As organic woods become more rare and expensive, more and more guitar manufacturers are forced to look for substitute materials and evidently many end up choosing Richlite for fretboard material. I particularly followed Gibson in the past decade in their struggle to try and keep traditional customers happy while avoiding the use of Rosewood and Ebony in some of their most popular models. My first encounter with a Rosewood substitute on Gibsons was with what is called baked maple. Gibson started using baked maple fretboards on Les Pauls and probably other models somewhere around 2010-2011 and I'm pretty sure it only lasted for a year or two. That happened shortly after Gibson got into troubles around alleged illegal imports of endangered wood species, including Indian Rosewood and Madagascar Ebony. Anyways, my first reaction to the use of baked maple on a Les Paul was a deep sigh with a matching frown and a thought of "what has become of that company". Regardless of woods, in my humble opinion Gibson did derailed somewhere around the early 2000s, so to me that was just a part of what appeared to be an ongoing deterioration...
But it was my traditionalist mind that came up with that thought really. For me a Les Paul is a very specific thing and it's hard for me to digest any change that defies traditional designs.
But it was my traditionalist mind that came up with that thought really. For me a Les Paul is a very specific thing and it's hard for me to digest any change that defies its traditional design. As it turned out, that was only the beginning for me. Some time later I found myself checking an amp at a local guitar store. I used a few different familiar guitar models as I normally would, but one of them I just couldn't put down from the second I grabbed it. So much that I started to seriously consider taking it home, something that rarely happens to me. That guitar was a yesteryear beautiful black Gibson Les Paul Custom that played like butter, wasn't too heavy, had killer pickups and felt just right in my hands. After a while the salesman came over and we started to chat about guitars and Les Pauls specifically. When we got to the particular model I was holding in my hands, he said something like "this is not an Ebony fretboard, that's Richlite". I immediately put the guitar down in disgust, as if afraid to get myself contaminated by the alien material. Knowing that Gibson has already been baking maple to substitute Rosewood, I was under the impression that this time things are going to get far worse. What the hell is Richlite! I grabbed my phone and Googled "Richlite fretboard" and found that they were actually using a synthetic, man-made material on a Gibson Les Paul Custom! Devastated and suicidal, I left the store and went home, entered my bed and got out of it the next day, half the man I was the day before.. Ok, I'm kidding, but seriously, who wants to live in a world in which a Gibson Les Paul Custom fretboard is made out of something like that?! This marked the end of an era to me. It was obvious to me that things will never be the same again, that Gibson is going down and the entire industry is in danger...
As days went by I started searching the web and studying more about the subject. I read a lot of opinions, mostly bad ones from players and some explanations from companies that use Richlite like Gibson and a few others. They would explain how great Richlite is, how consistent and stable it is and how important these qualities are for a guitar fretboard material. Yeah, yeah, yeah... of course... what else would they say, right? I wasn't convinced at all.
However, one of the companies I realized was using Richlite was Martin. And to me Martin was another symbol of consistent quality and attention to details. And I own a Martin D16RGT acoustic guitar, which for all I knew at the time was an all solid woods instrument. The D16RGT has solid Indian Rosewood back and sides, Sitka Spruce top and Mahogany beck, but it was one of the lowest priced model in Martin's solid woods guitar lineup, so I thought to myself that if Martin uses Richlite on their instruments, my model is a good candidate for that. Well, they wouldn't use a crappy synthetic material on their high end models for sure.
When I purchased my Martin, I didn't care much about specs. I didn't have a lot of experience with acoustic guitars and I didn't know what their specs meant, so I did some basic research and decided to go with any instrument that's built of solid woods - whatever sounds and feels good and is reasonably priced. I remember trying quite a few guitars, including a Martin D28, which I considered an icon at the time. The D16RGT was amazing from the second I touched it, and although the D28, 35 and 45 looked much sexier, I decided to take the RGT home. I took it home and didn't feel like I compromised on either performance or sound. I was just as happy and content as I could be.
I've been proudly playing and recording a guitar with a Richlite fretboard the whole time!
So, back to the fretboard; I searched the specs of the RGT and found to my amazement that I've been proudly playing and recording a guitar with a Richlite fretboard (and bridge) the whole time!
I was a bit disappointed at first. I almost felt cheated in a way. But I quickly realized that maybe I'm allowing my brainwashed self to take over too easily. Maybe if that guitar served me so well for so many years, it's just fine? Maybe if it sounds and plays so good it's just good? And maybe it's better to play great sounding Richlite fretboards and leave the next generation a world that is a bit more similar to the world I grew up in?
I think that was the ultimate way for me to learn how brainwashed I was and how easily appreciation for tradition can develop into ignorance and preserve bad habits... Just to make it clear, I'm not saying that construction materials don't matter - not at all. What I am saying is that being open and trying new stuff is always a good idea. And if you manage to find a substitution to a traditional material, or maybe a new construction method, there is always the possibility that it will prove to be better, just as it can be proven worse. Development is about getting better in general. It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. It's true that in many cases, construction methods and materials change in order to make things cheaper and more commercial, but it is not the only reason for changes.
I would summarise my journey by saying that Richlite is fine! It really is. If you are after tone, playability and durability, Richlite will give you everything you need and more. However, I think it would be fair to say that in guitar models that have been built using Rosewood or Ebony for decades, Richlite will probably always be considered fake, cheap or just a downgrade. I would also assume that in the coming decades, guitars with Ebony and Rosewood fretboards will become more rare and therefore more expensive and collectibles. But that's just us, it has nothing to do with quality, or tone.
My advice to anyone who is considering a new guitar is, as always, leave the specs alone and use your ears and other senses - that's all that matters.
Rock on!