A friend of mine has been considering buying a Les Paul Supreme or Custom (hoping to get it as a Christmas guitar). So as a favor, I did a bit of research on new Les Pauls and saw that all the new models, save the Standards use either Richlite or baked maple fretboards. Admittedly, I was a bit shocked by the use of Richlite, which is generally used as counter-top material, and thought what in the world possessed Gibson to make fretboards out of a fabricated material? But doing my best to keep an open mind, I perused my favorite forums to find discussions on the material.
What I found is that there are two camps out there: Purists and players. Purists want everything completely natural, and won’t even settle for laminated boards – they want a solid piece of wood. I was in this camp at first. However, I got brought back down to earth by the “players” whose only concern was that the guitar felt, played and sounded good. That has kind of been my ethos with gear, and I kind of forget it when I started getting into historic reissue Les Pauls. What I forgot is that my guitars are all players (with the exception of “Ox,” my ’59 replica which was specifically purchased for investment). What’s important to me is that a guitar feels, plays, and sounds appealing to me, and more importantly, that I can make music with it. So I’m going to get off my high horse, and take a good look at Richlite, and see if I can play some new Les Pauls.
As far as Richlite is concerned though, it’s actually highly appealing to me because it’s made in a very “green” way. Part of it is made from wood pulp from managed and sustainable forests plus pulp from recycled paper. On top of that, the heat used to incinerate the volatile materials from the production process is used to dry the material, so there is little thermal pollution, and finally, NO hazardous waste production.
Perhaps with Gibson getting busted for purchasing exotic woods from illegal sources was a good thing. Also, that Gibson, the manufacturer of what is one of the most iconic electric guitars in history, would choose to use a fabricated, “green” material for a tonewood is actually pretty cool to me, and could lead the way for other manufacturers to consider using green materials as well.
Can’t wait to try one out!
Guitar Gear 
But what is not cool is charging the same high prices and using cheap MDF or whatever instead of Ebony or Rosewood. I know it’s all about the sound but for me if I can get a high quality hand made Les Paul built for the same price by a luthier using high quality woods I know what I am going to do!
I hear ya… I was going to mention that, but the production process for Richlite isn’t all that cheap. It is apparently a lot more than MDF, so I don’t know if there’d be that much savings. But of course there is the purity issue… A high end guitar is supposed to be made of exotic hardwood….
a few of thoughts
I suspect the cost of Richlite is probably not all that different than wood as it is an engineered product.
Looks like it may be making good use of materials sourced in the US and not from Africa or Asia rain forests. http://www.richlite.com/about/facts.html
CF Martin has been using it for a while now.
I suspect that cost wise raw materials only constitute less than 20% of the retail price of any US made guitar from any manufacturer. When we buy Made in the USA I feel (as A Canadian) we are buying the best that money can buy and are willing to pay for the craftsmanship that we see in US products.
When I buy any guitar or gear my first concern is does sound work for me? Will it hold up to the use or abuse I give it? Is it affordable? Do I like the color and shape(I am really jones-ing for a Butterscotch Blonde Fender Telecaster with maple finger board)
If I was buying an instrument for its collectible value I might be concerned about the raw material in it but as a hobbyist, sound and use are far more important to me.
I have seen and read where Taylor(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anCGvfsBoFY&feature=player_embedded) has bought the major supply company in Cameroon that can supply ebony to North American builders, so I suspect we will see it return to high end guitars and as the saying goes “the times they are a changing”
As always GoofyDawg thanks for keeping this site up and running.
john
Thanks for the comments, John! We will most probably see ebony again, but I’m a working musician and mostly what I care about is how something sounds. I purchased a Squier CV Tele a couple of years ago. It was dirt cheap – just $225 – but that pine body absolutely sings!
Glad to hear Martin is using Richlite! With Gibson using it now, I think it’s a great step forward.