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Double Bass Fingerboard dressing
- Thread starter TroyK
- Start date
This little ultra fine grit totally flat piece of glass has saved me from a number of fingerboard issues without having to even loosen the strings. It’s miraculous for this application and it’s damn near impossible to take too much material off and mess up with it because it’s so fine and flat. Infinitely superior to the sandpaper block.
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But no part of Chris's post addressed dynamics: can the strings play FARTissimo?
+1 to this! Take it to a luthier and let them chase the buzz around the fingerboard. Ask me how I know!
I did it once (on my high C around the same spot as your C). The luthier did his best but it went not perfect, probably because of a knot in the wood. He used a very fine plane and a scraper.
He advised me to use straight edges of different lengths to identify the high spot (with light from behind as explained before).
He also told me to do just a little (not making it perfect, just a bit better) and measure in between very often. Then use the bass for a few days and repeat. This as often as it takes.
I only used scrapers for the spot and 400 sandpaper and higher to polish the surface. Finally linseed oil to seal the surface.
That went well with me but it took a few weeks.
I would never use sandpaper to sand down a high spot because you can easily take material off around the high spot that that would be more complicated to solve. A scraper is more precise. But you need not only a scraper but also need to learn how to sharpen it.
Later I did something more drastic on a Stagg rosewood fingerboard. Since the trussrod does not do anything on that neck and the whole fingerboard had a negative camber (a huge bump of 1 mm upward), I needed to scrape a lot of wood off (didn‘t had a fine plane). That went well too and the neck is not perfect (could be a bit more camber) but the fingerboard is thin, so I stopped there and put it in test mode (where it is until now).
I wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t watched how the luthier did it and got a lot of hints (like always scrape/plane towards the scroll), because then I would have ruined the fingerboard.
So, if you can, watch how the luthier does it and ask what to care about this time, then you might be able to do small corrections yourself later.
He advised me to use straight edges of different lengths to identify the high spot (with light from behind as explained before).
He also told me to do just a little (not making it perfect, just a bit better) and measure in between very often. Then use the bass for a few days and repeat. This as often as it takes.
I only used scrapers for the spot and 400 sandpaper and higher to polish the surface. Finally linseed oil to seal the surface.
That went well with me but it took a few weeks.
I would never use sandpaper to sand down a high spot because you can easily take material off around the high spot that that would be more complicated to solve. A scraper is more precise. But you need not only a scraper but also need to learn how to sharpen it.
Later I did something more drastic on a Stagg rosewood fingerboard. Since the trussrod does not do anything on that neck and the whole fingerboard had a negative camber (a huge bump of 1 mm upward), I needed to scrape a lot of wood off (didn‘t had a fine plane). That went well too and the neck is not perfect (could be a bit more camber) but the fingerboard is thin, so I stopped there and put it in test mode (where it is until now).
I wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t watched how the luthier did it and got a lot of hints (like always scrape/plane towards the scroll), because then I would have ruined the fingerboard.
So, if you can, watch how the luthier does it and ask what to care about this time, then you might be able to do small corrections yourself later.
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Another issue in this case is whether it is wise to dress the fingerboard for a new string that is just being tested -- and which might subsequently be switched out. Ideally a fingerboard dressing is for a set of strings, and won't need to be done very often. There's only so much fingerboard thickness.
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I hadn't heard that one before. Sometimes I have to plane towards the endpin due to grain runout or other weirdness.
Might be only not valid for my fingerboard, but I got the impression that it relates to fingerboards in general or at least most of them, at least in Germany or Europe.
Of course that depends on the cut of the wood.
But it makes most sense for stability if the grain is straight on the underside of the fingerboard, so the upper side needs to slowly cut through the grain from the lower to the upper end of the fingerboard.
Maybe a luthier can comment this.
Thinking on this more (after a beverage, mind you) the fingerboard really shouldn't be wedge shaped. It's a crescent. You have to attack from the direction that makes sense at the time.
I’m a bass tinkerer. I like being able to set my bass up after a flight, putting it back together, resetting the post, etc. There is a lot of use in being able to do these things. When my fingerboard became so rutted above thumb position I considered cleaning it up myself. But I called a few shops here in Japan and found I could get the fingerboard planed for between $150 and $300. Most could have it done overnight, one said he could do it in four hours. I went with him. The Japanese are in general detail obsessed. I love that for certain things. I took my bass in. He did a very thorough check of the instrument. He was wary that I set my post maybe ten times a year for touring but reported that the positioning was perfect. He offered me a few things, a handmade sound post carved from a piece of hand selected wood he stored. I could not resist. When he said “I never use a factor post” I almost swooned. He found a number of small things to adjust. Ultimately I opted to leave it overnight. I hate the idea of a rushed luthier. I know that some work and then a good rest can reveal a lot of things in any job. He corrected my bridge that was warping. The consultation was a good hour. I left knowing exactly where my bass was health-wise. I picked up the bass and took it home. I am a tinkerer so I will likely change the sound post setting a few millimeters. My wife says it sounds much louder, clear and ringing. Anyway. This $300 expenditure was well worth it.
Curious to learn more about your application of this.
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Nothing to it, really. Discard the little stick piece, what we want to use is the flat piece for leveling a reed’s table.
Basically, any issue specifically like Troy’s is caused by a little rut being formed in the fingerboard. The only way to deal with this is to take off the surrounding material (because obviously we can’t build back up the rut). When you rub this piece on the suspected area (it slips right under the strings, only about 5mm thick), it polishes anything flat and the rut becomes very clear and easy to see. Keep rubbing until the rut goes away - simple. It might take a little bit of time and elbow grease, but that’s the price you pay for the insurance of knowing it’s next to impossible to goof up.
Obviously it’s not a substitute for a proper planning, but I always use it for ‘fact checking’ as a final touch after dressing any fingerboard. It takes out all the mystery.
They last forever too if you don’t drop them on the floor (ask me how I know…). Had mine for dang near 25 years until about a month or two ago. I need to order a replacement.
I'm not on board with this. First, how are we defining "rut"? My definition is a long narrow channel created over time due to string vibration. OTOH, I define "dip" as a low place, perhaps a few inches long and no more than a couple of millimeters deep, which often is a result of a poorly dressed/planed fingerboard (as in school basses).
Unless the rut is very long or very deep, it should be possible to fill in the rut rather than sand/scrape/plane the rest of the fingerboard. A little CA glue and possibly a little rosewood sanding dust should do the job. For the dip, my practice is to use incremental applications of CA glue to gradually bring the dip up a little proud of the rest of the fingerboard, and then sand/scrape it flush.
I am aware of the bromide "you can't put back wood," but in these examples I'm not sure it applies. I would at least consider the "fill" approach before I resigned myself to planing an otherwise perfectly fine fingerboard just to bring it down to the level of a minor low spot.
I have to add in full disclosure that I removed the sound post today and put my old one back in. I was having mixed feelings about the new sound. I had gained a lot of power with the new post. There was quite a bit more stridency in the sound, an urgency to the notes. It was interesting. My wife said the bass was more resonant. It was. But what I lost in the bargain was evenness across the strings. I felt like the strings felt “spongy” whether pizzed or bowed. I felt like I was driving a Ferrari. The engine wanted to race. But then I couldn’t control the braking. The notes were harder to start and stop. I lost connection to the instrument. I tried to give it a chance but within days I found myself not wanting to practice. Everything was too different. I began to “try”, to overthink. Not good. This morning I took the post out and put the old one in. The new post was very tight. I had to hit it quite hard to dislodge it. My old post would fall when I moved the bass without string tension. The bass felt less powerful with the old post but it was controllable and nuanced. It’s what I’m used to. Of course I’ll keep this post. When I’m back in Tokyo I’ll have him make it less tight and see if a happy median can be reached. It might be perfect for humid conditions when the bass swells. I now have three posts to swap out. But relating to the original topic it is nice to have such a smooth fingerboard under finger. I realize however that I was using the scars on the board as markers and now they’re gone!
Absolutely choose your own adventure. I would only use the vandoren glass reed tool on the lightest of fingerboard issues. One should definitely employ their best judgement before choosing this route. It’s not a silver bullet for all fingerboard issues, but it’d get Troy’s problem through the next year or two, I recon.
This is the mischief, and it's the gorilla that's always in the room: diagnosing the problem and then determining the appropriate counter-measure. Particularly maddening is when the same fingerboard displays both low and high spots. Decisions. Decisions.
I can’t believe you are still considering doing it yourself! I mean, good on you for your confidence. I do quite a bit of work on my own instrument but I can’t afford a big mistake that causes my bass to be compromised. I’m cheap about a lot of things but when it comes to my bass I will pay for perfection.
I limit myself to, at most, swapping out fingerboards, and I do that very selectively. What I was referring to in my post was the "small stuff": sanding down what would be called "ski jumps" on an electric bass or filling in "low spots" on a DB fingerboard, which I also have done successfully. But I know my limits; there is no way I would try to plane an entire DB fingerboard.
The question is not about cheapness or affordability; it's about access. The closest double bass luthiers to me I have found are either in Nashville or up into the Carolinas. There are none in Alabama or Northwest Georgia that I have been able to find. Violin through cello, yes, but nothing for double bass. You live in NYC and therefore do not have this impediment to deal with.
