A novel flax fibre composite material for stringed instrument fingerboards

With growing restrictions on the exploitation and trade of current stringed musical instruments fingerboard materials such as ebony and rosewood, for economical and ethical reasons, instrument makers are looking for alternative materials. The present work describes the development of a homogeneous 60% bio-based flax fibre composite material with physical properties similar to commonly used fingerboard woods. As a proof of concept, prototype guitar neck was built using the material, demonstrating its compatibility with existing guitar manufacturing techniques.