paper!).

 

Ebonol's compressed black paper & resin. Presumably Richlite's a trademark for a slightly different (less black?) product.

 

Don't think I've had an ebony-board fretless but the two rosewoods (Ibanez SR800FL & Yamaha BB400S) from recollection seemed duller & less mwaah-y than the ebonol board Squier VMJ that followed.

 

That said I prefer my lacquered maple Sire V7 to any of them - although it does require a delicate touch as it tends to exaggerate string-on-fingerboard clacks & clatters.

[fiatcoupe432]

Same here !! IHave tried alot of fretlesses and I'll list (like Tony ) my top 3 

 

1. Brazilian Kingwood(my current bass Pasini)

 

2. Diamondwood used mostly on Roscoe .

 

3.macassar ebony

 

Obviously sounds on electric instruments it's heavy influenced by electronics and very little on fingerboard wood . In my opinion is more about feeling and attack etc but as for sounds electronics plays the biggest part . As for an acoustic instrument( look at dB) most of them have ebony fingerboard 

[LeftyJ]

3 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

2. Diamondwood used mostly on Roscoe .

The correct name is actually Dymondwood®, trademarked by Rutland Plywood Corp, which consists of layered hardwood veneers that were heated, vacuüm pressed and impregnated with dyes and phenolic resin. Roscoe also offers Rainbow Dymondwood on their fretless basses, which has multicoloured dyes (each layer has a different colour, and when the radius of the fingerboard is introduced, this gives the rainbow effect). 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by LeftyJ

[Stub Mandrel]

Strange. My MIJ 80s fretless has a maple board and no shortage of mwah.

[itu]

Mad Inter offers Blackwood Tek, which is roughly hard, dyed pinus radiata. Sounds good, works well, but colours all things the dust touches.

 

https://www.madinter.com/en/blackwood-tek-en.html

[Musicman666]

not quite sure what i have on my fretless status ..i think it's a type ebanol or epoxy based compound but all i know is it's diamond rock hard compared to the ebony that i had on my wal ..that carved up like butter with a set of round wounds. 

[fiatcoupe432]

Thanks mate and that looks awesome

[Lfalex v1.1]

I know they're not all the same application, but;

 

The Ebony 'board on my NS5 CR is lovely. 

 

The phenolic 'board on the (fretted) Vigier is great. I think it and the S/S frets contribute to the speed of attack and clarity. 

 

The phenolic 'board on my Status Streamline started to de-laminate. That and many other issues led me to sell it as it was such a massive disappointment. 

 

If you made me spec a "dream bass", it would have an Ebony fretboard / fingerboard.