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I went to Rocklers at lunch time today looking for ebony for a stacked neck.

My eye was caught by some striking fresh 3/4 inch stock of Wenge. In handling it my first thought was that one could use this for fretboards! Has anyone tried it? If so, with what result?

20 dollars a board-foot and it seems rock hard. I know some suppliers sell Wenge for backs & sides but what I saw today looks like a direct replacement for ebony. Seemed kind of waxy - I wonder how well it would glue up.

I'd appreciate any reviews/advice. Thanks.

I have never used it on a guitar but have used it on a jewelry box. It seamed to me to work very much like IRW. It is actually was softer than IRW, but seemed stiffer. I had no issue with glue-up. Maybe it was just the piece I had but it was very plain in appearance. Very straight grain pattern and the pores were large. The pores would be an issue with me for a FB or bridge.

My first acoustic guitar was made from wenge. It was very brittle and splintery. Difficult to bend but I did without the use of a side bender. The guitar sounded ok I guess (remember, it was my 1st). It is a very open grained wood so lots of large pours to fill, even worse than EI rosewood. I don't remember it being waxy but from my memory I don't think I'd want to use it as a fingerboard. Of course all peices of wood are different so you'll have to decide that for yourself.

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I've built a cedar topped acoustic B&S in Wenge. A bit of a stinker to work,
the sawdust burns the nose, splinters (in your skin) feel like they're on
fire after a few minutes, & pores to fill for days, but the results are worth
it. The stuff rings like a bell.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Warwick seem to think wenge is a good fingerboard wood. They list it as the standard wood on their electric bass fingerboards.

http://www.warwickbass.com/specs.html

I'm currently building a koa ukulele that will have a wenge fingerboard.
TomS38548.7683912037

I don't see a pore problem with the boards I'm looking at, at ALL - so, I'm going to give it a try. (Is this just a case of mis-labeling) I will report on how it is to work.

Somehow, I am at a point where I am TRYing out ideas and materials and nothing is getting built!

Thanks Folks.

I was on the Warmoth (electric guitars) site today and I noticed they offer wenge as an option for the fingerboard, or for the whole neck.