Interesting: Fender "channel-bound" fretboards

AlanRatcliffe

On some of the new select models with rosewood boards, the board is inlaid into the neck, leaving the maple at the edges, like binding:

I'm a bit dubious of claims of better feel or tone, but it's quite a nifty look:

Psean

It does look really neat.

Chabenda

Indeed! Very smart. Personally I would not like to see it on a bread and butter Tele or Strat but IMO it does suit a Jazzmaster or Jaguar with block inlays.

Chocklit_Thunda

For a small builder to get that neat fit each and every time would be costly and require lots of filler... But fender with CNC mass production, it would make a nice "standard" feature

AlanRatcliffe

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: For a small builder to get that neat fit each and every time would be costly and require lots of filler... But fender with CNC mass production, it would make a nice "standard" feature

Still, it's only on some of the more expensive production models.

Chocklit_Thunda

I would assume so. Its gonna cost about the same to refret as a bound Les paul... guys buying an american standard wouldn't want to fork out that much for a refret each time...

Malkav

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: For a small builder to get that neat fit each and every time would be costly and require lots of filler... But fender with CNC mass production, it would make a nice "standard" feature

I think you're underestimating smaller builders ? Guys like Dylan from Dæmoness guitars would have no problem doing that, there are guys like Darren at Decibel guitars that already has done something similar in the past on models like his DB1 Javelin.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
I'm a bit dubious of claims of better feel or tone, but it's quite a nifty look:

I do agree with that - it seems everything in the guitar market these days has some sort of positive and unproveable benefit to tone - To be completely honest I'm getting really over it...

Chocklit_Thunda

No sir, I'm not underestimating anyone. What I did mean was that its less cost effective for small builders (not necessarly private luthiers) than it is for fender. You'd likely pay double from a less renowned company to do it than fender.

Then again big guys like warmoth will also charge a pretty penny to do it on one of theirs if they start this feature.

Manfred-Klose

it only took them 60 years to do something new ?

Looks very classy!!!

peterleroux

I'm curious about whether differential expansion of the maple and rosewood would cause those narrow maple "walls" to split. If rosewood and maple react differently to moisture,they might push each other hard enough to crack something

AlanRatcliffe

peterleroux wrote: I'm curious about whether differential expansion of the maple and rosewood would cause those narrow maple "walls" to split. If rosewood and maple react differently to moisture,they might push each other hard enough to crack something

Both tend to be pretty stable - or we'd see a lot more problems with rosewood boards on maple necks.

I'd be more concerned about what they do on the top of the fingerboard - maple always needs to be finished and rosewood is not usually. It's not a problem on the sides of a normal board, but its different on the top.

Greg

Hmm. Agreed with Alan. But it does look neat.

chris77

Chabenda wrote: Indeed! Very smart. Personally I would not like to see it on a bread and butter Tele or Strat but IMO it does suit a Jazzmaster or Jaguar with block inlays.

+1. My thoughts exactly.