Is this kind of discolored stripe on the edge of the fretboard normal/common?

[Duvupov]

Saw this the first restring I did on my new PRS SE custom 24. First thing I thought was 'oh no damage...' But if I feel the fretboard with my fingers it doesn't feel like damage and the angle also feels normal. The color can give a kind of optical illusion of having a slightly different angle. This makes me insecure. But I think there is no damage. What's the cause of this light colored stripe? Just a point of wood grain where the wood has been cut / sawn off? It's only on the high e-side and not the entire neck.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Looks like a wooden bound fretboard. You don’t even get that on some Core guitars (shhhh don’t tell everyone they will all want one)

Would love to see some pics of the whole guitar please.

 

[Duvupov]

It's an ordinary PRS SE Custom 24 black gold burst 2021. I can make some pictures tomorrow with better light.
The 'stripe' is only on the high e-side, only like 2/3 of the neck. Not everywhere the same brightness.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Okay, will wait for more pics.

 

[bodia]

Looks fine to me.

 

[Going Modal]

That's definitely a separate strip of wood as a binding/purfling--look how it turns the corner just past the 24th fret and goes across that end of the fretboard, and is exactly the same width the whole way. Definitely not a random stripe or discoloration within the wood (which can sometimes happen, too, but never that perfectly aligned). It's actually a very cool, high-end kind of thing most of the time.

 

[Duvupov]

As you can see nothing on the low e-side and not the entire neck of the high e-side.

 

[WEDGE]

Nature. Randomness. Nothing more.

 

[nablaz]

That's a rosewood binding all around the fretboard: if you look closely, in the pictures, you can identify the seam even on the bass and upper-treble sides. It's just more visible on the lower-treble side because of the change in colour of that particular stripe of rosewood...

 

[Going Modal]

Yes, it's still there, even when the color evens out and it "disappears." Look at the grain orientation, too.

 

[SinSir]

The coloration is just wood being wood.

 

[Mozzi]

Normal/Common - no! but that doesn't mean its 'lesser' as a result. It maybe natural, although looking at the fretboard where it meets the Pick-up, it certainly looks like its not a 'single' piece of Rosewood and had a piece added that looks more like binding, but for whatever reason they have done so, its not 'detrimental' to the guitar in anyway.

As long as its not impacting on the feel, playability etc, you have something that certainly isn't 'common' but having 'lighter' streaks in the grain is fairly common and can align in ways that don't always look 'natural' too but nothing really to worry about...

 

[Milessongs]

This is exactly what I see on my 2020 SE Paul's Guitar - a very well-matched rosewood (or pseudo-rosewood) binding around the entire fingerboard. It's finished so perfectly into the neck wood that it took me a while to see it. I imagine that there are some slight manufacturing advantages to using a bound fingerboard and frets with the ends of the tines pre-cut; (gluing, installing, filing fret ends), especially when trying to build the thousands of guitars we're all craving! ;-)

 

[M3TAl]

I know my SE Paul's has this too. I think my SE Custom 24 does but I'd have to double check. My SE Santana doesn't have it.

Doesn't bother me any.

 

[AVSvictoria]

I know this is an old post, but I came here to ask about my brand new SE Custom 24 black/gold that has the exact same thing. Exactly.
it is not a natural variation of the wood as others have said. Definitely rosewood binding on a rosewood fretboard.

 

[Steve Dombroski]

rosewood binding.