Bleaching Fingerboard Advice?

Omnipharious · #1 09-29-2010, 11:01 PM

I, nor my father have any experience in bleaching wood, and we need some help, and advice on it.

I have a Silvertone P Bass knockoff, and I've been wanting to spiff it up a bit. I was going to try and make it look as much like a Relic 60's P Bass as possible.

This is her now:

http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=DSC03768.jpg

This is somewhere near what I'm aiming:

http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s...768relic-1.jpg

Planning on sanding off the current finish on the body, and headstock, and staining the body black, putting a white stripe on the side of the pickguard, buying Vintage '62 P Bass pickups, and bleaching the rosewood fingerboard to match the maple neck.

We have never bleached anything, and don't know much about it. How light will the A/B bleach will take the rosewood? Will it be close to the maple neck? Darker? Lighter?

throbgod13 · #2 09-30-2010, 12:57 AM

bleaching will not make the rosewood light like maple.. it will make it a lighter shade of rosewood..

think about just replacing the neck with a maple neck.. Mighty Mite necks are around 100.00..

mikeyswood · #3 09-30-2010, 07:11 AM

Did you search?

Omnipharious · #4 09-30-2010, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by throbgod13

bleaching will not make the rosewood light like maple.. it will make it a lighter shade of rosewood..

think about just replacing the neck with a maple neck.. Mighty Mite necks are around 100.00..

Are you sure? I mean, I don't have enough to go and buy another neck. I was told that it would go pretty light.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyswood

Did you search?

Yeah, I looked around a bit, and I now I have instructions on how to do it, but I don't really know how light/dark it will be, or how it will look, and I'd like advice from someone who's actually done it before.

Exploiter8 · #5 09-30-2010, 05:34 PM

OP...What did you do to your hand? I went through some of your 250 pics...OUCH!

X8

Rocky McD · #6 09-30-2010, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnipharious

Are you sure? I mean, I don't have enough to go and buy another neck. I was told that it would go pretty light.

Yeah, I looked around a bit, and I now I have instructions on how to do it, but I don't really know how light/dark it will be, or how it will look, and I'd like advice from someone who's actually done it before.

I doubt if anyone will tell you how it will look because I don't think anyone has attempted to bleach Rosewood to look like Maple. You will need to replace the fretboard, or the complete neck.

SBassman · #7 09-30-2010, 07:00 PM

You don't want to do that.

mikeyswood · #8 09-30-2010, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnipharious

Yeah, I looked around a bit,

Less than three days ago:

Lightening Wood?

Omnipharious · #9 10-01-2010, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocky McD

I doubt if anyone will tell you how it will look because I don't think anyone has attempted to bleach Rosewood to look like Maple. You will need to replace the fretboard, or the complete neck.

Well, the bass, altogether is probably only worth about $100, if not less, so I don't care to pay the price of the bass just to upgrade the neck. I'm pretty much stuck in bleaching it.

So, without trying to sound rude, suggestions of replacing the neck aren't what I'm looking for.

Has anyone here bleached wood before? If it screws up the look of the neck, and it's just a slightly lighter shade, or it's actually lighter than the maple (which I doubt will happen), I'll just find a way to make it look better.

I do have a few questions for anyone here who actually has some experience on bleaching wood, if there are any.

mikeyswood · #10 10-01-2010, 07:04 AM

There is no way you can chemically remove enough tannin to make Rosewood look like Maple.

stepswork4me · #11 10-01-2010, 07:05 AM

These aren't the Droids you're looking for.

Omnipharious · #12 10-01-2010, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyswood

There is no way you can chemically remove enough tannin to make Rosewood look like Maple.

Okay, I figured as much, but how close will it be able to come to at least the maple shade, never mind the colour.

Eublet · #13 10-01-2010, 07:30 AM

It won't work. Not even close to maple.

Omnipharious · #14 10-01-2010, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eublet

It won't work. Not even close to maple.

Okay, well, that's fine I guess.

Referring to the picture I posted of the neck now, is there any way you could show me how light it might be able to go?

mikeyswood · #15 10-01-2010, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnipharious

how close will it be able to come to at least the maple shade, never mind the colour.

...what?!

Omnipharious · #16 10-01-2010, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyswood

...what?!

What's confusing about that? It sounded like you guys thought I was asking if I could bleach the wood and that would make it look like maple. I wanted to clarify that I was asking how light it would be able to go, not if it would look like maple, or something.

mikeyswood · #17 10-01-2010, 07:44 AM

...you thought that bleaching would change the grain structure of species of wood to resemble a completely different species?

Chasarms · #18 10-01-2010, 07:48 AM

I will be very surprised if you are able to get the the FB to bleach consistently. I am all but certain it will be blotchy and look very unnatural. Depending any oils (both natural and applied), conditioners or glues that have been used on the FB, the bleaching agent is going to absorb very differently in different places on the FB.

Further, if you are aggressive enough with a bleaching agent to get it as light as you seem to want it, you are going to seriously dry it out. You are significantly increasing the likelihood of it splitting.

You should also consider that Fender used very tight-grained quarter sawn maple for those fretless maple FBs. The RW is going to look more opened grain. Even if you get it lighter, you aren't going to get that look.

Omnipharious · #19 10-01-2010, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chasarms

I will be very surprised if you are able to get the the FB to bleach consistently. I am all but certain it will be blotchy and look very unnatural. Depending any oils (both natural and applied), conditioners or glues that have been used on the FB, the bleaching agent is going to absorb very differently in different places on the FB.

Further, if you are aggressive enough with a bleaching agent to get it as light as you seem to want it, you are going to seriously dry it out. You are significantly increasing the likelihood of it splitting.

You should also consider that Fender used very tight-grained quarter sawn maple for those fretless maple FBs. The RW is going to look more opened grain. Even if you get it lighter, you aren't going to get that look.

Hmm, I see. I was looking around more on Google, to see if I could find some reference as to what bleached rosewood would look like, and I see what you're talking about; the grain does look very different, and a bit splotchy.

Do you think I could bleach the FB to a fair shade (something not light enough to damage the wood), and just stain the rest of the neck to somewhat match the colour? Because, with a black body, pickguard, and either a black, or natural headstock, I can't see that looking too good; even if it's still pretty dark, I think I would prefer the former reference.

stepswork4me · #20 10-01-2010, 08:01 AM

The answer that you want will not be found because it does not exist.