In addition to tonewoods, the other type of woods used in making instruments–for fingerboards, pegs, tailpieces, endpins, and chinrests–come from a category known as tropical or exotic hardwoods. This category includes ebony, boxwood, rosewood, and assorted less commonly used woods. Fingerboards and other fittings require extra-hard wood for strength and durability, and those are the characteristics of these woods. Most makers like to make the pegs, tailpiece, endpin or end button, and chinrest out of the same type of wood for the sake of appearance, but regardless of the wood used for the other fittings, virtually all fingerboards are made of ebony.

Ebony is the wood most commonly used for all instrument fittings. It was popular in antiquity not only for its extreme density and hardness, but also because it is often a uniform, dense black color. In former centuries, ebony was so rare and expensive in Europe that fingerboards and tailpieces made from it actually had only a thin layer of it on the outside. The rest of the fitting was made of a softer, less expensive wood. Today, ebony fittings are usually made of solid ebony. Ebony often has streaks of brown in it. Some people like the look of this, and others prefer perfectly black ebony wood. Some student instruments have imitation ebony, or “ebonized” fittings, made by coating softer wood with a black stain or a hard black resin. At Eastman Strings, we use only genuine ebony.

Boxwood is also a very hard wood, and its uniform light brown color with very faint grain lines is considered attractive by many people. Boxwood can be stained, and it sometimes has beautiful flame. Boxwood fittings are often decorated with details made of ebony or another substance. Many Eastman Strings instrument models have beautiful boxwood pegs and other fittings.

Rosewood is usually quite dark red-brown with strong grain lines, though there are many color variations. It is a popular wood for fittings, though not as commonly used as ebony and boxwood.

The wood of the fittings does not affect the sound of the instrument nearly as much as the tonewoods do, though some players and makers theorize they still have a subtle influence. In recent years, plastic, carbon, or composite resin tailpieces and other fittings have become increasingly popular as replacements for wooden fittings. Tests done at Eastman Strings have shown that composite tailpieces, for example, perform very well sonically compared to wooden tailpieces.