Refinishing a fretless

[ynot12]

Hey all, we're working on the 2nd part of a refinish project. We started with natural finish and was going to make it a brown with black deep in the grain, but once we got the black on we liked it so we just finished it that way. But now, we have to do something about that fingerboard. We want to make it black, like ebony.

Questions on

1. how to approach sanding the fingerboard evenly?

2. Ideal tools that you have used with success

3. Need to confirm if Spector Euro fretless is compound or straight 16" radius.

Any insights will be appreciated
Thanks!
Tony

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Start here for leveling the fingerboard.

Thread 'Even fretless fingerboard levelling tips'

Aug 6, 2012

Hello everybody,

I have this nice medium scale (32") Warwick neck which I thought would be very cool as a fretless so I did the big leap and removed the frets. Removing the frets was a tough job as the wenge board is extremely hard. After removing the frets I placed some medium viscosity ca glue around the fret slots to keep chips in place and as a guide as to when I should stop sanding afterwards. The plan was to remove as little wood as possible afterwards and count on the factory levelling for a nice fretless board. After initial hand sanding with something like 400-grit sandpaper if I...

• jesterbass
• Replies: 157
• Forum: Luthier's Corner

Use a long straight beam with sandpaper on it following the string paths and not a radius block.

The best way to make the fingerboard look like ebony would be to remove the existing one and replace it with an ebony board. It's actually not as hard as it sounds. Assuming you don't want to do that you could dye it with leather dye or India ink. You might want to coat it afterwards. How well that will work depends on if there's currently any finish on the fingerboard or not. Even if it looks like there's not there could be a light penetrating oil finish like theStewMac fretboard oil which could prevent the dye from taking evenly.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

As stated above, long straight sanding beam with sandpaper attached.
Follow the string paths if it's got a radius.