S2 fretboard quality gray splotchy not very impressive

[Ironwolf]

so I decided I want to get a mira S2,
it's fantastic that the sellers can take such high quality photos of the actual guitar.
I went through about 20 different S2 mira photo sets,
I was shocked to see how discolored, not uniform, white, gray splotchy, open pores, fibers lifting, lack of smoothness the fretboard's were exhibiting in the photographs.
anyone else noticed they may have had a few bad weeks of wood selection for 2017 -18.
I occasionally run across very normal standard core model fretboard.

I understand it's a lower quality from a beauty perspective, but it looks to me like they might have let it slip one notch below where it actually might start affecting tone and playability.
I feel like somebody decided to clear out all of the unused ultralow grade rosewood.
that could be a function of there's very little left in the world.

I had to screen through about 20 of them to find a dark. uniform. smooth, looking fretboard.
it still looks extremely dry hopefully it will look nice when I put some orange oil on.
these do not look nice,

 

[andy474x]

Personally, I’d hit either of those. I don’t think the way they look necessarily indicates the way they feel, it’s just lighter grain wood.

 

[Rider1260]

I sometimes really dig rosewood fretboards with some personality bit of fretboard oil it will darken right up.
I like the board on that Mira

 

[Ironwolf]

Personally, I’d hit either of those. I don’t think the way they look necessarily indicates the way they feel, it’s just lighter grain wood.

here's the actual one I ended up buying. this is much more reflective of USA made to me.
I am perhaps spoiled by having several wood library and core models where the fretboard's are just fantastic chocolate richness.
this one does have just the right amount of personality, but I've noticed the darker wood does seem to have tighter grain pattern ( higher density) and less sapwood which I think is what the white is it's a slightly lower density wood, and may have a tendency to absorb frequencies.
I want it to look like a wood library if I can get away with it, ,
I believe I will be happy with this, this looks very much like my Les Paul fretboard.

 

[pac90]

Depends upon country of origin too, although they just look dry to me. I don't think prs would drop the ball.
One of my S2s is kinda stripey and i think it looks cool.

Nice guitar, will be watching to see what you think compared to core and do.

I have 90% pickup swap and 0.1% putting the 22 fret neck on the core

 

[IshGuitars]

That blue guitar is ours, in store right now... Rosewood has very different color and grain depending on the piece of wood. Some is light, some is dark, some is redder, some is browner. All sounds the same though, nothing is better or worse. Personally I prefer a reddish color with some nice contrasty streakiness

 

[Ovibos]

I'm pretty gray these days and during winter I don't get enough sun, so I guess you could call me splotchy.

 

[Tim S]

... so I guess you could call me splotchy.

OK there splotchy.

 

[Lister]

I'd rock either of those without hesitation. I personally like a little variety in the rosewood, it makes each guitar distinct.

Semi OT, but since we're talking fretboard variations, have you seen some of the Ebony boards Taylor has been using on their acoustics? With Ebony becoming more scarce, they've started using boards that would've been scrap just 10 years ago, and I applaud them for it.

Here's a great article that talks about why striped ebony is a now thing along with a video of Bob Taylor explaining why they use it. Well worth the time to read and watch IMO. If nothing else, start at the 8 minute mark for an explanation of how striped ebony became a new resource.
https://tobiasmusic.com/ebony-fretboard-streaked-taylor-guitars/

 

[Big Mike]

That blue guitar is ours, in store right now... Rosewood has very different color and grain depending on the piece of wood. Some is light, some is dark, some is redder, some is browner. All sounds the same though, nothing is better or worse. Personally I prefer a reddish color with some nice contrasty streakiness

This. I see no issues on those boards. It's a natural wood, it's going to vary sometimes wildly.
Iittle rosewood oil at worst if it's a little dry for whatever reason but perfectly acceptable IMO.

 

[László]

OP, that you’d come on here and diss a perfectly fine guitar is pretty cold. There’s really no reason to complain about that one in any case.

 

[Big Mike]

+
this one does have just the right amount of personality, but I've noticed the darker wood does seem to have tighter grain pattern ( higher density) and less sapwood which I think is what the white is it's a slightly lower density wood, and may have a tendency to absorb frequencies.

This is a HELL of a stretch and supposition. Complete conjecture and unfounded IMO.

 

[Ironwolf]

That blue guitar is ours, in store right now... Rosewood has very different color and grain depending on the piece of wood. Some is light, some is dark, some is redder, some is browner. All sounds the same though, nothing is better or worse. Personally I prefer a reddish color with some nice contrasty streakiness

is the dealer allowed to put a little fretboard oil on the guitar before selling it? or photographing it. I would assume that's okay. It's a lot like taking the water spray in the wood library, so you can see the grain patterns clearly.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I honestly have no idea what’s the problem here. I can’t even zoom in far enough on these pics to see what the OP is talking about before it turns into pixelated Atari porn.

This is a HELL of a stretch and supposition. Complete conjecture and unfounded IMO.

Makes perfect sense in cartoon logic though. Sponges have pores and they absorb wet stuff, and guitar tones are sometimes described as wet so... I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility, at least not for Wile E. Coyote.

 

[jxe]

some people put sponges on their studio walls to absorb frequencies, so it’s less of a stretch than that.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

some people put sponges on their studio walls to absorb frequencies, so it’s less of a stretch than that.

Like I said: It makes sense.

 

[Ironwolf]

This is a HELL of a stretch and supposition. Complete conjecture and unfounded IMO.

it's not that far of a stretch.
I worked in construction and in a cabinet shop for several years. Many of the construction jobs were very custom. I worked with contractors Who were very knowledgeable about wood, wood was constantly sorted on the jobsite these guys were very picky and very anal. All they talked about was sap wood versus Heartwood, and the saw and/grain pattern. boards with high sapwood were the last to be used if at all. Sap woods were designated to Nonstructural components and/or out of sight hidden components, they were softer not very strong, subject to warping, not as dense, so my experience is the uniform heartwood has the properties most people look for, the sapwood or lighter colored wood, has less of the properties you're looking for. but for framing they preferred all the sapwood 2 x4 as you can drive a nail in with one or 2 strokes. A heartwood 2 x 4 was thrown out because you could not nail it it was so hard.
INot a big stretch, especially given the wood library program and the private stock, seem to provide an over abuncance of heartwood. a tiny stretch,
But the fretboard might be the perfect place to use that, certainly doesn't need to be as structurally strong.
but I did have a lighter colored fretboard on one of my 1st Les Paul's, when I sold it the buyer told me I should cut my fingernails when I play.
When I took pictures of the high zoom photography, you could see about 75 fingernail gouges out of the fretboard, I had not noticed, and it was a light-colored whitish pink rosewood.
So I did heavy damage to that fretboard I've been looking at my other guitars lately, they have very few fingernail gouges. because I hand select the darkest fret boards I can find.

 

[Ironwolf]

Depends upon country of origin too, although they just look dry to me. I don't think prs would drop the ball.
One of my S2s is kinda stripey and i think it looks cool.

Nice guitar, will be watching to see what you think compared to core and do.

I have 90% pickup swap and 0.1% putting the 22 fret neck on the core

so you think I'm gonna take the original 2008 pickups and install them in the 2018 model? that's a very interesting prediction.
I feel like in all the videos the pickups seem really really similar. almost no chance that I"ll cut the neck off?

 

[Ovibos]

IMHO anything looks better than the Pau Ferro that the big F is using heavily these days...

 

[dogrocketp]

I'm more concerned with the sound that the guitar makes than the color and porosity of the fret board. Having said that, I absolutely love the variety that some pieces of wood have in color. I understand that this can affect tone, but it doesn't have to be in a negative way. My ears tell me what I like, not so much my eyes.