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R8 baked maple fretboard?


Wood777

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I'm having a little trouble determining if baked maple was used for fretboards on Les Paul R8s in 2012. Can anyone shine a light on this for me please? As it turns out, it doesn't make a difference to me, but I would like to know (I have a 2012 R8). Thanks for any info.

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I'd very much doubt whether even in the darkest depths of 2012 baked maple was even for a split second considered for use on a re-issue. In the five years since your guitar was crafted I've never once seen the merest suggestion that the idea was mooted never mind put into practice - and I'm sure if such a guitar was let loose there would be ample info about it to be found floating around the web.

 

B-M (and Granadillo for that matter) is a lovely material for a 'board - better than rosewood in some ways - and was used across the USA-line but for a LP re-issue?

Nope. The idea is a non-starter.

 

Why do you ask?

 

Pip.

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Thank you so much for the clear response Pip ! You know, surfing around the net one day and found a discussion about baked maple being used on Les Pauls - probably not in this forum. Either the participants were completely wrong or I misunderstood about whether they were talking about reissues or not . . . I am happy to have it cleared up. As I said, I don't really care - I love my R8 - it sounds heavenly - I'd just wanted to know for sure about this subject of baked maple. Thanks again ! I'm glad to be here - wish I had joined years ago . . .

 

My next issue will be about the color of the fretboard . . . maybe I should start a new thread, but my R8 fretboard is quite light(ish) brown in color (hence my belief that it could possibly be maple of some sort). I'm currently in the market and wonder if I need to move to a R9 to get a much darker colored fretboard (I just like the look).

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...maybe I should start a new thread, but my R8 fretboard is quite light(ish) brown in color (hence my belief that it could possibly be maple of some sort). I'm currently in the market and wonder if I need to move to a R9 to get a much darker colored fretboard (I just like the look).

Hi again, Wood777.

 

Rosewood varies quite a lot from mid-brown to almost black. The 'board on your R8 must be at the lighter end of the scale.

As an example here's my '93 R9 (left) compared with my '95 R0 (right); as can be seen clearly in the 'un-fingered' part of the R9's 'board it, too, was quite light. The R0 is sort-of middling in the darkness stakes;

 

c27e4f46-392b-4cce-9cbf-3b4cfcc24bed_zps7b64df42.jpg

 

I don't have a snap of it under the same lighting conditions but as you can see here the 'board on my '91 '1960 Classic' is practically black;

 

Treaclemed13x17.jpg

 

If you would really prefer your 'board to be darker then there's no reason not to darken it yourself. One of our much-missed former forumites had a Baked-Maple 'boarded LP 'Black Beauty'-style Classic Custom which he treated with a proprietary brand of leather dye and it ended up looking fantastic. Just like ebony.

 

There was a thread about it a few years back. You might try a hunt for it but I'm sure it was simply a case of 'apply gradually with a soft cloth' sort of thing.

 

Philip.

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I can't thank you enough for the information and conversation Philip - I will indeed search for the darkening tips thread(s). That's another subject I've looked into previously and found nothing convincing enough to have me actually apply a substance to a cherished instrument, but I'll look again because I do prefer a darker look to the fretboard.

 

None of this will, of course, will stop me from shopping for a new R8 (or 9) Lemonburst with a dark fretboard - I can't resist.

 

Thanks again my friend,

 

Michael (Woody)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you so much for the clear response Pip ! You know, surfing around the net one day and found a discussion about baked maple being used on Les Pauls - probably not in this forum. Either the participants were completely wrong or I misunderstood about whether they were talking about reissues or not . . . I am happy to have it cleared up. As I said, I don't really care - I love my R8 - it sounds heavenly - I'd just wanted to know for sure about this subject of baked maple. Thanks again ! I'm glad to be here - wish I had joined years ago . . .

 

My next issue will be about the color of the fretboard . . . maybe I should start a new thread, but my R8 fretboard is quite light(ish) brown in color (hence my belief that it could possibly be maple of some sort). I'm currently in the market and wonder if I need to move to a R9 to get a much darker colored fretboard (I just like the look).

 

I'm coming into this a bit late, but my 2013 Les Paul Recording II has one of the lightest colored rosewood fret boards I've ever seen..............

 

Iridium2_zps11a0cd50.jpg

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Do you oil your fretboard? Oiling a rosewood board will darken it quite a lot.

 

Yes, I've just started using Fret Doctor - search this forum, there have been a lot of conversations - this isn't the best conversation thread for this, but the results are really great. A rosewood fretboard of any shade (or other un-varnished wood) will thank you - restoring oil to the wood does indeed make it appear 'darker'.

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I'm coming into this a bit late, but my 2013 Les Paul Recording II has one of the lightest colored rosewood fret boards I've ever seen..............

 

 

Wow, really light in shade - somewhat unique! If you don't oil the fretboard already, using Fret Doctor, while conditioning the wood, will make it appear 'darker'. If you do not want to affect the shade, you might need to research oils further. In case you don't know, Fret Doctor is 100% natural, so it won't stain or 'color' your fretboard, but the conditioned wood will appear darker - it's just the result of restoring natural oils to the wood.

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Guest Farnsbarns

My 2013 61 Reissue SG has a baked maple fret board, so reissues do have baked maple. It is one of my favorite guitars.

 

It's either not a historic reissue or not baked maple.

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