dont understand why they dont just start using walnut, its beautiful.
doesnt make the best fretboards though. its a bit soft and doesnt hold a fret well it also sounds a bit muted as a fretboard - although it would be miles better than obeche. not sure what this 'dark obeche' gibson have used on some guitars is.
this baked maple will make a good fretboard, we know maple is pretty good anyway and the baking process will push it towards the exotics in terms of hardness... but it really doesn't have the darkness people want.
there are other alternative like phenolic or there is the process of pressure cooking wood with acrylic which will make any piece of wood as hard and consistent as the best ebony - and the acrylic can be any colour you want - it goes all the way through the wood
the odd thing about the Gibson rosewood scandal is not large suppliers like LMII are still selling Indian rosewood blanks.
My understanding of the law was that everything needed some processing in India - you could not sell a massive uncut rosewood tree, but you could sell the lumber that had been processed down to a certain size. This is still the law the Indian's have been abiding by. Its the US interpretation of the law which is suddenly suggesting they should be processed into an actual product before leaving India. A fretboard would be fine, a fretboard blank is not.
So how much would it cost Gibson to set up a shop in India processing fretboard blanks into actual fretboards?
edit: i think Gibson are actually trying to make a point here. chances are these wont sell well and I think they know it. They could have used pau ferro/santos rosewood for the standards (maybe not the customs, its a bit too red). Its from south america and apparently quite abundant.
