Ebony fretless fingerboard maintenance

kesslari · #1 07-10-2008, 09:34 AM

Other than polycoating or epoxy (I'm not sure I want to go that way, and I definitely don't want to be without the instrument for a period of weeks), any suggestions on treatment/maintenance for an ebony fretboard?
I'd like to keep it in good shape for as long as possible.
I play nickle rounds (actually compressor-wounds) and play with a pretty light touch, so I'm not gonna grind the heck out of it anytime soon, but still I'd like it to last as long and stay as healthy as possible.

JTE · #2 07-10-2008, 10:45 AM

I've had an ebony board on my fretless since about 1995 or so. It generally has stailess roundwounds on it, sometimes nickle, and a set of TI flats for about six weeks in that time. All I do is buff the fingerboard with a 3-M hardware cloth (much like using 0000 steel wool, except it doesn't shred and leave metal dust on the PUPs). I do that every time I restring. I figure at the rate it's going, I'll probably have to have the fingerboard resurfaced sometime around 2035 or so. But I'll be 80 then so I probably won't bother.

jte

dave88 · #3 07-11-2008, 02:56 AM

rubbing alcohol and cloth, look out for you finish though... at least that's the standard in upright world, never owned an electric fretless, but heck ebony's ebony

Jools4001 · #4 07-11-2008, 03:23 AM

I clean the rosewood board on my fretless with isopropyl alcohol to get all the crud off about every other string change, then I give it a good wipe over with Tung oil and buff it up to a dull shine...looks and feels great afterwards (reminder to self, must do it again soon)

Wear is not a problem on my rosewood board, it's been strung up with roundwounds for 10 years now and I've never had to have the board sanded or replaned, so it should be even less of a problem on a harder ebony board.

The real key is making sure that your vibrato is parallel to the string instead of sawing the string across the board like you would on a fretted bass - if you already do that you should have no great issues

kesslari · #5 07-11-2008, 01:50 PM

My touch is prettly light (I can and do play passages without my thumb on the back of the neck)
My vibrato is parallel.

That said, in 2 months of (pretty constant) playing on this ebony fretboard, I can see very faint "string winding" lines on the fretboard beneath each of my strings.
I imagine they'd buff out with 0000 steel wool.
But - Is this typical?

JTE · #6 07-11-2008, 03:52 PM

Yeah, that's normal. I wouldn't worry so much, just play the instrument.

jte