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Ashy Squier laurel fretboards

#21
Doctor Morbius said:
Keep in mind that Sweetwater uses a lot of light in order to take detailed pics of their instruments. That will give the fretboards a washed out look.

I've used mineral oil on mine to darken them up. Works just fine. Costs just pennies per serving.
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They also aren't consistent with the lighting. You can see different level of contrast and coloration in the bricks in the examples below.

But still I think this left side board is particularly light compared to the typical Indian Laurel. Almost the same color as the headstock. The sunburst body isn't washed out so it's not just an over exposed photo.

1772720404462.png
 
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#22
Doctor Morbius said:
Also, keep in mind that it's possible to get a lovely Laurel fretboard. I find this one to be nicer looking than many Rosewood fretboards I've seen.

sbpj3-jpg.7440688


60bass

Thread 'Surprising NBD Squier Affinity content'

I recently saw Guitar Center was having a sale on what they called a Guitar Center exclusive. It was 3T sunburst Squier Affinity Series P/J. At $259.00 the Price was too good to pass up. Since I didn't have a P/J nor a 3T sunburst currently in my collection I thought, well what have I got to lose. So I ordered it. I figured if it wasn't any good I could always return it.

When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The fit and finish was surprisingly good. The fretwork was very good with no sharp fret ends and just some minor levelling needed way up high. There's a...
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that is one of the nicest fretboards I've ever seen, wow
 
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#23
I concur that those basses need some real attention to earn well loved status. I was recently gifted a CV 60's Jazz and getting some conditioning on the fret board is certainly on my knock list of chores needed. It has taken me all week to get the action tweaked and adjusted. Now deciding whether to keep the stock pickups & electronics that sound pretty good as the bass is set up specifically for slap or do some swaps and upgrades.
 
#26
BAG said:
A couple of years ago I quit my high paying corporate job and for the last 8 months I've been working as a minimum wage drone at a music instrument shop.

I'm quite surprised at how dry some fretboards are straight out of the box. They look terrible....... and it's not just the cheap entry level ones that can be like this, even some high-end ones are as bad. How hard could it be to give them a quick wipe off lemon oil before stringing then up. Not only would they look more appealing, they would be more stable too.
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They just don't care. It's common in 2026.
 
#31
Swamp_Ronin said:
Should a cheap guitar have some stunner of a fretboard?

I think about how we've cut down so much of the trees, and we're just making piles of cheap guitars. Where do they even go? Are there not enough guitars in the world already?
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I sometimes wonder this myself since the world seems to have an infinite capacity to absorb value priced guitars. It's not just Squier and Epi but all the other brands out there that are value priced. The Glarrys. The Harley Benton's. The Sires. Add them all up and the total amount each year must be staggering.

I think everyone wants to play guitar is one reason. And another biggie would be that a lot of the world can afford these.

I'm guilty in part because I've used the CV line to explore Fenders oddities and lesser known models. Stuff I'd never shell out real coin for the parent brand of a Jazzmaster or Jaguar or Bass VI or Tele Custom etc. The list is pretty endless and the prices are attractive. Especially used.

But theres an example of someone that has nicer instruments exploring budget instruments.
 
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#33
gwangi said:
Squier's were built so well back in the early 80s, this is the way it is now......cheap junk!!!!
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They're not junk at all. Maybe the Korean ones when they stopped production in Japan. Chinese Squiers from the mid 2000s were very good.
To this day Squiers have better fret work than MIMs.
Indian laurel is just an ugly wood but I find the craftsmanship on par or better than MIMs. The materials are cheap but it's the same with the cheapest MIJs that are so revered.
 
#35
andare said:
They're not junk at all. Maybe the Korean ones when they stopped production in Japan. Chinese Squiers from the mid 2000s were very good.
To this day Squiers have better fret work than MIMs.
Indian laurel is just an ugly wood but I find the craftsmanship on par or better than MIMs. The materials are cheap but it's the same with the cheapest MIJs that are so revered.
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This. There was a HUGE quality hit when they moved to Korea. Most of those early MIK Squiers are plywood and the hardware was 2 steps down from MIJ. Later on there were the MIK ProTone series with solid wood bodies and better hardware. But early MIK Standard series Squiers? Definitely a step below Fuji Gen. More like 2 steps.

The Chinese made Classic Vibes from Grand Reward. These are equal to the early 80's MIJ Fuji Gen Squiers. But the CGS serial number Squiers. Most or some of these are at least as good as the old MIJ stuff. Pickups are better. Keep in mind that MIJ Squiers had different models for different price points. The common SQ series CBS style Strat had three variants depending on market.

The newer Classic Vibe series made by Cortek is good and getting better plus they rolled in some of the Vintage Modified line to expand the offerings. These are nice guitars, by no means junk. But the CGS stuff is much nicer.

I'm not a fan of IL and part of that's visual. Like it or not that's what's being used. Corteks rosewood boards from the 00's tend to shrink quite a bit. So it's really about how it's seasoned more than the species.

I like Stew Mac's drying oil for the boards. I've also used oil based leather dye. Or both.

Some laurel boards are very light colored. They are never going to darken as much as you like. Epiphone seems to do a better job selecting fingerboards. Cortek or ICS serial Squiers seem to use random blanks. Given the production numbers it's not surprising.
 
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#36
andare said:
They're not junk at all. Maybe the Korean ones when they stopped production in Japan. Chinese Squiers from the mid 2000s were very good.
To this day Squiers have better fret work than MIMs.
Indian laurel is just an ugly wood but I find the craftsmanship on par or better than MIMs. The materials are cheap but it's the same with the cheapest MIJs that are so revered.
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My opinion there JUNK!!!!
 
#37
A few weeks ago I picked up a CV 60s Jazz from sweetwater which I selected expressly for it's weight (9 lbs) and already pretty dark fretboard.
IMG_9458.jpeg


When it arrived, the color of the Indian laurel was awesome, but it was very dry looking and feeling. During the setup process I applied 2 coats of Feibling's water based black leather dye which it drank up quickly, and then 2 applications of F One fretboard oil. It came out like this:
IMG_9487.jpeg


The fretwork on this bass is fantastic! Not quite as nice as on my avri precision, but I'd say 9/10ths of the way there.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the quality of this $475 bass. I've had multiple classi vibe basses before that kind of felt like toys, but this one honestly feels like a real, quality instrument to me and plays like a quality jazz bass should.
 
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#38
MrRobert said:
A few weeks ago I picked up a CV 60s Jazz from sweetwater which I selected expressly for it's weight (9 lbs) and already pretty dark fretboard.
View attachment 7447391

When it arrived, the color of the Indian laurel was awesome, but it was very dry looking and feeling. During the setup process I applied 2 coats of Feibling's water based black leather dye which it drank up quickly, and then 2 applications of F One fretboard oil. It came out like this:
View attachment 7447393

The fretwork on this bass is fantastic! Not quite as nice as on my avri precision, but I'd say 9/10ths of the way there.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the quality of this $475 bass. I've had multiple classi vibe basses before that kind of felt like toys, but this one honestly feels like a real, quality instrument to me and plays like a quality jazz bass should.
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What made the other basses feel like toys?
 
#39
andare said:
What made the other basses feel like toys?
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You know what? I couldn't tell you exactly… just something about how they felt in my hands. It's not any particular thing like the weight or neck width, it's just a thing that I notice with certain fender and squire guitars and basses. Some feel solid and well put together, others feel like they lack something I can't exactly explain. Although now that I think about it I did swap the bridge for a fender pure vintage bridge and it really did make a huge difference in how it feels to play. Once I put that bridge on, the strings felt less stiff and everything just settled into a nice place.
 
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