The Fender Pau Ferro Problem 

Thanks for the cool content definitely understand the time it takes especially with full time work so thank you 🤘🏼

I really enjoy your channel, do at the rate that means you are enjoying it, your love of guitars shows, please don't let the grind of RU-vid dampen it!

I’m a big Strat guy. Last week I tried out a Fender Player Pau Ferro in Black and absolutely loved it. It’s actually on my to get list for the next year. Then again, the guitar store regularly maintained their gear which makes it harder to tell if it’s naturally drier. However, I agree on it sometimes feeling rough because it seems to get drier more than other types of wood. It’s in my three favorite woods but it’s barely even in there. Rosewood is just my favorite.

Pau Ferro itself can wildly vary in how it looks. Some are quite red, pale or look very close to rosewood. I've had two Pau Ferro boards on an American Professional Jazzmaster body. The first Pau Ferro board was super close to a rosewood board I have. I swapped to another Pau Ferro neck since it has a nitro neck, but the board was quite light. I managed to darken it with Montypresso's Relic Wax and I was quite pleased with the result. Rosewood will always be my first choice, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with Pau Ferro in terms of feel (and looks if you can find a dark one).

I had a client bring me a 1966 jazzmaster and had me swap the neck out for a Mexican Pau Ferro one. I died a little.

I have a small conspiracy theory Pao Ferro is actually a premium fretboard. Once upon a time, it was an option for custom shop orders and ultra high end strats. In the 90s and early 2000s, you got Pao Ferro to look down your nose at the plebs using mere rosewood..... I kid... But only exaggerate a bit. My wild conspiracy theory is that the pao ferro, actually a gorgeous and high end wood.... Is finished for shit in Ensenada on purpose. Take some steel wool, 0000 or finer. Just dust the wood up, you're not sanding . Then hit with good fretboard oil. Light coat, let soak in, repeat. After THAT Pao Ferro usually looks prettier than rosewood. Fender does not do this step on purpose so that the Mexi wont have a pretty, better feeling fretboard than the MIA next to it. Agree on vintage focused models. Agree on price hikes. Bit disagree to say Pao Ferro can actually be a badass fretboard.... But Fender is disincentivised to send them out that way. Every Mexi Pao Ferro is a DIY projecy needing you to finish the job and final polish and oil that board yourself.

Yes, the MIM and Squire are both going up in price. I don't mind Pau Ferro, but the newer Fenders I pick up are generally heavy too, until you get to some MIA and Custom Shop. The partscaster is a risky route; I built one and lost 60% when I sold it on shortly after. Whenever I build a custom build it doesn't come out like I think it will. Great content and thoughts as always!

I remember when Pau Ferro was seen as a posh upgrade to rosewood ! I saw a 70s Squier strat with PF fingerboard and it looked like it was made from cardboard ! I have a Squier VM strat with Indian Laurel fingerboard and it looks real nice, kinda little bit redder than rosewood but I've seen rosewood that was more red than brown ! I think for the price you pay mexican guitars ought to have rosewood.

Couldn’t agree more. One of the biggest selling points of the Mexico line was its affordability in comparison to anything else in its price point. While the player series has certainly improved immensely features wise, the constant price hikes aren’t justified IMO. I bought a player series in the middle of 2020 for 600 now the same guitar is like 850!

This past week I saw a high-end Suhr guitar with a pau ferro neck (not just the fretboard, but the whole neck) and it was a thing of beauty - the figuring was lovely. Much better than what you would see on a MIM Fender.

What kind of product would you recommend for cleaning a Pau Ferro fingerboard? There seems to be a lot of conflicting info online whether or not you should oil a Pau Ferro fretboard, and I couldn't find a definitive answer. I love my MIM Strat to bits and have absolutely no desire to accidentally ruin it, so any kind of help with this would be immensely appreciated! Thank you in advance!

I gotta agree with MIM guitars, the quality doesn't equate to the value of it today. I ultimately ended up modding my tele wiring/stock pickups which is more $... nevertheless, I love the neck/body color (Surf pearl) ! But as for Jazzmasters, after watching so many sound comparisons, at this point I'd settle for either a vintage modified or classic vibe + modify it to your liking! Get what you want + mod it how you want! That's why I love the later squier models!

I have 1983 Rickenbacker w/ Bubinga fretboard. It has way more orange color than my MIM Jaguar. I love the Pau Ferro.

Welcome back Alex! Never played a pau ferro board but o agree with you that they look terrible. I don’t know what it is about it, but it just makes a guitar look cheap to me (which with current prices is not the case!)

i bought a squire 40th anniversary vintage and it is amazing - once set up properly. i played a vintera and it didn’t seem with shelling out the extra money for one of those

A few years back, I bought a 60th anniversary Jazzmaster in black. The first one they shipped to me had a bad grounding issue that yielded an intolerable noise level. The Pau Ferro fretboard was sort of streaky and predominately chestnut brown. I had it sent back and another one shipped in its place. The noise issue was remarkably better and much to my great surprise, the Pau Ferro fretboard was much, much darker. It is as dark as my other rosewood fretboards and, honestly, almost indistinguishable from my ebony fretboards. Coloration of Pau Ferro can vary wildly so be advised not to write them off across the board. After adding some additional shielding to the control cavity and a staytrem bridge, This guitar is beyond awesome.

i have a blue vinitera Jazzmaster and mine is surprisingly darker than most which is nice. i got mine as a graduation gift and i am really happy with it personally.

Bought a MIM Jag HH recently. Great guitar but surprised I needed to sort sharp fret ends, but sorted and now plays great. A bit of Monty’s relic wax and the Pau Ferro looks like rosewood. Don’t really mind it and had forgotten it wasn’t rosewood! You could get a Squier J Mascis JM used for about £450. They are tremendous value albeit needs a pickup upgrade for true JM. Bought mine new and it is worth a little more now. I also have an AVRI 65 JM which is ace. Picked up 2nd hand a few years ago for £1200. Love it but still not perfect… vintage correct bridge is not much use if you dig in, strings pop off. Thanks for the vids 👍

I tried a few Pao Ferro Fenders, Jazzmaster and Strat and I liked the feel. It felt well and unlike much of the rosewood boards it didn't have big pores. Very smooth. The color is very light like you say but it didn't look bad. I have American and Japanese Fenders. I have one Mexican but it has a rosewood board, it's a 2015 Fender Classic Player 60s Strat.

Were you playing Starry Eyes by the Records? @ 00:25

true...I relate to that also..

I just found a MiM Monterey Strat with Jimi vibes and pau ferro board also really small frets, it literally plays circles around my US Corona strat with jumbo stainless frets i couldnt believe it. The finish not as good but the tone made up for it

Are Pau Ferro fretboards on MIM Player Basses finished at all? They feel horrible. That is a huge reason why I sent mine back. Found a great price but instead I'm building one out of Fender parts new...a bit pricier but it will be what I want and the experience is super fun for me.

I don’t mind anything used anymore. I just bought another Burny Les Paul custom with a Floyd rose from the 80s. It has a broken headstock but I don’t mind it since it has a locking nut. Also rosewood Mexicans fender stopped making for the shortage in rosewood. Ebony, probably my favorite a perfect In between of rosewood and maple, is also a rarer wood to find on most guitars now. I would just buy a used MIJ fender or an older Mexican made one.

What do you think of a 2022 60s modified vintera? At my local shop they get a ton of product in and for the past 2.5 years I have played every fender product available. The problem is that its all junk and makes no sense.....I've seen squires play better than the ultras... How is that possible? Today I sat down with a few jazzmasters 1 professional 2 vintera 3 a road worn 4 ultra 5 and on ican't remember what they called it but it didn't have a trem or rhythm knobs. I found that the 60s modified vintera was the best but it had a pau ferro neck. They even had the same vintera in a different color and it wasn't similar at all.....the neck was chunkier and it sounded very weak. What the hell? The vintera 60s modified is 1039.00 without a case.....just a simple bag All have to some research on the pau ferro but I might go back and get it. Or I might just save my $ and spend it on a 15 dollar sandwich Thanks for the video

I'm with you there. If the ONLY choices for non-USA guitars are either Pau Ferro or Indian Laurel, I'd go with Indian Laurel. It does look much better than Pau Ferro.

Pau Ferro is so terrible. Fender needs to abandon it ASAP. I bought an older J Mascis Squier with rosewood that I upgraded some things on and it's really good, but honestly I still want a nitro JM.. Great vid man.

I kinda like Pau Ferro. I just bought a MIM Player Plus Nashville Tele after trying it out at GC. On sale, next to a Vintera Strat it was a much better guitar, I felt. Yes, the board was “dry” looking and feeling. Did a bunch of research when I got it home, and ended up treating the fretboard with a homemade mix of 50/50 rubbing alcohol and amber shellac, with a splash of Weimar lemon oil furniture polish, and a splash of Scott’s Liquid Gold wood cleaner and preservative. It worked amazingly well. I first cleaned the board with a slightly damp paper towel, and got a lot of dirt off from previous players (it was hanging in the rack for a year). That worked fine also as a mild abrasive to smooth the board out. Then I applied the above mixture and didn’t let it sit but more than a minute before wiping it off thoroughly. Now it feels and looks fantastic. A nice light color with darker streaks of grain. Very “surfey” in contrast to the Opal Spark finish. Quite happy with the result. The only negative is the side dot markers blend in too much with the Pau Ferro and are hard to see. I’m thinking of adding little dots of bright nail polish on two or three of the dots to alleviate this. I think it’s a great guitar and a good value for the on sale price I paid.

I'm late in Fender Jazzmaster and since I prefer rosewood I bought a used MIM Jazzmaster for $850 Canadian. I'm just lucky I think to found one locally.

I hate the look of most pau ferro fretboards with a passion. The new MIM Vintera II line uses rosewood, so there is hope for made in Mexico guitars :)

This whole negative feeling that most have towards Pau Ferro guitars is damaging the resale and making them more accessible for the rest of us. I have a JM and a Jag with said fret boards and they sound great. Yeah they look slightly different but I'm sure it won't get you kicked out the band. Different strokes, I guess.

I bought a fender player strat and my fretboard is very dark almost similar to rosewood. can't cpmplain.

I'm not a fan of the feel of pau ferro, but I did find a way to make it darker: Monty's Montypresso relic wax. It can darken the wood, and the longer you leave it on, the better it works. I used it on my Reverend Dirt Bike (it has a pau ferro fretboard) and it took it from a light coffee color to almost to a tobacco color. That was two coats, about 15 minutes each time. It works even better on indian laurel. It makes it look like rosewood. It should work on maple as well as long as it's not sealed.

Used AVRI from 2000s would be excellent but yeah too much money. Might as well go boutique like I already told you 😉 I like the more chill feel of this video.

The pau ferro fretboard on my Vintera Jazzmaster, looks so goddamn ashy, it just bums me out just looking at it.

I don't get it, and totally disagree. These days the Player Plus is absolutely on par with the American Ultra. I know, because I own both. So in that sense the Player is still a reasonable priced guitar. And I doubt very much if a blindfolded person would hear any tone difference between Pau Ferro, Maple, or Indian Laurel. So you don't like the look of PF. Some people hate maple, it is just a matter of personal taste, that's all.

As you already know, I agree with everything you said. I think that most of Japanese ones has 7.25 inch radius. Maybe you consider buyin loaded body on the stratosphere and than buy american pro neck here in Europe. :)

I mean the SRV strat has always come with pau ferro and lots of other high end guitars have used pau ferro.

What’s your full time job?

Pau ferro looks as dry as my university chalk board. I feel like my fingers will bleed!!

We have some insanely good looking pau ferro necks here in Brazil.

I can only assume that people keep paying the money... if they would stop the prices would come down - seems to me, at least.

There’s some truth about your point of Mexican Fenders. I’m not sure if I want another Mexican Fender. Was lucky to find my Mexican that I’ve held on for years. The times we live in make stuff more expensive. That vintera Jazzmaster are fine, but I don’t desire one since I’ve gone the Squier route for mines. But eh, I lucked out

Ebony and maple are the best. I find most rosewood isn't much better than pau ferro or Indian laurel.

I hate the Pau Ferro necks! It’s not actually rosewood. Not the same species. I would prefer if Fender used richlite over PF.. I just bought a Troy Van Leeuwen JM and it has a Pau Ferro fretboard.. Huge Disappointment.. The PF is inconsistent and is a mess visually. What Fender could/should be doing is dying the Pau Ferro down several shades prior to cutting and sorting. They could potentially keep using it with better acceptance if they did this. It’s a shame that Fender are offering real rosewood on the new Vintera II’s and my TVL JM that’s a good $500.00 more has a Pau Ferro neck.. Fail.

Count me in the I hate pau ferro camp.

When I got my first Jazzmaster, it was a made in Indonesia Squier. It sounded good and I love it, but ultimately I ended up saving all I could during two plus years and finally I could afford an american JM in 2022. It was worth it.

You nailed it, my same issues, pau ferro looks like butt.

Dye it with Indian Ink, water-based so not too bad staining the pearloid, binding, etc.

Pau Ferro is a superior fretboard wood that is more durable because of the tighter denser grain that will not actively collect dirt and debris like very porous rosewood will. Pau Ferro is a Custom requested type of fretboard wood that was even specifically used by Stevie Ray Vaughn too, a rather aggressive player no doubt. For me anyhow, Pau Ferro is an upgrade that can take abuse much more like Ebony and is less likely to crumble apart like old Rosewood is known to.

I like pau ferro, especially on Strats - it has a pluckier sound and sharper attack than rosewood, which has a warmer/woodier sound and softer attack. With that said, if I were buying a Jazzmaster, I would want rosewood over pau ferro.

I think jazzmasters are not hard to find second hand, since 4/5 years all the tourists are playing offsets now, so there’s a lot of import jazzmasters and jaguars on second hand listings. Yes the new mexicans are a bit expensives but it’s all guitar prices which have gone up not just mexicans. Comparing them to the japanese, if it wasn’t for Pau Ferro vs Rosewood they are almost identical (same woods, same parts, almost same finish, even mexican pickups are generally better, especially against those 90s/00s japanese fenders that people overprice so ridiculously, telling you that they are sooo much better than nowadays mexicans, see the jagstang for example, the best version of the 3 is the new MIM, not the fujigen made, not the tokai made). Anyway that pau ferro debate is now over since they went back to rosewood and see the success of the vintera2, that desert sand jazzmaster that you see everywhere, suddenly no one speaks cares about japanese made anymore now. Regarding those second hand pau ferro vintera1 which are coming on the market for half price now, reallt, 99% of the music audience dont know what pau ferro, no one will see a difference, girls dont care if your fretboard is light brown or dark brown , only population who cares is that guitar geek people of instagram that dont know shit about songwriting and music in general, and for which i couldnt care less about.

i can see the disappointment..

It's the economics of supply and demand and the joys of inflation overall

My strat is a Mexican road worn. Luckily, it’s from 2008/2009 and has a rosewood board. I love that guitar more than anything I’ve ever owned. It plays beautifully and sounds amazing.

pau ferro is a better playing fretboard than laurel or rosewood. looks can be easily changed with inexpensive products and a few minutes of effort.

so, if you would build a whole guitar... why not just build a fretboard instead?

In 2015, Mex Fenders were $499USD street price. Today, I would buy Squire before Mexican.

I recently played a MIM Jazzmaster and it played like a dream and sounded fantastic through his period correct amp. The owner didn't shim the neck and left the stock 9's on it. He also got a decent deal on it new ($800) and is happy - and should be. It was smooth as melting butter.🧈

i literally choose to buy classic vibes over Mexican stuff because of how much nicer laurel looks on average than pau ferro. fender is dropping the ball for those of us that prefer the looks of a darker fretboard. theres no reason to buy MIM when MIJ stuff can be found for about the same price with more traditional woods. even american strats and teles used can be found on facebook for less than a vintera new guess ill keeping modding classic vibes LOL

I dislike pau ferro. It’s too orange and doesn’t feel or sound like rosewood. Any kind of rosewood.

You're so right about Mexican Fenders. The value for money is simply not there anymore. And don't get me started on pau ferro (to think that even Squiers once came with rosewood...). The best bang for buck is the MIJ Traditional series - depending where you are in the world, you can get a vintage-specced Jazzmaster, with a rosewood fingerboard, for less than the price of a Vintera.

People think rosewood is cheap because people parrot that it’s cheap. You people are silly 😂

Prang pinoy ka kuya😀

I agree, I'll never purchase a guitar from the newer MIM Fender range. I own an older MIM Stratocaster and Jaguar and with some upgrades they are incredible guitars competing with my made in USA Fender guitars. But these went for around $500-$600 new at the time and had rosewood fretboards. Most of the Pau Ferro fretboards on the newer MIM guitars look ugly (too light and dried out) and the price of these Made in Mexico Fender guitars has skyrocketed. Better off buying spending a little more and buying a Japanese or American model these days in my opinion.

Your problem with Fender is unfounded unless you are going to have the same "problem" with all guitar manufacturers including anyone who makes a guitar in addition to parts suppliers. Rosewood is an endangered species and was banned for export and import by new regulations added to CITES beginning in 2017. The ban was lifted for musical instruments in 2019 but traceable documentation verifying sources as "sustainable" and not "illegal" is still required for both exporters and importers which istin itself is a cost addition. This is the short short version of it but I suugest you spend an hour or so doing the same reseach I did for details and not shoot the messenger as you are doing with Fender. Pau Ferro compared to rosewood is identical in terms of hardness for durability and playability, the two main requirements for fretboard material. As a suitable alternate, the two major differences are color as a negative for some (ok many) and availability/cost as a positive. Over time the availability of rosewood is only going to be less and less which means the costs will increase even more as a result. For the larger manufacturers such as Fender or Gibson, this will naturally dictate which model lines have rosewood fretboards, and that would be their Top of the Line Models.

This is silly, buy a neck, buy whatever Fender you like...most Hot Rod their Guitars anyway these days...CTS pots, capacitors for treble bleed, ect no Problem, just business and they want you to buy "Premium" so why give you Rosewood if they know the people who care will pony up the cash.

Pau ferro sucks but doing something good for the environment rocks. Just play maple boards hehe.

I won't buy a guitar if it doesn't have rosewood. I don't care what BS reason they use for not using rosewood. I can't get past the look of pau ferro-looks cheaper. I'll buy used Fenders with real rosewood before buying guitars with alternative woods. Been playing rosewood Fenders for 50 years and the other wood just doesn't appeal to me 😊. The only 3 Mexican Fenders i own are a 2006 & 2018 50s Baja Telecaster and a 2015 60s Baja telecaster with real rosewood. I wont buy any other mexican fenders today. There's a reason these Baja Fender's are commanding such high prices. I'm not glad i bought them when i did. I prefer played them over the pro II line of American Fenders.

It’s not the wood type, but the look is absolutely hideous. Knowing a few people in the business these guitars are hard to sell and resell value is awful in comparison to maple for the same model. Just because Pau Ferro is so ugly.

I don’t see your problem. Life is about change so move on. I actually like the pau ferro colour, it has a nice shade to it and I think it looks more classy than Rosewood. The real problem are the cheap parts on a hugely overpriced Fender but this is what the market pays right now…

I will never buy a Fender with an ugly Pau Ferro fretboard. When Fender started using this ugly wood on $1100 and under guitars they officially lost me.