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Has anybody used a different binding for the fingerboard than the body? I am building a maple body OOO 12 fret and using leopard wood binding for the body. I'm thinking about a cocobolo fingerboard and bridge. ...Wondering if the coco fingerboard would look good bound in maple or look strange. I'm not sure that leopard wood binding would look good on coco. ...or I could simply not bind the fingerboard.

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

The body you have put together is outstanding!!!

So many choices on the fingerboard but let me put forth one more. maybe an unbound, matching leopardwood fingerboard?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks. That's an interesting idea, Joe. Hadn't thought of that. Is leopard wood suitable as a fingerboard? ...hard enough?

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

I was thinking the same exact thing. I'm a big fan of matching appointments though. If you didn't want the fret ends to show you could just bind the leopardwood with leopard wood.

That said binding an ebony fretboard with leopardwood would also look outstanding IMO.

Nice looking box!

If leopardwood would be suitable as a fingerboard, I think that's a great idea. I'm another fan of matching appointments. I think it's possible to have too many different types of wood or too many different grain or figuring patterns to coexist nicely on the same guitar. What do you have in mind for the headplate?

For binding the cocobolo fingerboard, if the maple used for the binding looked just like the maple in the body, it might work, but I have a feeling it would still look a bit too busy with the body bound in leopardwood which has such a distinct figuring pattern. I think curly maple would not look good since it would be so distinctly different from the figuring in the leopardwood. Maybe you could use the approach of using offcuts from the edges of the fingerboard blank as the binding if you want the bound look.

The body looks great. How easy/hard was it to bend the leopardwood?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I do it all the time. Just a matter of coming up with an overall color/figure scheme that works together rather than looking frankenstein-ish.

Leopardwood's hardness is 2150 as opposed to 2440 for Indian rosewood, so a little on the soft side, but people have used black walnut which is 1010, so I think it will be fine.

Beautiful work, Dennis.

I am also a fan of matching appointments. I tend to use the same wood for the bridge as the fingerboard. So, I'm not sure leopard as a bridge would work. Another possibility is to bind the cocobolo fingerboard with leopard... Although, I'm not sure that would be as much of a contrast... unless, maybe, I put in a maple purf between the binding and the board... (just thinking out loud). I guess it could get stained with finger "goo" over time.

I was thinking that cocobolo would look nice because the reddish color would be a good match with the reddish color of the leopard.

Jay, the leopard bent fine in a fox bender. I took it down to about 0.065" and used Supersoft II, taped to my sides. Bent an extra, just in case. Didn't need it. I'm planning to have a slotted headstock (12 fret neck). I have already put on a leopard headplate with maple veneer underneath. Now, I'm trying to decide about a back strap, which I like doing. So, I'm trying to decide what to use for that. I'm kinda thinking about using maple, perhaps with a rosewood veneer underneath. These decisions are part of what makes building fun for me... BTW - The neck is cherry. First time I've used it and I really like how it works...

Once the maple on this thing is finished, the figure should pop and look real nice...

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

I’d maintain the leopardwood binding on an ebony fretboard. My fear with cocobolo is that you’re going to have too much going on visually. The leopardwood is the defining visual signature of the guitar. I wouldn’t toss another visually strong wood into the mix.

Just one opinion among many, and worth exactly what you paid for it

Steve

Some of the old Washburn guitars used a strip of purfling between the fretboard and a fretboard binding that was the same material as the fretboard. A leopard wood fretboard with a maple purfle might look nice and not add too many elements to the mix.

Here is an ash resonator I built. It has tortoise binding on the body, and I used cut-offs from the ash soundboard turned on edge for the fretboard. That's a wormhole in the neck - the tree was killed by ash borers on a friend's farm in WVA.

Ed