Phenolic resin

A hard thermoset plastic made from phenol and formaldehyde, used as a fretboard and as the binder in composites.

Phenol formaldehyde, once sold as Bakelite, was the first widely used synthetic plastic and is still made in sheet and rod form because it is hard, stiff, heat resistant and dimensionally stable. In guitars it appears as a fretboard material, either as a paper-and-resin laminate or as a solid sheet, and as the matrix resin in some composites. It is commonly described as sounding bright and hard, nearer ebony than any wood, with a clean attack and very little warmth. It is consistent and unaffected by humidity, but it has no figure, it feels glassy under the fingers and it is hard to modify once fitted.

Example: A phenolic fretboard on a budget instrument plays like a very consistent, hard wooden board, though it neither looks nor feels like one.

typical use: Fretboards, nuts, and as the binding resin in laminates.

Phenolic resin

See also