This is no more than a thought based on other guitar manufacturers.
Martin has been using micarta and rich lite a paper resin synthetic fret board,
Very few of their guitars have rosewood or ebony.
Gibson has taken a turn to using rich lite for certain es 335 and lps.
They started using baked maple when their rosewood fiasco occurred.
I personally have one, don't mind it at all.
That's 2 manufacturers using paper resin synthetic, richlite fretboards.
I wonder if fender will follow suit.
What would look cool is an ash bodied crimson red with a baked maple neck.
However a AVRI would not.

Just wondering others opinions

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

I'm REALLY "Old School" on this one. Give me traditional woods, utilized in their traditional states, PERIOD. I hate to see what was/is "high end" instruments being made out of synthetic compounds and what's left of the traditional woods used being subjected to forced processes, all in the name of cost cutting (although they'll proclaim some BS about them "Going Green" as their justification).

Clearly, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

Maple was a wildly radical fingerboard material in the '40s and '50s. Leo was the first to use it on a stringed instrument.

And phenolic fretboards have been around for a long time. "70s aluminum-neck Kramers had phenolic boards, as did the graphite Steinbergers. Martin started using phenolic boards in the early '80s. You could say they're more traditional than Pao Ferro.

I'm in the market for a Martin acoustic electric and want to save
money for it, but this may be a deal breaker for me.
im with you, keep the strat with trad woods. The example of strat
is merely a fsr not for a standard.
My Gibson lp studio has the baked maple, it's wood so it doesn't
bother me, however on a standard or es 335 give me rw.
but synthetics fret boards would make it undesirable.

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Strayed,
When you mean phenolic boards I take you mean micarta
boards. that's as an offensive material IMO as the Taylor 110
SCREWS on the fingerboard . And still sell for 500-600 crazy

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

The Baked Maple works fine on an SG Std. It's not as fancy looking as some Rosewoods, but some of the Baked Maple does have a nice grain, and color in it. At least it's real wood, and not laminated.

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Am. Std. Jazz / Maple / Olympic White
D'Addario ETB92 Nylon Tapewound Strings
Hartke LH500 head / Acoustic B410 cab

Micarta, RichLite, Formica, Bakelite are all similar phenolics -- fibers mixed with phenolic resins. Micarta uses cotton fibers, Rich Lite grinds recyled paper into wood pulp. Taylor may do something weird with it, but Micarta is usually glued on.

I've got a '81 GRD Explorer with a phenolic fretboard. It's like "super ebony" IMO -- I rarely see real ebony that's as nice.

I dono, I think a Strat with a mother of toilet seat fretboard would look pretty rad

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I'm going to reserve judgement until I've actually played them, but baked maple fretboards sound interesting to me.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

All they do is keep the strings tight really.
For some reason I feel hungry when I hear "Baked Maple"