Ebony as a Tonewood

ebony fingerboards are sustainably challenged

In this third installment on sustainable tone woods, we’ll be talking about Ebony as a Tonewood. Previously we talked about KOA and Spruce. Woods commonly used for instrument building, known in the industry as ‘tonewoods’, more often than not are tropical hardwoods growing in countries with rampant illegal logging, lax law enforcement, and disappearing rainforests.  Unlike furniture and flooring, tonewoods possess unique qualities that affect the sound and feel of an instrument.  There’s a reason violins have been made the same way for centuries: the woods work.  They sound good, look good, and feel good.  Yet due to a myriad of threats, traditional tonewoods like ebony are at risk of disappearing.

The wood underneath a guitar’s strings is called the fretboard or fingerboard. To function properly, it has to be perfectly constructed from wood that is hard, dense and warp-resistant. It must hold metal frets for years without any movement, since even a microscopic amount of fret movement can throw a guitar out of tune. One material that traditionally keeps that promise is synonymous with fine fretboards: ebony.

Ebony trees, members of the Diospyros genus, grow in tropical forests and grasslands around the world. Recognized as the best material for fretboards since the early days of string instruments, ebony is so dense that it sinks in water and so hard termites refuse to eat it. The trees are also famous for their nearly jet-black wood. At one time it was the standard material for the black keys of pianos, as well as found usefulness in the manufacturing of cabinets and furniture. But in the past several decades, high demand for this exotic wood has severely affected the world’s forests.

Formerly available from sources throughout the African Congo Basin and Madagascar, ebony has been over-harvested to the point that it is now only commercially available from Cameroon in Northwest Africa.

Because of the high price it commands, ebony is often a target of illegal loggers in forest communities plagued by corrupt governance and widespread poverty. Ebony is crucial for biodiversity and native forests, but its commercial value has made it scarce. Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars, explained the problem in these words: “We’ve gone into countries, and we’ve used the ebony until it’s all gone… then we move into another country, and we take their ebony until it’s all gone.”

Singleminded ignorance has led us to overlook other options. For example contrary to popular belief, most ebony trees do not have totally black wood. Though color does not affect the wood’s structure or sound, trees with pure black wood are often worth more than twice as much as the more-plentiful “streaked” trees. In the hunt for black wood, loggers left 90 percent of cut ebony to rot on the forest floor, deeming it worthless if it had any blonde streaks. Arbitrary industry preferences were wreaking havoc on the forest and rapidly decreasing the already small supply of ebony. In the past three generations, over 50 percent of ebony in the world has been harvested, making it an endangered species. Of course the guitar industries’ share is this process was minimal compared to cabinetry and other furnishings.

Revolution or Reform?

Rosewood fingerboard being colored Ebony

New technologies have developed alternatives for instrument construction that can meet or exceed the standards set by tradition and move the industry beyond dependence on precious natural resources. Due to the problems associated with ebony, most manufacturers have embraced composite materials like Richlite (phenolic resin and paper) or Flaxwood for fretboards on some models. Others, like Bedell Guitars (Breedlove), adapt their construction methods to use abundant hardwoods like walnut in place of ebony. Innovative manufacturing solutions like these are sustainable, high-quality, and entirely avoid the legal risks and importation limitations associated with exotic tropical woods. In the end, illegal timber trade is a demand-side problem. Other hard fretboard tonewoods that also are gaining in popularity are Katalox and Granadillo. But even so, the question remains, how do we begin to tackle the ‘demand’ for legal wood products when that demand is being fueled by unknowing consumers.

Though controversial among traditionalists, the use of alternative materials is gradually gaining traction among sustainability-minded musicians.

Preserving Ebony as a tonewood

Others believe that with deliberate investment and planning, ebony can be not only a sustainable and ethical tonewood, but can also drive positive social change in forest communities.

As an example in 2011, Taylor Guitars partnered with Madinter Trade (a Spanish tone woods distributor) to purchase the Crelicam ebony mill in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Their first move was to finally accept and sell streaked ebony, but they have since redefined the relationship between forest communities and purchasers by dramatically improving labor conditions in the mill (which more than doubled wages for all employees) and increasing the proportion of value that stays in the local community. This type of vertical integration requires significant investment but ultimately gives Taylor control over both their process and final product.

Crelicam is still a young operation, and continues to fight an uphill battle against competition from illegal logging operations and corruption, but it has already made significant progress towards more sustainable, ethical, and equitable forest management.

Consumers are ultimately the key to changing the ebony trade. Guitarists can either embrace new materials like Richlite, alternative woods like walnut, or the non-traditionally colored ebony that is available today. Demand has driven ebony to its limits, but demand for sustainable fretboards can play a large role in fundamentally shifting its future.

Richlite does offer grain and easier re-fretting

And for those worried about re-fretting their fingerboards over time, it also turns out that a product like Richlite re-frets nicely and is actually less volatile than expensive types of fretboard tonewoods. It shreds and flakes and frays much less often than real ebony or redwood for that matter.

In all my research on the fretboard topic I found one comment that struck a nerve with me because it attacks traditional consumer perception on so many levels:

You can’t tell the difference in sound because the fingerboard contributes or subtracts NOTHING from the sound of a guitar. Nada. Zip. I want anyone who thinks it does have some magical impact to show me the science behind their opinion, and the oscilloscope showing the difference in frequency response produced; and the attack, sustain, decay, release profile of each string. That’s all I ask.

Show me some science and some objective data as to how 1/4″ of three nearly identical hardwoods in terms of density, bending strength, modulus of elasticity, etc. – Glue-laminated with a layer of modern adhesive to whatever is below them. – and potentially having half of their surface area removed and replaced with plastic, shell, or other inlays…. – has any AUDIBLE or VISIBLE impact whatsoever on any aspect of the sound of the guitar (or other fretted instrument)… I say BS. 

Ebony as a tonewood carries the traditional perception as being the best fingerboard tonewood, is challenged by over-harvesting and illegal logging. With the right approach it can be done sustainably, but the future of string instrument making maybe in the hands of modern technology and its search for for affordable alternatives.

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