How hard is rosewood

[Henry D]

I'm going to defret a bass and the fingerboard is rosewood. I'll probably be slapping the bass even after it is defretted. I'd prefer to use roundwounds if I can but I can probably stretch to Chrome Flats if I have to. I've been doing this on an ebony fingerboard and everything's been fine.

How much will it take without a finish, and what kind of finish will I need if I need one at all.

 

[JNW7]

Hey, just from my own experience( i have a warwick corvette rockbass that i customized) it has a rosewood fingerboard that I defretted, and within a few months my DR hi-beams were starting to eat into the wood pretty bad. So i put a few coats of Superglue on the board(Bass Player magazine suggestion from Dan Erlwine sp?). So far the superglue has held up amazingly well and it also added a nice bit of top end, which helps slap style a lot.
Hope this helps.
James

 

[Henry D]

cool. I won't be using anything as destructice as hi-beams. Maybe Lo-rider nickel or sunbeams. So things should work out.

 

[Woodpecker]

I agree with James. I once defretted a rosewood fingerboard, and even if I play it with fairly light touch it didn't take long before the fingerboard started to show some wear and tear. Even though I did "coat" it with a 2-component hard glue, but there wasn't much glue on the surface itself, more like in the fretslots.
So for a fretless I would strongly recommend Pau Ferro or ebony, nothing else will withstand the physical abuse (especially while slappin' and poppin'!). It sounds great to slap on a fretless, ever heard Roman Morykit of Gypsy Soul?

 

[basicvoo]

Hey! I'm doin the same thing. I was wondering if anybody has tryed any hardeners, tung oil, etc. Not to hi-jack yer thread, but I put a couple tips on defretting(fret-ripper) on the repair forum.

 

[gjooro]

Why not put an epoxy on it? Like Jaco did?