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Gibson still using wonky light colored wood for Historic Les Paul fingerboards....

Dr. Green

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Dec 12, 2018
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683
I was in Guitar Center today and noticed that 70 % of the Historic Lesters STILL are being produced with a yellowish brown rosewood - to me it looks like arse.

I dont know about you guys but to me the boards should be DARK

if the boards cant look like BRW at least have them be a nice chocolate color or a deep reddish brown
 

Dr. Green

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Dec 12, 2018
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683
check out this amazing web page showing the variants of Indian Rosewood

this is awesome :

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/rosewood, east indian.htm

what's clear here is that SOME slabs of IRW are fine for a Historic fingerboard and others are just plain wrong

its almost like they just use what they can buy in bulk at a cheap price and hope nobody complains

they might be just fine for anything else besides a Historic which by its very nature is intended to be a rebirth of a vintage les paul solid body guitar

just for fun lets compare to the Rw on a vintage burst

this one I found on line "The Giotto Burst" in Germany

4K3A8067.jpg
 
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MacFangus

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Oct 10, 2016
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The lighter wood doesn't bother me. I prefer a darker board, but it's not a deal-breaker. Playability and tone are my primary concerns. I've played many Historic models that looked great, but lacked what I was looking for in tone. This may seem odd to some, but If I don't like the way an electric guitar sounds unplugged, I don't bother plugging it in. Not unless I'm getting it for what I consider to be a good price.
 

PeteNJ75

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Aug 27, 2018
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Yup, I've seen it too. I had two 2019 60th Anniversary R9s and a 2020 60th Anniversary R0 that had lighter, streaky boards - they were also super dry and kind of rough. I fell in love with the tops, and the pictures were a bit misleading. When I got them I was shocked Gibson was using that kind of rosewood on their top of the line models. Granted, I kept the R0 because it's an amazing guitar, but I had to give it several treatments with Fret Doctor and smoothed the fretboard out with super fine sandpaper before I was happy with it. That said, I've seen some nice dark ones out there too.

Compare some of these newer boards with the boards of the mid-2000s and it's night and day.
 

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
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Regardless if it's lighter color EIR or medium color or dark color EIR - what does it prove ? Out of curiosity do you own and play a Gibson Historic R series Les Paul ? Believe me or Not Gibson Custom and Gibson USA are not bargain basement hunting for the cheapest grade wood available on the market . To take that thought to the next level do you think us Gibson Lovers would go for that with our $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I think not !
 

El Gringo

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I forgot to mention in my post that the vintage 1959 Sunburst Les Paul , the fingerboard is over 60 years old . That's a lot of sweat and moisture built up over time that would darken the board to that degree . Heck I have a Les Paul from 1994 and the EIR board looks like it's Ebony , it's really that dark .
 

Dr. Green

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Regardless if it's lighter color EIR or medium color or dark color EIR - what does it prove ? Out of curiosity do you own and play a Gibson Historic R series Les Paul ? Believe me or Not Gibson Custom and Gibson USA are not bargain basement hunting for the cheapest grade wood available on the market . To take that thought to the next level do you think us Gibson Lovers would go for that with our $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I think not !

I play a 57 historic Les Paul custom - 8.4 lb black beauty with ebony board .......

why is it the Memphis 335 that were being blown out a few years back have wonderful dark boards ?
 

El Gringo

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I play a 57 historic Les Paul custom - 8.4 lb black beauty with ebony board .......

why is it the Memphis 335 that were being blown out a few years back have wonderful dark boards ?

The easy answer to your question would be that mother nature doesn't take orders on specific type grades and color of natural wood . Not trying to be a smart ass , but that's just a fact . Different cuts and different pieces and grades is where variety comes from . An example of that might be a few years back when Gibson was using richlite a synthetic type of Ebony some didn't like that right , so some companies would only buy strictly black colored Ebony and other companies would use the streak colored Ebony which was rather attractive . One of the forum sponsors had a Les Paul Custom with the streak colored Ebony board and it had the reinforced headstock thing which escapes my memory and it was a Sunburst colored Les Paul Custom , which was very cool . I believe Gibson sources the best available natural resources when it's time to get wood . Also at the end of the day we as consumers have choices on what and when we make our purchases . Same for myself as I like a nicely figured maple top Les Paul's and I am not one to settle for second best . Choices my friend and that's what makes life great .
 

AA00475Bassman

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I have several Historics with dark boards , I yet to see a Historic at GC I would buy . Could they owe Gibson so much money all they get is the dregs ?
 

Minibucker

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Jan 12, 2003
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The board on my '19 Memphis ES-335 dot neck is a bit on the light side for me. I gave it some Gerlitz Guitar Honey, but didn't make much difference...and that stuff seems to evaporate pretty quickly, probably better as a cleaner than conditioner. Will give it a pass with my remaining Fret Doctor oil, which I've had nice results on other guitars making the fretboard a bit darker and richer. If I'm not happy with those results I may consider a little bit of dyeing.

ETA: So put on some Fret Doctor and let it sit for a few hours...almost all soaked in by now and much better. Not near-ebony dark, but definitely more of that richer 'chocolate' look than it had before.
 
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Drayve85

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Jan 30, 2019
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195
I’m so glad that these are the things that we have to bit$& about. It truly is a great time to be alive for us guitarists!! Just for the record, I’m not being an ass! I am picky too!!
 

somebodyelseuk

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Jun 10, 2020
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454
I have several Historics with dark boards , I yet to see a Historic at GC I would buy . Could they owe Gibson so much money all they get is the dregs ?
Maybe they use the wrong lighting to take photos? Maybe your monitor needs adjusting?
In this day and age, we're lucky they even have rosewood on em.
 

marshall1987

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For a number of years now, Gibson "Custom"has been sourcing a lower grade of Indian rosewood that could be best described as Grade C/D.

It's not just the ugly light brown color that bothers me, much of this rosewood is so porous it's nearly impossible to sand the boards to achieve a smooth, tight grain appearance. They're horrid looking! :hmm

Many of the Gibson IRW fingerboards I have seen are so porous you would guess that termite colonies had infested the lumber. :headbange
 

El Gringo

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For a number of years now, Gibson "Custom"has been sourcing a lower grade of Indian rosewood that could be best described as Grade C/D.

It's not just the ugly light brown color that bothers me, much of this rosewood is so porous it's nearly impossible to sand the boards to achieve a smooth, tight grain appearance. They're horrid looking! :hmm

Many of the Gibson IRW fingerboards I have seen are so porous you would guess that termite colonies had infested the lumber. :headbange

Very interesting observations . I will add that from mid June, I was playing my 2018 Brazilian R9 which has a very dark and smooth fret board . Now this past week I have been playing my newest R9 and the board feels different, it is just as dark as the Brazilian board which I believe the naked eye could not pick out which is which, but the EIR board feels different in my left hand . The sound of both R9's is identical and cannot be picked up by my ear as to which is the Brazilian board and which is the EIR board . Both R9's have identical ThroBak MXV-SLE-101 Plus pickups with A5 magnets, and I played both R9's thru my Marshall 2555X's .
 

marshall1987

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Very interesting observations . I will add that from mid June, I was playing my 2018 Brazilian R9 which has a very dark and smooth fret board . Now this past week I have been playing my newest R9 and the board feels different, it is just as dark as the Brazilian board which I believe the naked eye could not pick out which is which, but the EIR board feels different in my left hand . The sound of both R9's is identical and cannot be picked up by my ear as to which is the Brazilian board and which is the EIR board . Both R9's have identical ThroBak MXV-SLE-101 Plus pickups with A5 magnets, and I played both R9's thru my Marshall 2555X's .

It's great you were able to locate and acquire two Gibson "kustom" Shop Les Pauls with high quality fingerboards. :)

Unfortunately my luck ran out two years ago when I purchased a new 2018 Gibson "kustom" Shop, Wildwood-Spec/Murphy-painted, 1958 reissue Les Paul. The lousy IRW fingerboard on this guitar resembles termite infested lumber. It's got to be one of the worst fingerboards I have ever seen on a high-end Gibson Les Paul. It's horrid looking! :dang

I strongly feel that at this price point; i.e., approaching $6.5K MSRP, there is absolutely no excuse for using cheap, low quality IRW lumber! :##
 

JPP-1

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Jul 11, 2006
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Can’t speak about 2020 but the quality of the post 2012 Historic fretboards I’ve played has been very good to excellent, clearly a step up with the 2018 Brazilian board Les Pauls being some of the nicest feeling rosewood ever.

Rather it was my older Historics from 99-07 that had these horrid looking streaky fretboards. Here are a few pictures I’ve found.

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Compared to my current R9s there really is no comparison although to be fair, the two in R9s in the middle are Brazilian

0MJgWr.jpg
 
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