What is your take on these fretboard markings?

[OldogNewTrick]

I'd like to get your opinions on this...






What has in your opinion caused the pattern markings of the A-string? String type and other info's after some responses have come in....

[Tumeni Notes]

It is what happens when you do not use "flats" on a fretless bass guitar.

[OldogNewTrick]

Originally Posted by Tumeni Notes

It is what happens when you do not use "flats" on a fretless bass guitar.

nah, not at all. The markings were easily polished away during string change. I've always used rounds or half-rounds on this ebony board. Never had any deep gauging... it ebony

[somegeezer]

Originally Posted by Tumeni Notes

It is what happens when you do not use "flats" on a fretless bass guitar.

Originally Posted by OldogNewTrick

nah, not at all. The markings were easily polished away during string change. I've always used rounds or half-rounds on this ebony board. Never had any deep gauging... it ebony

Yes... Most definitely. It's quite easy to see it's the shape of your roundwound strings. It doesn't take a genius to see it.

[queevil]

subscribed

[Planet Boulder]

If you don't mind. I'd like to piggyback here.In your first pic, I can see that you have small cracks in the fretboard and I noticed one on my ebony board this morning. Is this normal for ebony and is there a way o mitigate this? The crack in my boar is a little larger.

[Tumeni Notes]

I used to play an Alembic Epic that had an ebony fretboard (I think they all do). Anyway, when I replaced my strings, I put some ColorTone Fretboard Finishing Oil on the fretboard. Per the instructions, I let it soak in and dry before I put on the new strings. There are other oils to use but make sure you get one that can be used on fretboads and thus, does not leave any residue.

The oil will keep the ebony fretboard looking beautiful and prevent cracking.

[fretlessguy]

Like Tumeni said, this can be fixed with a little lemon (or whatever you use) and a little extra fine steel wool and be polished away. A good buffing after applying the oil usually does the trick.
Too much oil can also harm the wood, so I usually only oil my boards about once or twice a year at the most.

[Jools4001]

You will get anal retentives telling you never to use rounds on a fretless because of the fingerboard wear. The 'snail trail' markings you see on the board under each string will be cited as proof positive that you are doing criminal damage to your bass.

In my view, if you like the sound of rounds on a fretless, go with it. You may have to deal with a little extra wear, but in practise, it will take years for this to become a real problem and, if and when it does becomes troublesome, you can just sand it back several times before you'll get anywhere near sanding through the board. Think of it as the fretless equivalent of having to get a fretted bass refretted - it's just part and parcel of instrument maintenance.

In my own case, I have a rosewood fingerboard on my fretless, which is not as tough as ebony. It's done hundreds of gigs and many hours of practise (at least an hour each day) for the last 8 years and it's still nowhere near needing relevelling.

In my view though, the wear under the A string is most likely caused by applying vibrato as you would on a fretted bass i.e. bending the string back and forth across the board, perpendicular to the string pull - as you would on a fretted bass, rather than applying limear vibrato as you would on a cello

[groooooove]

Originally Posted by Jools4001

You will get anal retentives telling you never to use rounds on a fretless because of the fingerboard wear. The 'snail trail' markings you see on the board under each string will be cited as proof positive that you are doing criminal damage to your bass.

In my view, if you like the sound of rounds on a fretless, go with it. You may have to deal with a little extra wear, but in practise, it will take years for this to become a real problem and, if and when it does becomes troublesome, you can just sand it back several times before you'll get anywhere near sanding through the board. Think of it as the fretless equivalent of having to get a fretted bass refretted - it's just part and parcel of instrument maintenance.

In my own case, I have a rosewood fingerboard on my fretless, which is not as tough as ebony. It's done hundreds of gigs and many hours of practise (at least an hour each day) for the last 8 years and it's still nowhere near needing relevelling.

In my view though, the wear under the A string is most likely caused by applying vibrato as you would on a fretted bass i.e. bending the string back and forth across the board, perpendicular to the string pull - as you would on a fretted bass, rather than applying limear vibrato as you would on a cello

thats an interesting observation, the vibrato thing.

i vibrate both ways on a fretless bass (and i play upright and cello, so i've developed a pretty nice "real" vibrato) intentionally, they're differnt sounds. i've also noticed jaco doing it the fretted-bass way sometimes, too. (of course not always.)

but anyway, those chew marks are nothing to worry about.. as stated before..you can sand and level it, but it would probably be unncessary untill around the 40 year anniversery of it being your main bass.

[OldogNewTrick]

Oh my, a lot of opinions and nobody got what I wanted to show....


let me clear a few things up....

The ebony board does not have cracks, which may be remedied by oil or otherwise, that are the natural pores of the timber. A correctly seasoned board will never crack - if it does, that's evidence, that it wasn't seasoned correctly.

I was not concerned at all over the fact that the round-wounds leave markings on the fretboard. They are superficial and not do not represent fretboard wear, which is an uneven surface of the board gauged out by the strings, something that will happen to rosewood or maple, but to proper ebony only after a long period of use.

The entire point of the pictures is that the A-string was, well, technically still is, defective. What precisely is wrong with the string, I do not know and wanted to find out from my fellow TB'ers. The symptoms were that you could not roll your finger for correct intonation without going from buzzing to clean to buzzing.

That is what you are seeing. Definitely not some weird vibrato technique solely used for A-strings.

The strings in question were D'Addario XL 220 (40-120). I had returned the A-string to my dealer and got a free replacement from D'Addario - which turned out equally defective...


The bass is now strung with Sunbeams, the strings work great, no buzzing anymore, the fretboard is cleaned up and all shiny from some Jojoba oil...

[Schlyder]

sounds like a bad batch of A strings got through QC.

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by OldogNewTrick

Oh my, a lot of opinions and nobody got what I wanted to show....


let me clear a few things up....

The ebony board does not have cracks, which may be remedied by oil or otherwise, that are the natural pores of the timber. A correctly seasoned board will never crack - if it does, that's evidence, that it wasn't seasoned correctly.

I was not concerned at all over the fact that the round-wounds leave markings on the fretboard. They are superficial and not do not represent fretboard wear, which is an uneven surface of the board gauged out by the strings, something that will happen to rosewood or maple, but to proper ebony only after a long period of use.

The entire point of the pictures is that the A-string was, well, technically still is, defective. What precisely is wrong with the string, I do not know and wanted to find out from my fellow TB'ers. The symptoms were that you could not roll your finger for correct intonation without going from buzzing to clean to buzzing.

That is what you are seeing. Definitely not some weird vibrato technique solely used for A-strings.

The strings in question were D'Addario XL 220 (40-120). I had returned the A-string to my dealer and got a free replacement from D'Addario - which turned out equally defective...


The bass is now strung with Sunbeams, the strings work great, no buzzing anymore, the fretboard is cleaned up and all shiny from some Jojoba oil...

What have the markings got to do with the intonation? And how were we supposed to tell anything about intonation from a picture? Not meaning to sound rude, I would genuinely like to hear your opinion on what we should have seen.

[dvh]

Those weird ripples seem to be along the centre of the board which makes me wonder if it's something to do with the truss rod and, along with that, if there is a "skunk stripe" piece of wood along the back of the neck. Something weird happening with those elements.

The "vibrato" explanation is ridiculous (IMHO).

[REAPER52]

Originally Posted by OldogNewTrick

Oh my, a lot of opinions and nobody got what I wanted to show....


let me clear a few things up....

The ebony board does not have cracks, which may be remedied by oil or otherwise, that are the natural pores of the timber. A correctly seasoned board will never crack - if it does, that's evidence, that it wasn't seasoned correctly.

I was not concerned at all over the fact that the round-wounds leave markings on the fretboard. They are superficial and not do not represent fretboard wear, which is an uneven surface of the board gauged out by the strings, something that will happen to rosewood or maple, but to proper ebony only after a long period of use.

The entire point of the pictures is that the A-string was, well, technically still is, defective. What precisely is wrong with the string, I do not know and wanted to find out from my fellow TB'ers. The symptoms were that you could not roll your finger for correct intonation without going from buzzing to clean to buzzing. :

Well if the entire point is about a defect in the string why would you ask about the markings, confusing to me .. I think most of the people responded to your question - but maybe the question you ask is not the one you wanted an answer to. if you think the A string is defective -maybe just get another

[Planet Boulder]

Sorry we failed to grasp the "implied question". Perhaps in the future, you'll be a bit more explicit in your line of questioning in order that we can provide you with the info you're looking for.

That said, wax/polish the board, try a different A string and see if you experience similar results.

[OldogNewTrick]

Originally Posted by Meatrus

I would genuinely like to hear your opinion on what we should have seen.

The markings of the A-string are intermittent, while the markings of the D and E strings are continuous.

Originally Posted by dvh

Those weird ripples seem to be along the centre of the board which makes me wonder if it's something to do with the truss rod...
The "vibrato" explanation is ridiculous (IMHO).

It's a neck through, no truss rod route from the back. Interesting point tho.
But it's definitely a wonky string.

Originally Posted by REAPER52

Well if the entire point is about a defect in the string why would you ask about the markings, confusing to me .. I think most of the people responded to your question - but maybe the question you ask is not the one you wanted an answer to. if you think the A string is defective -maybe just get another

The defect of the string resulted in the markings and manifested itself audibly by the buzzing - no buzzing, when shifting the finger slightly, like in a slight finger roll for correct intonation (=pitch, maybe wrong word?).

Originally Posted by Planet Boulder

Sorry we failed to grasp the "implied question". Perhaps in the future, you'll be a bit more explicit in your line of questioning in order that we can provide you with the info you're looking for.

I surely didn't intend to rub anybody the wrong way. I thought it might be fun to see everyone's take on these fretboard markings without delivering the history straight away.

Originally Posted by Planet Boulder

That said, wax/polish the board, try a different A string and see if you experience similar results.

Well, after changing string types from D'Addario ENR-71 (45-130) half-rounds to XL 220's (40-120) I had at first a permanent buzz around the 7th position on the A string. After leveling a slight hump in the fretboard, the intermittent buzzing persisted, but now everywhere (on the A-string, none of the others). Fiddled endlessly with relief and action to get it away without success. The first defective A-string was replaced by D'Addario with another one (single string, not full set). It's the replacement string which caused the markings.

Next, I did try out another complete set, said Sunbeams. Polished and oiled the fretboard, adjusted neck relief slightly flatter and no more problems since.

[OldogNewTrick]

Originally Posted by OldogNewTrick

What precisely is wrong with the string, I do not know and wanted to find out from my fellow TB'ers. The symptoms were that you could not roll your finger for correct intonation (=pitch) without going from buzzing to clean to buzzing.

The questions I meant to ask are:
(Sorry again for my misguided initial approach)

Has anybody experienced something similar ?
Seen such markings before ?
Any explanation what could be wrong with the string ?

[whatiswhat]

hmmmm.... i'm using rotosounds on my fretless i purchased just 4 months ago, and i've marked up my ebony a bit. i would check the nut and not use D'Addario

[VinKreepo]

I'm sorry my friend, but those didn't come from "finger rolling." If you look closely, the scraping from bending is at evenly spaced intervals relative to the scale (in other words, the the intervals are bigger towards the nut and smaller towards the bridge). If it was from finger rolling, the marks would be where each note is. My conclusion? You either pluck hard on the A string or it is not setup right/twist in the neck, causing it to rattle and vibrate against the board and the marks you see and the apex's of the vibrating string. So for instance, when you fret high, the string vibrates a high frequency with a tighter space between the apex's/marks.