Newer rosewood board

[john o]

This gtr was completed in October 2017. The build sheet says Rosewood, but this looks different to me than most rosewoods ive seen. I thought maybe Chechen, but I’m used to seeing lighter colors with that based on some of Craig’s examples from g&l. What do you think, ? Caribbean rosewood = Chechen, or other?



here's a closeup of the 2017 asat special board



here is another, same board



and here is a closeup of a rosewood board from a 2015 asat classic



maybe if you've seen a rosewood board, you've seen one rosewood board! here is the board from my 1989 asat: ? brazilian rosewood.
i understand rosewood is named for its fragrance, and not for its color.

[Craig]

This gtr was completed in October 2017. The build sheet says Rosewood, but this looks different to me than most rosewoods ive seen. I thought maybe Chechen, but I’m used to seeing lighter colors with that based on some of Craig’s examples from g&l. What do you think, ? Caribbean rosewood = Chechen, or other?



here's a closeup of the 2017 asat special board



here is another, same board



and here is a closeup of a rosewood board from a 2015 asat classic



maybe if you've seen a rosewood board, you've seen one rosewood board! here is the board from my 1989 asat: ? brazilian rosewood.
i understand rosewood is named for its fragrance, and not for its color.

The current Rosewood is Indian Rosewood [Dalbergia latifolia] (beginning in 2017), here are some examples from the factory facebook pages:
Examples of Indian Rosewood fretboards ...

Here are examples of Chechen (aka Carribean Rosewood):
Seen on G&L's Facebook page - Chechen fretboard

Hope this helps.

[neutralomen]

nah that's Indian rosewood, it is just kind of light and streaky, an uglier specimen in my opinion. Fender and gibson have te really inconsistent rosewood too. one perk to g&l is if you get an option order guitar you can specify dark rosewood in the spec sheet and they'll usually do it for you.

for a fender or gibson you have to just stake out sweetwater until you find a specimen with a nice looking board.

[john o]

Thx for the info, neutralomen and Craig.
Some wood sites i was looking at say that chechen ("carribean rosewood") isn't really a rosewood.
I believe G&L is mostly using chechen as of 2018 based on the scarcity of rosewood these days.

i thought this one was interesting in the examples of Eastern Indian rosewood, with a streak of pink/red in it...

[Danley]

I don’t mind when rosewood shows light color/has some grain; people seem to have the idea that darker rosewood is better, but I guess I was ignorant of that and can appreciate the patterns/‘streaking’ in lighter wood. I figure there’s ebony if I want something totally homogenous and dark (though I know lots of it actually *isn’t* .) I don’t even mind laurel fretboards. What really bugs me is when extremely porous and open-grained rosewood is used; to the degree it feels rough and ridged, and looks rotten. Fender Japan seems terrible at selecting smooth rosewood. My favorite piece of rosewood is a ‘66 Mustang neck; chocolate/Crayola brown, and buttery smooth.

[neutralomen]

Thx for the info, neutralomen and Craig.
Some wood sites i was looking at say that chechen ("carribean rosewood") isn't really a rosewood.
I believe G&L is mostly using chechen as of 2018 based on the scarcity of rosewood these days.

i thought this one was interesting in the examples of Eastern Indian rosewood, with a streak of pink/red in it...

You're right that Chechen isn't a true rosewood, ie a member of the family Dalbergia. That said, G&L only uses Carribean rosewood on select models, namely the CLF research guitars, and I believe the fullerton deluxe models.

The option order made in fullerton guitars are still EIR, and all the examples you shared are EIR.

Those bright red streaks are sometimes prominent in EIR.

It's also true that the grain/color has nothing to do with quality. Some people like a streaky, highly figured piece of wood, others like a dark, even color. I'm in the latter category but it's just a matter of taste.