Double Bass rosewood fingerboard with black covering

[beginagain]

Hi, i have a rosewood fingerboard with a black covering and im wondering what it is?

Also i i decided to sand the fingerboard down would the rosewood
take other finishes ie oils or is the black covering also there
as it is harder than the rosewood.

Thx

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Renewal Agent,
In my experience there could be two possibilities:
1) I've seen the cheapest of Chinese basses (here known as bass shaped objects BSO's) which have fingerboards that appear to be painted black. The paint looks to me like oil based enamel.
2) It is very common to have fingerboards dyed with a black stain. The common stain is Fiebing's leather dye which is an alcohol based product. With the scarcity of high quality ebony, I'd bet that many of the fingerboards that look uniformly black are dyed.

Without seeing your fingerboard up close there no way to know what you have.

 

[beginagain]

Zee bass is made in west germany and best guess from the 50s, a laminate.
Its not a stain you can see where it is has worn down and its sitting on the surface.
I have to sand the fingerboard down and id just like to leave the rosewood and finish it with something.

Ill post a pic after the weekend.
Thx

 

[bssist]

You can finish it with boiled linseed oil.