Refinishing neck

[pickinFool]

Hi,

I have a cheap, made-in-China, noname (I think it maybe a Cremona) bass. The finish on the neck is starting to deteriorate and I'm left with black stuff on my hands after I play it.

I'd like to sand off the finish. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to go about this? More specifically, what type of oil sealer and finish to use?

Thanks for any help!!!

[Chasarms]

Are you talking about the back of the neck or the fingerboard?

[pickinFool]

Ooopps! Should have clarified that!

It is the fingerboard.

Thanks

[pickinFool]

Actually take a look at the photo on my band's Web site and you can see the problem I'm having with the fingerboard.

[Chasarms]

The problem is that while the epoxy-like black stuff coating your board is flaking off, it is still likely much harder than the wood under it, as the cheap Chinese basses are known to have poor quality fingerboards.

If you sand off the existing black stuff, you may be left with a fairly soft board. If you play often, you may groove the board in a very short time.

[Mike Goodbar]

One solution is to replace the fingerboard with an ebony fingerboard, but this may end up costing you anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 of what you paid for your bass (assuming you paid -$1000 for the Palatino). Maybe even a rosewood board, like the ones (all hail) Bob Gollihur sells on his Web site might be better than what's on there now.

I've never heard of anyone doing it, but I wonder if you sanded off the black stuff and then sealed the soft fingerboard with some hard marine-grade varnish al a Jaco. It would at least LOOK unique.

[pickinFool]

I'm definately looking for a quick, short-term fix to the problem since I plan on buying a quality bass by the end of the year. It may not be worth the headache.

Thanks for all the input!