Gidgee – Dressed – Fingerboard – 2 sizes

Dressed Gidgee fingerboard blank. 15×70×800mm. Acacia cambagei — one of Australia’s hardest timbers. Dark chocolate to near-black, naturally oiled, glass-smooth finish. Standard 6-string width. Sold per piece.

One of the hardest timbers on the planet, dressed and ready to fret. Gidgee — Acacia cambagei — from the inland Queensland and NSW mulga scrub, with the density and natural oils that put it in the same fret-life band as African ebony.

What it is. A slow-growing arid-zone acacia, the heartwood deep chocolate to near-black with occasional fine waver in the grain. Self-lubricating oils carry through the section, which is why no top coat is needed for it to wear well under strings.

What you’d make with it at 15×70×800mm.

• Six-string electric or steel-string fingerboard — standard width, scale lengths to 25.5″
• Classical fingerboard for a builder choosing density over imported ebony
• Mandolin or short-scale fingerboard with offcuts for inlay accents
• High-wear bridge plate or saddle stock for a darker hardwood acoustic build

Working notes

• Density: ~1,100 kg/m³ — very dense, ranks among Australia’s hardest commercial timbers
• Hardness: ~12 kN Janka — extreme; sharp tooling and patient feed rates are the price of working it
• Grain: Tight, interlocked, occasional fine figure — holds fret slots cleanly and radiuses to a glossy surface
• Surface: Supplied with a true reference face — ready to mark out fret slots and radius
• Working: Carbide tooling is mandatory; HSS dulls quickly. Slot with a sharp fretsaw or CNC; epoxy or fish glue for bonding (the oils resist PVA)
• Finishing: Maintenance only — a wipe of lemon oil at string-change is plenty

What luthiers say about it. Australian builders have reported fret-wear on Gidgee fingerboards behaving more like ebony than rosewood — a comparison that’s been consistent in Australian Wood Review instrument features and the local steel-string builder community for two decades.

The stack it came from. Gidgee grows slowly and dries slowly — the boards on this listing have rested for years before being dressed to fingerboard thickness. Once it goes, the listing closes.

References. Species reference: Acacia cambagei — Wikipedia. Browse more: our Gidgee stock. Also see: our Luthier Timber range.