Epoxy or not to epoxy, that is the question.

dragoon419 · #1 08-28-2007, 09:58 PM

I've recently been interested in purchasing my first fretless, and was concerned about weither or not I would need to epoxy the fingerboard. Due to my total lack of money I'm thinking about the Rouge fretless from Musicians' Friend. It has a rosewood fingerboard. I plan on using D'addario nickels on it, and was wondering if rosewood is hardy enough to withstand the punishment put out by them or if I would need to epoxy the fingerboard to protect it.

Thanks.

steve21 · #2 08-28-2007, 10:02 PM

Look for one of the squier vintage modified basses. 279 new, if you can find one used it'd be a good deal less. And ebanol board for roundwound strings.

dragoon419 · #3 08-28-2007, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve21

Look for one of the squier vintage modified basses. 279 new, if you can find one used it'd be a good deal less. And ebanol board for roundwound strings.

Well I was just planning on going for the Rouge, cause it'll only cost me about $127 Canadian, while the Squire would cost me about $297. I realize the Squire is better, but I've heard good things (for the overwhelming most part) about the Rouge and I can't spare the additional $170. That, and I prefer the look of the Rogue.

I was just wondering if the Rogue's rosewood fingerboard can hold out against a standard nickel-round.

But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Ian Perge · #4 08-28-2007, 11:15 PM

A quart container of "Watco Teak Oil" from your local hardware store is exactly what you need - it does a wonderful job of stabilizing the fingerboard and filling the fairly-open pores of rosewood, but will continue to give you the basses natural tone and not the "glossy" tone of an epoxied 'board. I defretted my fretless 3-4 years ago, and besides a once-a-year refreshing treatment it has absolutely no grooves and perhaps 2 "marks". I highly recommend it, runs about $8.99 USD and is enough to last you decades.

62bass · #5 08-29-2007, 06:38 AM

The rosewood board I had on my 62 Fender P, which I converted to fretless soon after buying it new, stood up for about 10 years without too serious wear, but that was with the stock flatwounds. Roundwounds will wear much faster. I epoxied a Musicman rosewood fingerboard that I made fretless. With rounds it stood up quite well but still showed wear marks in the epoxy from playing after a short time. The sound got a bit zingy in the top end because of the epoxy but I could dial it out easily.

Forget Watco or any of the Danish oil type coatings for protection from wear. They're not nearly as hard as epoxy. But they look nice for a short while.

Personally, considering your budget, the amount of work involved applying the epoxy and its limited lifespan, and the fact that as soon as you win the lottery you'll dump the Rogue, I'd put on Thomastic flatwounds and leave the fingerboard as it is. Those strings will sound good for at least 6 years going by my oldest set and they really do sound wonderful on a fretless. The wear won't be much of a problem.

JimmyM · #6 08-30-2007, 07:28 AM

+1 for 62bass. At that price, a Rogue bass is pretty much disposable. I wouldn't spend the time or money it takes to protect the FB. If you're really concerned about wear and want a roundwound sound, I think TI Jazz Flats would work because they sound like roundwounds for a long time. I personally find TI's irritating, but they're the string to get if you want a round sound in a flat. But I wouldn't worry too much about it if you want to use D'addario XL's, either.

higgi · #7 08-30-2007, 07:33 AM

I think the Rogue has a synthetic fret board(ebonal?). Check out some of the reviews on musicians friend.

JimmyM · #8 08-30-2007, 10:22 AM

Ebonol is simply rosewood painted black.

dragoon419 · #9 08-30-2007, 10:23 AM

I have checked out those reviews, as well as the reviews on Harmony Central. All of the reviewers that mention the fingerboard say that it's synthetic, a few even state that it may be ebonol, though Rouge claims it is rosewood. But, as far as I know, ebonol is very resistant to wear and can take roundwounds, and many of the reviewers state that the fingerboard began to show wear rather quickly with the supplied roundwounds.

If only there were someone who owned the bass...

dragoon419 · #10 08-30-2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Ebonol is simply rosewood painted black.

What??? Ebonol is synthetic ebony. Besides, even the cheapest instrument manufactures would never paint a fingerboard.

Scottgun · #11 08-30-2007, 10:28 AM

I had a Fender with a rosewood fingerboard and I used steel strings on it vigorously. All I got were some unsightly marks on the board which came off with mineral oil and 0000 steel wool.

My contention is that it would take a looooooooooooooooooooong time to put so much wear on a fingerboard that it affected the tone/playability.

No need to epox imho.

JimmyM · #12 08-30-2007, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragoon419

What??? Ebonol is synthetic ebony. Besides, even the cheapest instrument manufactures would never paint a fingerboard.

You've never bought a cheap upright bass if you believe that. And maple FB's are painted, so why not rosewood?

BTW, it turns out we are both right. Fron Wiki:

"Ebonol is an artificial material similar to ebony (Diospyros crassiflora), a black wood from Africa, which sometimes includes grey streaks. Ebonol is commonly used in place of ebony in the construction of stringed instruments, like fretless bass fingerboards, because it is easy to work with and resistant to forming grooves from roundwound strings.

"Ebonol can also refer to Ebonol-C, a black oxide treatment sometimes used in plating to treat copper surfaces after copper plating in order to achieve a very highly absorptive black surface. This Ebonol generally gives the treated piece a velvet appearance, and on a microscopic scale, dendrites appear on the surface of the finish. These dendrites tend to trap light for a higher absorptivity. This type of treatment is used in space applications for light rejection and other optical properties. Ebonol-C is also used to treat bronze in jewelry to give it a black appearance."

dave251 · #13 08-30-2007, 11:58 AM

The "ebanol" of which you speak is MICARTA, a trade name for a synthetic wood/polymer compound. Cort(Mighty Mite) uses it for their fretless bass necks....CF Martin used it for several years on some of their mid level acoustic guitars. Great wear characteristics.

Regarding the epoxy treatment, I have my doubts if it really does help the wear characteristics of rosewood. As stated earlier, you're really buying a "throwaway" instrument. By the time you've worn out the original board, you'll have already purchased a better instrument, as you'll not be truly satisfied with that one. I guarantee you'll have more headaches with neck stability and FB true(fretless instruments require a LOT more care of the FB than do fretted instruments, if you want the action reasonably low) than you would on a better instrument.