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Double Bass Fingerboard oil/conditioner for NXT.

cdbrewer99

cdbrewer99

Oct 10, 2011
544
199
Colorado
#1
Hey all, I have an NXT that I purchased from a TB'er who lives in Seattle. I live @ 10,000 ft in Colorado. High and dry. Upon receiving the bass I noticed little cracks in the fingerboard. I'm waiting for my luthier to not be busy to fix cracks. But is their any oil or conditioner I can use on the fingerboard to stop the spread. I've heard a boiled linseed oil may help and also tung oil. Or even mix the two.
 
#5
cdbrewer99 said:
Hey all, I have an NXT that I purchased from a TB'er who lives in Seattle. I live @ 10,000 ft in Colorado. High and dry. Upon receiving the bass I noticed little cracks in the fingerboard. I'm waiting for my luthier to not be busy to fix cracks. But is their any oil or conditioner I can use on the fingerboard to stop the spread. I've heard a boiled linseed oil may help and also tung oil. Or even mix the two.
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Don't oil it until the cracks have been glued - anything you put on there will repel the glue.

Afterwards, a light wipe on/wipe off application of boiled linseed oil will be plenty. ;)
 
#6
Not sure I'd use linseed oil. Linseed oil is a drying oil, which, unless you get every last trace of it off, will dry and leave a hardened film. It will also get sticky during the drying process. That's, of course, if you don't get it all off. IMO plain mineral oil is a better choice. And unless you have a particular fondness for the scent of lemons, might as well get plain mineral oil; "Lemon Oil" is basically mineral oil with the scent added.
 
#9
cdbrewer99 said:
Is that what you use? I see you have a few uprights.
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When necessary. I live in New York, which is fairly wet most of the year.

Jake, two years ago I brought home a '72 Engelhardt ES-1 whose fingerboard had several small cracks due to the ebony drying out over the 40 years since the bass left the factory. I hit it with the lemon oil several times and the cracks closed almost invisibly.

I'm not sure why glue would be required if the ebony can be rehydrated and allowed to expand back into the shape it was carved into.
 
#10
KUNGfuSHERIFF said:
When necessary. I live in New York, which is fairly wet most of the year.

Jake, two years ago I brought home a '72 Engelhardt ES-1 whose fingerboard had several small cracks due to the ebony drying out over the 40 years since the bass left the factory. I hit it with the lemon oil several times and the cracks closed almost invisibly.

I'm not sure why glue would be required if the ebony can be rehydrated and allowed to expand back into the shape it was carved into.
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I can't see the cracks, so I don't want to make things tough on the poor guy who is going to have to address them! ;)

Those basses tend to have Indonesian ebony boards and they aren't particularly stable. In my shop (and at the store) they get CA to fill the gaps, wet sanded with 320 & 400 and followed by linseed oil.
 
#12
Hofmann said:
Not sure I'd use linseed oil. Linseed oil is a drying oil, which, unless you get every last trace of it off, will dry and leave a hardened film. It will also get sticky during the drying process. That's, of course, if you don't get it all off. IMO plain mineral oil is a better choice. And unless you have a particular fondness for the scent of lemons, might as well get plain mineral oil; "Lemon Oil" is basically mineral oil with the scent added.
Click to expand...

Of course its a drying oil! If you don't use a drying oil, you can have the oil migrate through the board and degrade the fingerboard/neck joint - if you do that on a fretted instrument, the fret slots will lose their ability to hold the tang of the fret... :rollno:
 
#14
I learned about applying too much oil to a fingerboard the hard way. A couple of different times (years ago now) I applied very heavy coats of fingerboard oil directly to the boards and then worked them into the wood with small pieces of rag, leaving a pretty wet film on top. The result was that I created significant bow in both necks! After several months the result of my overzealous attempts at FB maintenance went away, but I was lucky since these were Wishbasses and had no truss rods. Now I apply small amounts of the FB oil to a rag first, apply evenly up and down the board and then wipe the board off immediately. BTW, I am using Stewmac's FB oil ...
 
#15
Jake deVilliers said:
Of course its a drying oil! If you don't use a drying oil, you can have the oil migrate through the board and degrade the fingerboard/neck join - if you do that on a fretted instrument, the fret slots will lose their ability to hold the tang of the fret... :rollno:
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Much can be learned from luthiers! I went through this a while back. I'll never use mineral oil or anything like it again on my DB fingerboard. It remains sticky. Made the drive to my luthier and he put on his concoction of drying oil. I think it was largely lindseed oil, just as Jake recommends. Perfecto.
 
#17
Jake deVilliers said:
Of course its a drying oil! If you don't use a drying oil, you can have the oil migrate through the board and degrade the fingerboard/neck joint - if you do that on a fretted instrument, the fret slots will lose their ability to hold the tang of the fret... :rollno:
Click to expand...

Hey Jake, not being a frequent poster and while quickly scanning the post, I saw the words “linseed oil,” erroneously detected ignorance, and dashed off a quick response not realizing I was responding to a pro. Embarrassing. However, though my response would have been different, my basic take would have been much the same. Perhaps it’s personal preference; I want my board to be as free as possible from the residue of any product. If mineral oil is applied sparingly and judiciously, not allowed to remain on the board for more than a couple minutes or so, then the board is wiped completely clean, is this not acceptable? I should think mineral oil being less viscous than linseed would work its way into a crack perhaps more quickly and completely, plus there is no odor with mineral oil, and it will not harden. I’ve used mineral oil on rosewood and ebony, fretted and fretless, and have never had a hint of a problem. I realize linseed oil is a traditional treatment for boards, but does mineral oil not also have its place for the reasons I have mentioned?
 
#18
I use Linseed oil and a linseed/polymerized tung oil blend and have been for a long time now on all manner of stringed instruments.

Perhaps you are confusing plain linseed oil - gooey - (which is really great for mixing pigments if you paint in oils!) with boiled linseed oil, which isn't gooey.

If you continue with the mineral oil baths on your fingerboards, please don't bring me your guitars for re-fretting. ;)
 
#19
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1372304124.503170.jpgImageUploadedByTalkBass1372304162.178308.jpg
Jake, I hope you can see these. The bass doesn't play bad, the cracks are just annoying. Thanks for looking!!
 

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