Persimmon fret boards for F-style mandolins

[Joe Mendel]

Thanks Bernie. I think it is stunning too, as does every one who has seen it so far. It is a great sounding instrument, though when I first strung it up, it sounded pretty bad. It was overly bright, but not harsh. Funny thing is I usually don't like the sound of any of my instruments right away, it takes a few minutes before they start coming into their own. This one had me worried, it took almost 24 hours to sound good, then it really opened up. It is very balanced and loud. I like it so much that I'm keeping it for myself.
We put on a house concert Wednesday evening & Dave Nachmanoff (davenach.com) used it for almost half the show & he has a really nice Martin OM. He liked it a lot and most everyone there said it sounded really good, everyone noticed the striking look.

[Irénée]

Hello Joe !

A little bit different than your model http://joemendelfrets.com/guitar/

What kind of wood is-it made of please ?

Regards,

[Joe Mendel]

Irene, the one with the dark top is redwood, w/ black walnut back and sides, the other one is red spruce with padauk back & sides.

I picked up this piece of persimmon lumber a couple of weeks ago, it's roughly 12" wide x 8' long x 2" thick. About 7" inches of the width is quarter sawn the rest is the center of the tree. It was gigantic for a persimmon tree, probably another 6 or 7 inches beyond the other side of center. I think I can get at least 2, hopefully 3 back and side for guitar, and there's room for 2, maybe 3 mandolin backs. I'll resaw the guitar B & S first to see how the grain runs, I'm hoping I can re-orient some of the middle to get mandolin sides, a few fingerboards and guitar bridges.

[Pappyrich]

I have an open back banjo made by The Pisgah Banjo Co. near Asheville NC that has a persimmon fret board. Pisgah builds all of their banjos using native NC woods. Mine has a walnut rim and neck with the persimmon fret board. The tone is incredible and the look is very distinctive. I get a lot of favorable comments about it.