Higgins india ink fretboard9/12/2023 Last, and far from least, unfinished fretboards do not need "conditioning". I also like to know that less ebony is being wasted. I use almost as many ebony boards as I do rosewood and I've come to really like the swirly grey grain in the modern boards. "Ebonizing" a fretboard is another thing that I think is silly. I understand exactly why Fender uses them and if I only built new guitars for that market I might too. I happen to think that finished maple fretboards are one of the worst ideas - I don't use them on guitars that I build and after doing a refret on a guitar with a finished board I've decided to let other have that hassle. An unfinished rosewood fretboard is very easy to clean when you change strings (I like 0000 steel wool) and when dressing frets you really don't have to worry about damaging the board. It is rarely finished because it really doesn't need it and frankly finished fretboards wear in ways that are hard to deal with. Rosewood is a traditional material for fretboards and bridges on acoustic guitars and many electrics. I use lacquer for all my finishing - it looks really nice on rosewood. Finish is some sort of coating that sits on top of the wood, it protects it and often makes it shiny. I rarely apply stains to them (I do to lots of other woods) but I always finish them. I build guitars out of rosewood - all the different varieties. Rosewood, being a dark redish brown color to start with is not going to change color much with stains - about all you can do is make it darker. Some woods need stains worse than others, some take stains better than others. It soaks into the wood and can be applied to almost any variety of wood you can think of. I know that when I start conditioning this new board it will get darker and richer, but I did want to explore my questions about stain and rosewood.Ī "stain" is a liquid that is applied to wood to change its color. Why was that not an issue?Īny input is appreciated. My brother (RIP) had a beautiful Rickenbacher that had a rosewood board that had a thick gloss finish on the rosewood board from the factory. People use India Ink to "ebonize" rosewood for a vintage look. If this is all correct, 2 things bug me:ġ. And I believe that staining without poly means that it would rub off, and likely the F1 oil I condition with would take it off as well. Here's what I "THINK" I know: You do NOT want to seal the rosewood board with poly, you need to leave the grain open to breathe. The fretboard is nice, but the stained sides are beautiful and I really wish I could carry that on to the fretboard. I applied polyurethane to all of that which Fender does too. I did stain the sides of the fretboard and the piece above the nut that joins the headstock face. I hated the orange finish once it arrived, so I hand sanded all of the heavy lacquered finish to the bare maple, and mixed a stain that turned out great. I bought a neck with a rosewood board for a vintage build. I'm currently doing my first neck refinish for a build I'm doing. I should know the answer to this, but some things puzzle me about this:
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