question about make a fretted bass fretless

[Secret Journey]

Hey all, I keep reading about putting a coat of poly, or epoxy on fretboards after make them fretless. MY question is this, Why do you put epoxy over the fretboard?
I am asking this question because a friend of mine (who was a pro back in the day) loves his defretted G&L 2000 maple neck/board. He pulled the frets filled with wood filler, and never added any additional coats over the neck.
Do you need to coat with poly/epoxy or not?
Thanks for any insight!

[poomwah]

Its mostly for protection from the stings rubbing against the wood. Look at an old , well played fretted bass and look at how much wear there is in the metal frets, imagine that same amount of abrasion on wood.
Its said also that epoxying the board can slightly alter the t one a bit as well, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you want.

[Secret Journey]

I plan on using flat wounds. Will they tear the wood up as much?

[Arx]

No, They'll certainly do less damage than roundwounds.

[Matt R.]

There are a lot of good threads on this too. Lots of info.

[papa_joe]

anyone have experience with the rosewood fingerboard and what to coat it with?

[Stilettoprefer]

Originally Posted by papa_joe

anyone have experience with the rosewood fingerboard and what to coat it with?

Toenails with a bit of searching