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I made a connection at the GAL convention with a local guy that has a large supply of ebony fretboards from India. They are very black, even grained, fine textured and at $12 each are hard to resist. I'm sure there must be multiple species of ebony that could originate from India but I have no idea which one it may be.

Does anyone have experience using Indian ebony? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Doug

Been using it for years now .. its ebony ... its fine. and the price is right.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Good stuff. Grab a bunch, especially if you can get the quartersawn stuff.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

In my experience, most ebony comes from India green, and can move a lot as it dries. Inquire about seasoning, and whether they are quartersawn.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

There is an indian supplier selling some very very good stock indian ebony it is very black and the fingerboards are perfectly quarter sawn its(at least mine are) fine grained and its lovely.

even the low grade stock are decent.

BUT as howard says it does move a bit in service.
this is draw back of the indian stuff but on the whole i think its the best stock about at present apart from any old madagascan ebony you might find.

i have large stocks of this stuff but my prices are a little higher (probably becouse of the huge import duty,s we pay here but still $12 is good).

i have been selling the stuff with mild streaks for $10 and they fly out the door.

grab it while you can we will be happy of it soon when all we can get is gaboon stuff with grey streaks.

Joel.

howard is right all the fingerboards will be imported green and they have to be kilned very very slowly or air dried.
even then they can move a bit.
you will find they are very thick (as much as 12mm) to allow for this.

allthough in my experience the indian mills are very good at quarter sawing especialy in the high grades.

Sorry for the double post,

Joel.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I bought a dozen of them yesterday and they are reasonably well quartered, running between 9% and 11% moisture content and average about 10mm thick. As I said before, aesthecially they are vey nice. I think I'll go get a couple dozen more for the stash.

Thanks again,

Doug