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That would be awesome!

Me too. One thing I don't like about TEK, judging by the photos on Madinter's site, is that it really doesn't look like ebony; whereas the Rocklite Ebano product is pretty much a dead ringer for high grade ebony, if there's any tip-off that it's synthetic it would be that it's too perfect.

It’s hard saying what the Blackwood looks like given the quality of the photos I’ve seen. The Richlite would be too homogeneous for my taste plus it’s really hard on tools. The Rocklite is too expensive IMO.

Ill post decent pictures when it arrives

I'll have several pics and impressions of Blackwood Tek in use soon. Probably by mid-next week.

I look forward to your opinion on the stuff. Will you be able to compare the Blackwood with the other two offerings?

Best, M

It would appear to be Rocklite. https://www.macphersonwoodcrafts.com/st ... 8d115eb4b3

Is that good or bad

No, unfortunately. I only have Blackwood Tek and haven't tried the other two alternatives. I can compare it to ebony though.

FWIW I opened a thread 3 years ago , which I believe was the first time Rocklite was mentioned on the OLF.

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=45826

It is interesting to see how peoples thinking has changed over the past three years - from a general non acceptance of synthetic materials to one of "what are the qualities and which is the best substitute". Although I don't think there will be an immediate change to synthetics, as resources dwindle and they improve in quality, they may become more accepted.
Having used laminated backs and sides for the past 20 years I am not averse to engineered materials but considering the price point they are presently marketed at I will stick with ebony and dark tropical hardwoods for the time being.

I guess that all this makes me sort of glad that I have been done for years. All my instruments were solid wood. Pretty happy that I decided to make so many out of white oak, but also happy that they all were made with ebony fingerboards and pegheads except for a few BRW and one tortoise shell celluloid. Mandolins used ebony bridges, but guitars mostly used AFB.
As far as guilt over the shortage of said woods, I really don't feel too bad about all that as I used a few board feet compared to millions of board feet of the Korporations in the US, Mexico and Pac-Rim, etc. Martin made a million guitars, that's a million ebony fingerboards...
Things will change in the future, of course, and some miraculously inventive "human ants" will develop materials that they will claim to be the next best thing on the planet. Till said planet will no longer support the "human condition", I guess I can be satisfied that my instruments were made entirely of wood. That's good enough for me...

I just put up a review of Blackwood Tek in another thread.

Back in the 70's, I attended Charles Fox's "Earthworks" guitar making class. A great experience, but back on topic. Charles was, at the time, using phenolic fingerboards exclusively. The guitar I built in class is still holding up fine with that fingerboard. I have used a similar, if not the same, material on and off for a long time. Garolite XX. I get it from McMaster Carr. It's inexpensive and works great as a fingerboard material (although I've used it for other purposes too). I know it won't apply to many here, but it's the best fretless fingerboard material I've ever used.

It re-frets fine. It looks pretty much like really black ebony (cutting through the layers of paper leaves a grain pattern when the fingerboard is domed). Glues well. Wears like iron. Works well with woodworking tools. Stinks like the devil when you work it, and is probably pretty toxic stuff, so use a dust mask.

At any rate, I have instruments from 40 years back with Garolite fingerboards that are still holding up fine.

Daver