Rosewood fretboards

favance said:
I have a '61 Gibson SG I purchased from Sweetwater in 2019 (retirement gift to self). One of the best guitars I've ever played. When I first got it I did have to lube the fretboard to darken it some (I used MusicNomad F-One Oil). Other than a few normal adjustment for personal preferences, it's perfect...Every guitar I've had, I adjust the truss rod, action, intonation, etc. for my personal preferences.
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I bought one in August of this year. Such a great guitar. :) Like you and the OP the fretboard
was dry as a bone. I found I had to treat/condition mine a few times to get it take, and as of
now, even with an humidifier in the house, it is drying out again. Makes me wonder if the
Rosewood crisis facing, not only guitar manufacturers, but the entire world, means the Rosewood
is just more open and porous than what we saw 20 or 30 years ago.
 
la noise said:
I bought one in August of this year. Such a great guitar. :) Like you and the OP the fretboard
was dry as a bone. I found I had to treat/condition mine a few times to get it take, and as of
now, even with an humidifier in the house, it is drying out again. Makes me wonder if the
Rosewood crisis facing, not only guitar manufacturers, but the entire world, means the Rosewood
is just more open and porous than what we saw 20 or 30 years ago.
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That's definitely possible. They are wood, after all, and the things that happen during the tree's life will affect the final product.

This has me wondering about SGs specifically, though....what's the closest alternative? People say 594s are basically lighter Les Pauls with better QC. I think they're wrong (the pickups are farther away from the bridge), but they are close. But, other than cheap chinese copies, what would you look at as an alternative to the brighter/brasher SG?

I don't think I really care all that much for myself...I'm just curious.
 
marsonic said:
That's definitely possible. They are wood, after all, and the things that happen during the tree's life will affect the final product.

This has me wondering about SGs specifically, though....what's the closest alternative? People say 594s are basically lighter Les Pauls with better QC. I think they're wrong (the pickups are farther away from the bridge), but they are close. But, other than cheap chinese copies, what would you look at as an alternative to the brighter/brasher SG?

I don't think I really care all that much for myself...I'm just curious.
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Guild S-100???

I agree that an SG can be bright and brash----sometimes too much so. I have had a few and been
in a bit of a love/hate with them for that reason. My first guitar was a crappy Kay SG. Had a great
SG Standard I should have never gotten rid of. Replaced it with a Derek Trucks SG that I felt was
not as good. Sold that and been SG-less until this past summer. This '61 Reissue is a keeper. :)
 
marsonic said:
That's definitely possible. They are wood, after all, and the things that happen during the tree's life will affect the final product.

This has me wondering about SGs specifically, though....what's the closest alternative? People say 594s are basically lighter Les Pauls with better QC. I think they're wrong (the pickups are farther away from the bridge), but they are close. But, other than cheap chinese copies, what would you look at as an alternative to the brighter/brasher SG?

I don't think I really care all that much for myself...I'm just curious.
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Esp viper, dunable cyclops, prs mira, yamaha SG2000?
 
Yup, new guitar also could and likely have a cheap crap old strings. First thing I do, take off the strings, clean the fret board, lemon oil and take a good look at the frets with my magnifying glasses. Gorgabyte fret polish cloths, then wipe down again.
new strings goof around bend them. Then look at the setup.
 
Update:

I contacted Sweetwater's techs and did as they instructed. I cleaned and prepped the neck. I polished the frets. I did a deep conditioning on the neck. This helped the rosewood a little bit, but did not fix the problem. Bending a string at any fret that had a pearl inlay fret marker still had a sticky feeling and a noticeable scratchy sound that can be heard almost as loud as the note when recording.

I just got back from taking the guitar to Eddie Van Halen’s old guitar tech for him to look and and give me his opinion. He said in all the years he’d been repairing guitars he had never seen a guitar with the fretboard issues this guitar has. He said it felt and sounded like he was taking his thumb and rubbing it across a glass window. I asked him if he could fix it. He said maybe. He said he could take a razor blade and go over the whole fretboard and inlays to try and smooth it down. He said even then he could only give it a 50% chance of working.

I shouldn’t have to do this on a brand new guitar, and I am not going to. I just contacted Sweetwater and left a message for my sales rep saying I wanted to return the guitar. (Gibson 61 SG w/maestro)
 
My, "Just wow!" is probably not as emphatic as your, "Just wow."

Are you going to have it replaced with the same model, or are you going
to move on to something else now??
 
trancegodz said:
Update:

I contacted Sweetwater's techs and did as they instructed. I cleaned and prepped the neck. I polished the frets. I did a deep conditioning on the neck. This helped the rosewood a little bit, but did not fix the problem. Bending a string at any fret that had a pearl inlay fret marker still had a sticky feeling and a noticeable scratchy sound that can be heard almost as loud as the note when recording.

I just got back from taking the guitar to Eddie Van Halen’s old guitar tech for him to look and and give me his opinion. He said in all the years he’d been repairing guitars he had never seen a guitar with the fretboard issues this guitar has. He said it felt and sounded like he was taking his thumb and rubbing it across a glass window. I asked him if he could fix it. He said maybe. He said he could take a razor blade and go over the whole fretboard and inlays to try and smooth it down. He said even then he could only give it a 50% chance of working.

I shouldn’t have to do this on a brand new guitar, and I am not going to. I just contacted Sweetwater and left a message for my sales rep saying I wanted to return the guitar. (Gibson 61 SG w/maestro)
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Gibson legendary QC...it will end up in the Blemo shop and someone else will have to deal with it.
 
trancegodz said:
Eddie Van Halen’s old guitar tech...never seen a guitar with the fretboard issues this guitar has.
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That leads me to wonder if Gibson has switched to some inferior material for those inlays.
trancegodz said:
I shouldn’t have to do this on a brand new guitar, and I am not going to. I just contacted Sweetwater and left a message for my sales rep saying I wanted to return the guitar. (Gibson 61 SG w/maestro)
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Good for you! If it's a QC issue of some sort (sure seems that way), the more buyers that don't return the guitar, the less likely Gibson will actually work to rectify the source of the issue. Is there a particular reason you like SW? I've found other places (Willcutt, e.g.) give bigger discounts, and since I don't put much faith in their "55 point inspection," it's not a reason to pay more, for me.
 
Fall in love with the Music Nomad line of products and get their fret care pack. That should fix this. Complain to sweetwater maybe they’ll send it to you. Good luck with that trem. Hell if I can get it to stay in tune.
 
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