Cracks in my fretboard

[bassbenj]

I had a crack in an Ebony board that disappeared after soaking with Lemon oil, there's only a very thin line visible where the crack used to be.

From the Alembic club:

"... we like the lemon oil because it replaces some of the large molecules that evaporate out of the wood as it ages, and leaves the fingerboard unfinished with the nice touch of the natural wood. Cracks in the board start at cells where one of these large heavy turpines has evaporated. The heavy turpines in lemon oil are similar to the ones in ebony, so it's not like soaking it in water, more like ebony juice and just replacing what was lost."

From the Alembic owners manual:

Fingerboard Care
The fingerboard of your bass is unfinished ebony. It will respond to changes in humidity and if not properly maintained, may need to be replaced due to excessive checking and cracking.
You will need to oil your fingerboard at least twice a year. We recommend using pure lemon oil (available at health food stores in the aromatherapy section), but any transparent lemon oil will do nicely.
Avoid brands that are cloudy, their high wax content only leaves your fingerboard dirty and all that wax makes your strings go dead more quickly.
To oil you fingerboard you should:

1. Remove the strings.
2. Saturate the fingerboard with the oil. Let it absorb for at least thirty minutes or until most of the oil is absorbed.
3. Wipe the excess oil with rags or an old T-shirt. Make sure you get in right next to the fret edges. The cleaner you get the board at this stage, the longer your next set of strings will last.
4. Re-string with your old strings and play the bass for a day or two before putting fresh strings on.

This is what I used to do. Pure lemon oil is an excellent cleaner to get the finger mung off your fretboard. It also is a pretty good wood conditioner too. The problem with it is that it's rather volatile and will evaporate away in a few months so it needs another treatment. I used to use bore oil (like for clarinets etc.) as a final treatment to slow evaporation, but now I use Fret Doctor as the final treatment and I think that works slightly better.

 

[songwriter21]

This is what I used to do. Pure lemon oil is an excellent cleaner to get the finger mung off your fretboard. It also is a pretty good wood conditioner too. The problem with it is that it's rather volatile and will evaporate away in a few months so it needs another treatment. I used to use bore oil (like for clarinets etc.) as a final treatment to slow evaporation, but now I use Fret Doctor as the final treatment and I think that works slightly better.

Funny you mentioned Fret Doctor, as I just ordered some yesterday. I described my hairline cracks to the man himself, Fret Doc maker, Ed Boyle, and he said that CA and epoxy should really only be used for extreme/severe measures. The cracks I have are perfectly normal, and my board is just dry. He told me that the cracks will close back up after the FD oil soaks in and not just sit on the surface like a typical mineral oil treatment. The one I used to use, Fast Fret, says just that on the side of the container...mineral oil. Supposedly these conditioners are just that with some lemon scent. You can buy regular mineral oil at any store and get the same results. Ed wrote a lot more stuff in his emails to me, as he really seems to know his stuff, and replies quickly...nice guy, too...like he actually cares about helping, as opposed to making money. Ask him about where one of his customers almost destroyed his fretboard by getting Brasso on it, from working on polishing the frets.

Let me tell you, this really put my mind at ease, as my Cirrus is my only bass and I LOVE IT.

And yes, these regular products are all flammable and volatile, where FD is plant-based, and not Paraffin wax.

 

[static0verdrive]

I thought lemon oil was for rosewood but not ebony? And of course only if not already cracked...

Watch out for too much humidity in the summer months - case humidifiers in winter are a must but might do more harm than good in the summer. I recently picked up a Honeywell humidifier (always WARM mist!! not ultra-sonic / cool mist!!) and just ordered the roughly $30 hygrometer from stewmac as they are apparently the only accurate ones that are affordable. Many of the others you find in hardware stores etc have been tested by both a friend and my instructor and have been found to vary too much to be considered accurate.

Having a decent meter is the only way to be sure you're humidifying or dehumidifying ideally to get to the target 40% relative humidity that will prolong your bass's life, and furniture, etc too. The wife and I have noticed we feel better too, and the plants are going bananas.

 

[Turnaround]

I interpret this to mean that you should put water on the fretboard and let it soak in.

Please correct me if that's wrong.

No, that's wrong. Placing anything wet on the fingerboard will raise the Equilibrium Moisture Content of the wood to a highly elevated degree causing the wood to swell drastically. What you want to do is raise the relative humidity of the air surrounding the instrument and let that gradually migrate into the wood fibres. It's a gradual process and far less drastic for the wood. It also lets you control the amount of moisture absorbed by the wood to bring it to equilibrium with the relative humidity of its surroundings. You want to normalize the condition of the wood to a degree compatible to its environment. Trying to kill a fly with a sledge hammer is bound to cause undesired damage.

 

[bassbenj]

Funny you mentioned Fret Doctor, as I just ordered some yesterday. I described my hairline cracks to the man himself, Fret Doc maker, Ed Boyle, and he said that CA and epoxy should really only be used for extreme/severe measures. The cracks I have are perfectly normal, and my board is just dry. He told me that the cracks will close back up after the FD oil soaks in and not just sit on the surface like a typical mineral oil treatment. The one I used to use, Fast Fret, says just that on the side of the container...mineral oil. Supposedly these conditioners are just that with some lemon scent. You can buy regular mineral oil at any store and get the same results. Ed wrote a lot more stuff in his emails to me, as he really seems to know his stuff, and replies quickly...nice guy, too...like he actually cares about helping, as opposed to making money. Ask him about where one of his customers almost destroyed his fretboard by getting Brasso on it, from working on polishing the frets.

Let me tell you, this really put my mind at ease, as my Cirrus is my only bass and I LOVE IT.

And yes, these regular products are all flammable and volatile, where FD is plant-based, and not Paraffin wax.

I'm sure that continued treatment and humidifying will close cracks, but since mine was fretless I was especially worried about the cracks slowly continuing as time went on. So I chose to stabilize them with epoxy. I just pulled that bass out today to check it and the fingerboard still looks perfect. And this was after sitting in the cold and in the super-dry winter furnace air. So I'm pretty pleased with how that fix turned out.