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Which is better for purfling on the edge of the fingerboard, wood/fiber or plastic? Would the white portion of wood/fiber stain with finger oils? Would plastic be better choice?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Yep, plastic will stay cleaner. If you use wood or fiber you can seal it with some CA and that will prevent adsorption of dirt and oils, to a degree.

If I'm allowed to piggy back, is a maple line on an African Blackwood board a bad idea?

I had an old Washburn (1920's?) with a white purfling line on an ebony board, and although it was not bright white because of finger oils it was still noticeable as a "white" purfling line.

I would not use purfling on a finger board... you sure thats gonna look good? (yeah, I know, 'bout to see pictures of it)

I have done a light purfling line between the FB and binding and it looks great. But. . . once the strings go on, no one really notices it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Ya, it looks fantastic! It especially looks great when you line up the headstock purfling/binding with the fretboard.

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My only thought is to use whatever binding and purfling you use on the rest of the guitar - carry the them thru, don't use different colors or products. This is simple - cocobolo bound in coco with a maple line - back, fretboard, head. The rosette is coco with maple and ebony lines, the top is bound in coco with maple and ebony lines.

I've used wood fiber and not seen it get unsightly ... yet. I'm with Freeman on the preference for a unified design aesthetic.

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George :-)

Not sure I would use "fibre" or super-white "holly", but I've used maple purfling on fingerboards extensively since 2009. I asked the owner of the first in that year to tell me how the purfling looked. This guitar has been played a lot, generally for studio work (he's a producer/engineer). He felt it still looked good, still looked like maple. He sent a photo. Doesn't look new, but I'm OK with the way it looks on a 10-year-old instrument:

Looks great to me. Did you seal/ flood it with CA?

It’s 10 years ago — kinda hard to remember. There was likely some wax on the naked board. before glueing the refrets with CA, my usual practice, but nothing else. And I doubt the owner has done anything but play it. I did an adjustment on it a year or so after the sale, but haven’t had it in my hands since then.


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I should add that, as a card-carrying forest engineer, I don’t use any plastic anywhere on my guitars. Ever!


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I bind fingerboards a lot like Tim. I think it looks good, but it does emphasize any misalignment between strings 1 & 6 and the edges of the fingerboard.