Gibson Custom Shop Brazilian Rosewood Vs Indian Rosewood

[garywright]

Holy BRYLCREEM a little dab ( should ) will do ya

 

[AA00475Bassman]

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[PHILBERT]

There's so much nonsense being discussed in this thread it's mind boggling. The idea that somehow the fretboard material, the material that the frets are seated directly into and is a significant component of a neck's rigidity, does not affect tone is ridiculous.

BRW and EIRW have different density and ridigity, and anyone who has handled unprocess wood and has clanked and tapped them can easily hear a difference.

Many times on this very forum people have discussed the profound impact on tailpiece and ABR-1 stud material but somehow the fretboard material is negligable?

Anyone every swap a BRW slab board neck on a strat and compare A-B with an all-maple neck? Forget "plugged in", just listen carefully acoustically to the note attack and bloom. The differences are subtle, granted, but audible nonetheless. Similar to what is reported on the Historic Makeovers with fretboard swaps.

Anyone can take 5 Historic Les Pauls and they'll all sound slightly different. Sure not like Strat vs. Les Paul different, but subtly different nonetheless.

EIRW makes a good fretboard wood, as do many other woods, and of course a BRW board in itself does not guarantee a great sounding guitar. But BRW is part of a Burst DNA. If a "good" guitar is what you are after, you can buy a good guitar for much less than the price of admission of a Historic Gibson.

As PRS would say, if the fretboard was made of rubber, would it affect tone? Of course it would. So now we're just debating "how much".

THIS! :dude:

Anyone who has played acoustic guitars of Brazilian build vrs Indian build KNOWS the difference. It's a stunning revelation.

As for fretboards, it's only as good as all the other ingredients that "make or break" the tone of the guitar. If you have a "tone bottleneck", which could even include your amp setup, you may not hear the difference. Or maybe some people can't physically hear tone differences. We are all different in that respect. I was gifted with a good ear. I can hear pickup height being off by a slight fraction from the neck tension changing in differing weather conditions, but I realize not everyone can. So we get into the whole debate ad-nausea.

All things being equal, it makes a tone difference. And I agree that Ebony comes close. I love ebony on the guitars I own that have it. Bouncy and snappy is a good way to put it. Faster response with a bit more articulation. But will it make a HUGE difference if the glue used to make the guitar "dulls" the vibration and tone? No, I don't think so. Luckily, today's Custom Shop Les Paul guitars are very resonant, so that Braz fretboard can take it a step further. In the final analysis, it's a sum of all parts...a give and take.

I can't afford one, but if I could have, I would have. My Indian board works. Would I upgrade to Braz in my guitars future? I might! A secondary reason I might do that is to get the correct binding color.

Phil

 

[AA00475Bassman]

I own two classical guitars BR backs & sides yes they sound great Although we are talking about fingerboard material lets keep the thread on corse !

 

[PHILBERT]

I own two classical guitars BR backs & sides yes they sound great Although we are talking about fingerboard material lets keep the thread on corse !

The thread is "on corse".

Simply stated, the tone of Brazilian wood is different. It translates.

Phil

 

[garywright]

I own two classical guitars BR backs & sides yes they sound great Although we are talking about fingerboard material lets keep the thread on corse !

your mullet !

 

[AA00475Bassman]

your mullet !

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[garywright]

:salude

 

[pdfiddler]

I have never had Brazilian on any of my Les Paul guitars but I have Brazilian on my Martin D-18 A 1937 with the headstock overlay and the back center seam and I have no problem hearing and feeling the difference.eace2

 

[El Gringo]

I have never had Brazilian on any of my Les Paul guitars but I have Brazilian on my Martin D-18 A 1937 with the headstock overlay and the back center seam and I have no problem hearing and feeling the difference.eace2

The Martin D-18 has Mahogany back and sides ?

 

[brandtkronholm]

I have never had Brazilian on any of my Les Paul guitars but I have Brazilian on my Martin D-18 A 1937 with the headstock overlay and the back center seam and I have no problem hearing and feeling the difference.eace2

The Martin D-18 has Mahogany back and sides ?

Yes, mahogany back, sides and neck. The Brazilian rosewood is a cosmetic overlay on the headstock (and possibly the tiny center seam on the back).

Pdfiddler is joking around. :laugh2:

 

[renderit]

And the bottom face of the heel...

 

[brandtkronholm]

Ren, that Martin is lookin' mighty fine! Is that one of the "1937 D-18" models mentioned in the previous post?

(I play a D-42.)

 

[renderit]

'34 Golden Era reissue

 

[somebodyelseuk]

I have never had Brazilian on any of my Les Paul guitars but I have Brazilian on my Martin D-18 A 1937 with the headstock overlay and the back center seam and I have no problem hearing and feeling the difference.eace2

I prefer Hollywood.

 

[brandtkronholm]

'34 Golden Era reissue

Good fun! :dude:

 

[El Gringo]

Ren, That certainly is a beautiful Martin !

 

[Kanga Blue]

There's so much nonsense being discussed in this thread it's mind boggling. The idea that somehow the fretboard material, the material that the frets are seated directly into and is a significant component of a neck's rigidity, does not affect tone is ridiculous.

I find with girls it's easy to feel if they have Brazilian. In regards to guitars I must say my CS Fender and Gbson verified Brazilians sound better than my Indian and Maddy Fender and Gibsons in a major way acoustically. How much of it is attributable to the Braz we will never know as we would have to remove the Braz board and put an Indian on it to AB. I hear major differences when I tap Brazilian blocks of wood compared to other rosewoods. I have built guitars and the best acoustics generally have Brazilian back and sides. Brazilian smells different. It is different! However when you go through an amp 70% of the sound is the amp. Even a Indo Squire an sound great with an excellent amp and good player witness Jack Pearson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2wDUZht104Yeah there is a hot US player Jack Pearson who prefers the Indonesian Indo Squier Strats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW_ajThs8Vo

So when
So when you run a guitar sound through pickups that are coloured, not hifi flat frequency response, and an amp and speaker that is coloured you aren't hearing much of the Fingerboard material are you?

Still I love my Brazilian girls and acoustically I hear it. Electricially I hear a good sounding guitar on cleans. On overdrive to a large degree, if I ignore ethics, it may as well be a Chibson in terms of initial sound not feel, vibe sustain decay etc. Rock On!eace2

 

[David Currie]

Expectation bias affects the perceived tone that most players and enthusiasts experience. This phenomenon is reinforced by street wisdom (often fomented by Internet forums and retail setting yack ‘em up hangs).

K

Absolutely! The "psycho-acoustic" (placebo effect pertaining to sound) is very real, and a powerful force - the reason blind tests are the only way to tell differences in sound. There is so much snake-oil hype in the gear industry it boggles my brain! I go strictly by sound, and cheap guitars can sound great, while expensive guitars can sound cheap, although not the norm. I remember reading about Gibson's acoustic factory doing an experiment with BRW vs EIR for bridges and fretboards - they found the BRW sounded better to most of their ears. Gibson changed to using IR in 1965 supposedly? Most luthiers I've read say good EIR is better than not-so-good BRW, so there's that.

 

[Kanga Blue]

Most luthiers I've read say good EIR is better than not-so-good BRW, so there's that.

I have never heard "not-so-good BRW" lol. Even BRW stump wood, the really curly stuff, sounds fantastic and bell-like when you tap it. So I am pretty sure the luthiers who said that are selling regular RW guitars. The guys who have BRW stock and build with it agree that it sounds better and charge a lot for it.