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+--- Thread: Do guitarmakers dye their ebony boards? (/thread-356.html)
Do guitarmakers dye their ebony boards? - jtkung - 10-15-2022
This was a question that somehow got brought up in a recent posting on The Gear Page when discussing PRS and the new Robben Ford Sig guitar.
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/new-robben-ford-ltd-prs.2402878/page-13
It started because someone mentioned how black the African Blackwood fingerboard was on the Robben Ford PRS.
Multiple people claim that mainstream makers dye their ebony jet black. It is a well known fact that customers demand their ebony fretboards to be jet black as this is what they have been visually accustomed to for decades.
The controversy started when John Suhr stepped in and basically said that he had reliable sources that claim that Gibson and Guild have never dyed their ebony boards. While another prominent user (Tag) claimed that it was done all the time, especially Martin.
I kind of stepped in and questioned if the jet black ebony is rarer and more expensive (as is claimed by Bob Taylor which I believe), and if so many makers are using it, then how is this possible? Wouldn't it be expensive and hard to get?
I didn't get a good answer. The claim was that it was too expensive or not practical to dye ebony. Yet there are many examples of people doing this for themselves, and it doesn't seem that hard. I can easily see some large contractor taking very colored, cheaper ebony and dyeing it jet black and reselling it to the large guitar makers.
And if you think about it -- just look at Gibson. This is a company that ran like a pure business under Henry Juszkiewicz and didn't much care much about guitars. Under new management, they still make super expensive Les Pauls, Murph Labs aged, and all that nonsense. Because they know who their customers are -- rich gullible doctors and lawyers who can barely play and don't know much about guitars in general. So it would not surprise me at all that they use dyed ebony boards in the past and even currently.
Suhr mentioned that at the first refret, you will find out. Hmmm... you think these doctors and lawyers play their guitars that much that they will need a refret? Nope. They will never know. And you think the tech who is doing the refret will tell them or even care? Nope.
Ironically, Suhr then said he wiped down his own Martin D28 and said some black stuff came off. So it was most likely dyed!
So this is really a business case. Customers demand jet black ebony and it seems supply is low and probably more expensive. And there's a way to dye it black and many customers will never know. So ... what do you think is being done? I put my money that it IS being done because many businesses are run by MBAs who don't give a shit about the product itself -- only the profit the company makes. And many customers don't know or care. They just like their ebony looking black! Because to these folks, it's the looks and bragging rights that matter most -- not the actual sound and playability of the guitar.