What is Pau Ferro like to play?

[fretmeister]

I had it on a Fender Stu Hamm signature model. Was all good.

[Terry M.]

On 13/06/2025 at 21:23, Lfalex v1.1 said:

IIRC the Fender Roscoe Beck had a Pau Ferro board. And they're quite desirable. 

True. This is often described as the holy grail of Fender 5 string basses and I've never heard anything negative about the fingerboard in that context. They're so rare however that I've never seen one.

[Terry M.]

On 13/06/2025 at 09:21, admiralchew said:

I have pau ferro on a fretted Warwick Streamer and on the Fender Jaco fretless jazz and I like it a lot on both. In fact, I liked it so much on the Warwick that I was giving serious consideration to using it on a custom bass. I loved how warm the tone was, albeit it’s difficult to discern how much of that is down to the fretboard wood and how much is down to other factors.

Wow I had no idea Warwick used PF. Is this a German or import Streamer out of interest?

[JohnDaBass]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I had it on a Fender Stu Hamm signature model. Was all good.

Me too, my early USA Fender Stu Hamm signature "Urge" 32ins scale bass had pau ferro fret board, great finish, very closed grain, absolutely fine.

[admiralchew]

2 hours ago, Terry M. said:

Wow I had no idea Warwick used PF. Is this a German or import Streamer out of interest?

It’s one of their Teambuilt (so German-made) annual limited models where they change things up a bit in terms of spec. It’s the bolt-on LX model and has a black korina body and Bartolini soapbars in it.

 

 

Here’s a demo (playing at 2:09 onwards):

 

 

[Mokl]

Before it came into use as a ' substitute' for rosewood, I'd always assumed pau ferro was a premium option, seeing it on Sadowskys and higher spec Fenders (such as SRV strat) etc.

 

I've never owned a bass with a pf board, but I from what I've heard suspect I would like it!