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Oiling the fingeboard

#21
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Every Six Months:

  • At least once every six months if you have a fingerboard made out of Ebony, Rosewood, Pau Ferro, or any other unfinished wood, while you have the strings off of your Fodera, you need to oil your fingerboard. We use clear mineral oil with no additives (found in most pharmacies). Apply it to the surface of the fingerboard using a clean, soft, dry rag (and old tee-shirt is perfect for this). Allow it to sit and be absorbed for approximately five minutes before removing any remaining mineral oil with a different clean, soft, dry cloth. Restring your instrument only after all excess oil has been removed and take extra care to make sure that you do not get mineral oil on your strings!
  • Give body, back of the neck and hardware of your instrument a gentle rub down with a very slightly damp, clean, soft cloth (or tee-shirt) and then immediately do the same gentle rub down with a clean, DRY, soft cloth. Do not put the damp cloth anywhere near the control knobs or pickups.
  • At your option, you can apply a very light coating of clear wax (we use Bowling Alley Wax, by BWC Company). Rub on a small amount with a clean, soft dry cloth and then wipe it away with a different clean, soft, dry cloth. Take care not to get any wax on any of the hardware, pickups or fingerboard. The wax should only come into contact with the finished wood...
  • If your pots have gotten a bit noisy, they can be cleaned with anti-static spray. We use Anti-Static Spray made by STATX Brands (Cat. No. 64-3310) and sold at Radio Shack.
  • Change the two 9-volt batteries in your pre-amp.
 
#22
Hopkins said:
Just clean the gunk off with a damp rag. There is absolutely no need to oil a rosewood or ebony board. If you just want to darken the board, wiping a thin layer of boiled linseed oil once every two or so years is all it will take.
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When the board starts cracking and flaking, it's past time to oil it. Out here, preventing that means oiling every 6 mos. minimum. YMMV based on local climate and the chemistry of your gunk. ;)
 
#23
Does wood dry out? Sort of. But not completely. Wood moisture is measured in terms of percentage of water in the cells. A piece of wood one inch thick will generally reach equilibrium moisture content (EMC) in a years time drying in the air. Kiln drying speeds up the process. ECM varies depending on your general and micro-climate. In parts of the north eastern United States, it is around six percent. Southern Arizona will somewhat less. Once it reaches ECM, the moisture content in the wood will fluctuate with the humidity in the air. That is what causes the seasonal changes we experience with our guitars.

The goal of kiln drying is to bring the wood near the EMC of locale in which it will be worked. Smart woodworkers know to allow the wood to acclimate to the climate in their shops by storing it properly for a certain amount of time before cutting, milling, and gluing. Those who do not heed this advice will eventually learn the hard way.

Oil is a topical finish. In function, it is not much different that a poly or lacquer finish except that it is easier to apply, more easily damaged, and offers almost no protection to the wood itself. It does not penetrate the wood surface very far. How far? Think in terms of thousandths of an inch. Not and eighth. The picture in many peoples minds is that the oil penetrates the wood right into the very cells, replacing the water content. Some formulations use the word "feed" on the label. Wood is dead. Is doesn't eat or drink. It does take on moisture from the air.

The talk about punky wood fibers in the fret slots is very real. The slot has exposed end grain on either side of the fret tang. End grain soaks up finish much quicker than side grain. End grain will also take on more oil or moisture than side grain. Oil will work it's way into the wood fibers through the end grain. Get enough oil in there over enough time and the wood becomes too soft to hold a fret reliably. Makes for more expensive fretwork, too.

A freshly oiled fingerboard does look pretty, though.

Do as you will. Just not too much and not too often.
 
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#25
Well, you can overdo anything. The idea is to protect the topmost layer of wood, not the whole slab or veneer. That's what starts cracking off if it gets dry enough. The macro climate here is well under 6% humidity much of the year; never mind the micro climate. In the northeast, it was not necessary to oil my boards nearly so often.

Folks' heads would explode around here if they ever saw someone wipe down an 18th century Panormo DB with Pledge. I have. :D
 
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#26
Hopkins said:
The wood should be dry to begin with. My friend grandfather has a 60 year old Martin with a rosewood board that has never been oiled. Despite popular knowledge, it hasn't cracked, split, turned to dust, or imploded. Yes it is totally unnecessary.
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Yeah and cars in Las Vegas dont rust.....In New England the temp and humidity changes are brutal.
 
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#28
Unless you are storing your bass in the direct desert sun, I can pretty much guarantee that oiling every 6 months is totally unnecessary


okcrum said:
When the board starts cracking and flaking, it's past time to oil it. Out here, preventing that means oiling every 6 mos. minimum. YMMV based on local climate and the chemistry of your gunk. ;)
Click to expand...
 
#29
Hopkins said:
Unless you are storing your bass in the direct desert sun, I can pretty much guarantee that oiling every 6 months is totally unnecessary
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Please. I've seen enough chipped ends on fingerboards out here to know. No, they're not stored in the desert sun. They're stored in 4% humidity for at least 1/3 of each year. Remember Houston is tropical by comparison. ;)
 
#30
okcrum said:
Please. I've seen enough chipped ends on fingerboards out here to know. No, they're not stored in the desert sun. They're stored in 4% humidity for at least 1/3 of each year. Remember Houston is tropical by comparison. ;)
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A lack of room humidity can cause any wood to contract to the point that inner stresses cause it to crack. You don't see people pouring oil on the spruce tops of acoustic guitars. If the fretboard is cracking, a proper room humidifier will go alot farther to correct this than rubbing mineral oil into the fretboard.
 
#31
I think that the procedures that are in official FODERA site should be considered. Obviously they know very well the behavior of the woods and know make very good basses. I think that the use of mineral oil is mainly targeted to clean and leave the fretboard with a good aparence/finish.

Of course they, and us, know that moisture is the most important factor for wood stability and durability.
 
#32
Hopkins said:
A lack of room humidity can cause any wood to contract to the point that inner stresses cause it to crack. You don't see people pouring oil on the spruce tops of acoustic guitars. If the fretboard is cracking, a proper room humidifier will go alot farther to correct this than rubbing mineral oil into the fretboard.
Click to expand...

A perfect solution if the bass never leaves the house.
 
#33
The differences in opinion have left me unsure as to what to do for the best.

Up until a few years ago I had never oiled the rosewood fingerboard of my 10 year old bass. On getting it setup I asked for a full cleaning which included it and it smelt nice when it came back, and was cleaner, but I didn't notice anything meaningfully different.

Saying this I can see the logic of feeding the wood to keep it from totally drying out however the frequency seems to be up for debate.

I watched this recently, with Tobias talking about frequency of oiling at every string change:

I hope I've picked the correct video

And there was a similar comment in a video by Scott Devine and Chris May of Overwater basses regarding regular oiling.

Because these guys are luthiers I feel like I can trust there opinions however, its perfectly reasonable for them to also be completely wrong as it's just a personal opinion!

My other issue is finding decent oil - I recently got some Dunlop 02 which has remained unopened pending the outcome of the advice from this thread.
 
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#34
One thing to remember about folks that build instruments is that they are experts at building instruments. The other thing to remember is that, with a few exceptions, are not experts at repair. As a matter of fact, most builders view repair as a necessary evil that is a losing propositions.

Builders see raw lumber and turn it into instruments. Repair techs see the results of misguided protocols on their benches with monotonous frequency.
It is the same thing as folks that build automobiles as opposed to those that repair them. Or home builders versus the folks in the home improvement industry. Who do you want to fix your car? The guy who builds them in Detroit or the guy down on the corner that needs three days to a week to schedule your car? Whose advice do you want to listen to?
 
#35
Mike Tobias is an expert at repair, too. Before he ever started making basses, he ran a repair shop in Orlando called The Guitar Shop. He knows his way around most stringed instruments.
 
#36
When my fingerboards start looking dry and it is time for a string change - I give it a treatment with some pure Tung Oil I got from Rockler. I also polish the frets with some 000 steel wool before oiling, masking off the fingerboard with strips of blue tape, moving them down. They look and feel much better afterwards.

A good car polymer polish looks amazing and helps protect the guitar's finish from scratches. I little Lemon Pledge on a soft cloth makes everything look good. Great for most of your car interior as well.
 
#38
202dy said:
One thing to remember about folks that build instruments is that they are experts at building instruments. The other thing to remember is that, with a few exceptions, are not experts at repair. As a matter of fact, most builders view repair as a necessary evil that is a losing propositions.

Builders see raw lumber and turn it into instruments. Repair techs see the results of misguided protocols on their benches with monotonous frequency.
Click to expand...

Profound. Please elaborate.

Riis
 
#39
A couple guys have said they use tung oil. If the goal is moisturizing, is using tung oil going to accomplish this? As I understand it, tung oil dries and hardens and is more like a finish coat than anything else. I don't think tung oil is going to moisturize anything.

FWIW, I don't put much stock in needing to moisturize your fingerboard. I can't speak to every climate, but it generally doesn't seem to be necessary here. However, I have seen some dirty fingerboards, and mineral oil and elbow grease works great to clean them. The film of oil left on the surface of the board makes the wood look great, but I don't know that it does anything in terms of moisturizing.
 
#40
202dy said:
One thing to remember about folks that build instruments is that they are experts at building instruments. The other thing to remember is that, with a few exceptions, are not experts at repair. As a matter of fact, most builders view repair as a necessary evil that is a losing propositions.

Builders see raw lumber and turn it into instruments. Repair techs see the results of misguided protocols on their benches with monotonous frequency.
It is the same thing as folks that build automobiles as opposed to those that repair them. Or home builders versus the folks in the home improvement industry. Who do you want to fix your car? The guy who builds them in Detroit or the guy down on the corner that needs three days to a week to schedule your car? Whose advice do you want to listen to?
Click to expand...


That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I do way more repair work than customer builds, the same is true for most builders. That's like saying someone that a carpenter that builds new houses would not be qualified to replace some rotten siding, because he only builds new houses.
 

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