No more black ebony? New EVH Wolfgang Stealth not so stealthy...

[rsvette12]

I posted an update vid below. Sweetwater put me in touch with a Fender / EVH rep and ended up having a nice chat with him. At this point, I don't think they know what happened, which leads me to believe it was just a miss at the factory. So we'll see over time how things end up.

In talking to them, (this guy anyway) seemed to maintain real reverence for EVH and the fact that Ed liked the fretboards a deep black. So I'd hope they aren't making any changes. It sounded like they're still very active and engaged in the EVH line with new products and in working now with Wolfgang. He mentioned they have a 5-year backlog of products that were approved by EVH so we should see more coming out.

He did recommend just using an ebony stain pen as the best way to get the fretboard over to its typical look. I'm going to try that just to see how it turns out.

He did mention that there are some new products coming out next week in the EVH line so we'll have to keep an eye out for that.

Did you ever try staining your fretboard ? thanks

 

[rsvette12]

Just saw this video and looks interesting looks like it was stained but is a conditioner

 

[Greg Ferguson]

So because of environmental concerns and the supply of ebony in Africa lots of manufacturers have stopped using fully black ebony. What you see is the natural color of the wood. Ebony normally has stripping and different colors of black/brown in it. In fact only about 1 of 100 trees has grain that's fully black.Most guitar brands have stopped trying to use fully black ebony because of all the waste it makes. Ebony has never naturally been black fully.

Years ago I had a Les Paul Custom and the ebony fingerboard had some brown in it, which was fine with me as it played fine and was a reminder that the wood came from a real tree.

Because of the environmental concerns and having seen some beautifully figured ebony fingerboards here and there, I’d be perfectly happy to have some swirls and different colors. I don’t currently have any ebony fingerboards, only rosewood and maple, but given that maple is more desirable with flame and quilting, I expect in a few years we’ll see high-end guitars with fancy ebony patterns.

Chopping down an ebony tree and only using a small part of it isn’t smart. Using die or stain to darken it to a uniform color is ok to get a higher yield, but I don’t want it coming off on my fingers, so natural works for me.

 

[CodePoet]

Did you ever try staining your fretboard ? thanks

I did end up staining it and it turned out pretty good - will post some pics when I can.

 

[BBN]

Years ago I had a Les Paul Custom and the ebony fingerboard had some brown in it, which was fine with me as it played fine and was a reminder that the wood came from a real tree.

Because of the environmental concerns and having seen some beautifully figured ebony fingerboards here and there, I’d be perfectly happy to have some swirls and different colors. I don’t currently have any ebony fingerboards, only rosewood and maple, but given that maple is more desirable with flame and quilting, I expect in a few years we’ll see high-end guitars with fancy ebony patterns.

Chopping down an ebony tree and only using a small part of it isn’t smart. Using die or stain to darken it to a uniform color is ok to get a higher yield, but I don’t want it coming off on my fingers, so natural works for me.

I love when an ebony fret board has a little bit of brown or swirl. It's the character of the tree it came from. It's like a fingerprint.

 

[scottp]

Just saw this video and looks interesting looks like it was stained but is a conditioner

I had my luthier dye my fingerboard black. The dye eventually started coming off within about 5 months.
I had him do it a second time, same result. Now I am leaving it alone and will enjoy the original rosewood as it comes back.

 

[Rex]

I love when an ebony fret board has a little bit of brown or swirl. It's the character of the tree it came from. It's like a fingerprint.

It’s also, like, “reality.” If you see a piece of ebony that’s a deep, uniform black, it was dyed to make it look that way.

 

[redhedded1]

My stealth has a 2019 serial number. If you look close, there's some slight variation, but it's pretty dark...darker than in your video. I've never noticed any dye coming off, but I couldn't say for certain whether it's dyed or not.

P.S. I have a couple of other ebony fretboard guitars besides the stealth: a PRS Holcomb SE (2019) and an Ibanez SIX6FM (2018?). I'd call both of them black, but if you look close I believe they both have slightly more variation than the EVH Stealth.

Just wanted to tell you, I checked some of your vimeo songs, and wow they sound great and are super-creative.

 

[GlennO]

Just wanted to tell you, I checked some of your vimeo songs, and wow they sound great and are super-creative.

Thanks. The videos there are evenly divided between ones with rock soundtracks and ambient. The imagery in the videos is, appropriately enough, fractals.