Members mbengs1 Posted March 31, 2015 Members Share Posted March 31, 2015 How do these sound ? is it similar to ebony. i heard it has no grain so it must be a bright sounding wood. i just bought a guitar thinking that it had an ebony fretboard but i believe it is a richlite. i bought a gibson custom les paul custom from sweetwater sound. i hope its great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted March 31, 2015 Members Share Posted March 31, 2015 I haven't, but I have played ebonal, which Kramer used for a while, and loved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted March 31, 2015 Members Share Posted March 31, 2015 I have a Martin Performing Artist series guitar with Richlite fingerboard and bridge. It feels good, sounds good, and not susceptible to drying, cracking, or warping. If I was getting some high dollar showpiece guitar I'd probably want ebony, but for a workhorse guitar like I have I prefer Richlite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted March 31, 2015 Members Share Posted March 31, 2015 I love it. Sounds good, plays good, looks good, wears good. Purists won't like it but whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 31, 2015 Members Share Posted March 31, 2015 Richlite isn't wood, it's layers of recycled paper in resin, similar to Formica. I've played Martin acoustics that had Richlite fretboards and they sounded and felt fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mbengs1 Posted April 1, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 1, 2015 its a NGD for me coming up. i'm just waiting for the guitar to arrive via fedex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Armitage Posted April 3, 2015 Members Share Posted April 3, 2015 I can't tell them from ebony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ido1957 Posted April 3, 2015 Members Share Posted April 3, 2015 I bought my 2014 Les Paul Custom last July and it plays and sounds great. I never think about the Richlite fretboard - it a non-issue. I played a 2012 several times over the course of a couple of years in the music store and knew what I was getting.There's way too many haters out there who couldn't tell the difference but are too afraid to admit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mbengs1 Posted April 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 3, 2015 I listened to richlite fingerboards on youtube gibson videos. they have a snappy attack like ebony, but warmer and browner sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted April 3, 2015 Members Share Posted April 3, 2015 I've got one on my Gibson Midtown Custom. No worries with it. I do think it resembles ebony in most of the areas, i.e. wear, sound and feel. The only caveat I'd disclose is that since I have a large git collection, it hasn't had a lot of wear on to date. But it has a durable feel to it. More so than say rosewood. In fact, it was a bonus, because if it had had ebony, it would have been much more expensive. Can't remember what I paid for this guy right now (w/o looking it up) but it was a bargain for a Gibson Semi-hollow. One of these guys: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mbengs1 Posted April 4, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 4, 2015 It's not even real wood? i hope it sounds as good as wooded boards. I'm itchin to get my new guitar and try richlite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted April 4, 2015 Members Share Posted April 4, 2015 It's not even real wood? i hope it sounds as good as wooded boards. I'm itchin to get my new guitar and try richlite Basically recycled paper and phenolic resin. Pressed and baked, mmmmm good! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richlite But it was well worth it for me to take the plunge. I'm at home now and looking on my "inventory" sheet, I picked up that Midtown for only $1,099. There's also a note I have there that at one point Sam Ash briefly blew some out at $999. My model was made when the Feds had confiscated Gibson's ebony and rosewood boards. Folks were turning their noses up at them, and when the wood was returning, there were some good deals to be had on the production models with "substitue" fretboard materials. But I'm truly perfectly happy so far with my Richlite and Baked Maple Gibson acquisitions of that era. One guitar I also purchased during that time period for my son was an absolutely wonderful sounding Gibson SG Standard for a mere $820. I liked it so much I asked him if he'd rather have my Silverburst SG Standard "Guitar Of The Week" with ebony fretboard, and he wisely decided to keep his with the maple board. It really was that much better sounding. More resonant. So anyway, only point being, I'm not too worried about some of these substitute fb materials after having bought 6 of them. Plus I do also see that Gibson is hanging with Richlite on some models even though they no longer have to make that selection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-8 Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 Hagstrom has a proprietary artificial fretboard material called "Resinator" that seems to be quite decent. Resinator is basically a secret resin with a wood dust filler. I still think vacuum roasted / baked maple is the best fretboard material so far. It feels good whether finished or raw and it's absolutely stable and tough as any artificial material. Roasted maple does a great job of transmitting sound from the frets to the neck wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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