Ebonite Fretboards

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Stelling Owners Club

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For those who own or want to own the ultimate banjo. www.stellingbanjo.com

537 Members, Created 1/28/2011 -

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From bobb62 on 7/24/2011 7:40:25 AM

Anyone know what year (years) Stelling used Ebonite Fretboards, or if they actually ever did. I heard they can move and damage the neck if out in hot, direct sun for too long.

How can you tell if you have Ebonite?

7 Comments
	jimmie99 says: 7/24/2011 8:48:48 AM Yes, my '81 Belleflower had Ebonite. The story I heard was Geoff couldn't get descent ebony for a few years and used Ebonite instead. Wears like iron but twists the neck out of tune, about a half tone, when exposed to direct sun. Then, if a cloud came along, or you changed your position the neck would go the other way. Very frustrating when playing outdoors. Never damaged my neck but was a pain in the ass. I sent the banjo to Geoff about 3 years ago for a fret job. He replaced the Ebonite with ebony and all is well.
	jimmie99 says: 7/24/2011 8:50:38 AM Ebonite has no grain, just a black board. All ebony has some amout of grain. That's how you can tell. Ebonite looks okay but not natural.
	Geoff Stelling says: 7/24/2011 8:57:49 AM Bob, In Sept. of 1977, we decided to start using a synthetic ebony called ebonol to take up the slack for increasingly hard-to-get ebony. The serial # was 558 and we continued till Aug. of 1980 and stopped at serial #1618. It is smoother and shiny compared to ebony and very hard. It does expand in the direct sunlight. Another problem for some, but not all, is that it shrinks like a plastic over time. I own two banjos with ebonol and the fingerboards are fine. Both were made in 1980. The technical name for this material is Phenolic Resin that is impregnated into a wood based substance like paper layers. It was supposedly developed for use in helicopter rotor vanes by Kaman Inc., makers of Ovation Guitars. We switched back to ebony when it became more readily available. Geoff
	jimmie99 says: 7/24/2011 9:05:06 AM Yup, my Belleflower is a 1980 model.
	bobb62 says: 7/24/2011 9:19:05 AM Thanks for the quick responses. Wow, one of the answers directly from the "horses mouth". Thanks for taking the time to answer so thoroughly Geoff. I just picked up an 81 Staghorn and I am going to be playing outside today. I wanted to make sure I could take my new baby outside!
	bobb62 says: 7/24/2011 2:17:41 PM One more question Geoff: I bought Simichrome and cleaned up the Nickel, I bought Glyde-Cote and it did a fantastic job on the wood. Is there anything you recommend to use on the front of the Headstock?
	bobb62 says: 7/24/2011 4:04:57 PM One more question Geoff: I bought Simichrome and cleaned up the Nickel, I bought Glyde-Cote and it did a fantastic job on the wood. Is there anything you recommend to use on the front of the Headstock?
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