Regular black stain, or "ebonizing" fingerboard stain? I haven't that experience at all. Sounds like it's not soaking in, maybe the fretboard had an oil finish on it?
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Silly fretboard question - Why arent they painted?
- Thread starter Pudge Fish
- Start date
It couldn't stain the wood permently if the finish didn't crack because the strings hit the finish many many many times
Must have neglected a much needed fret job. In my 43 years of playing, the strings on my fretted instruments (about 25 in all), never touched the fret board.
Like you said it has mojo and people will pay more just because of that especially if it is a Fender that have been abused, you can find pic of that everywhere
Pardon the divergence, but I saw the BOC laser show that was banned after the first few performances because of laser light into the audience. It was... spectacular.
Are you sure it's the maple wood that's stained or the finish?
If you pick up your fretted bass and try to fret a string hard enough for the string to actually touch the wood on the fretboard, you'll see it's pretty difficult to do, and if someone was to fret that hard it would likely bend the note sharp... IME anyway - YMMV of course.
Sure we don't see as often on bass as on guitar but a quick search on Google provide enough exemple
I've definitely seen this and know what you're talking about... I'm just saying this point is pretty much moot on a fretted bass with relatively normal sized frets... Sorry, if I'm coming off as argumentative though. That's not my intention.
I am doing a re fret job right now on a bass that previously had a fret level job done to it. The frets were low and the rosewood board is chewed up like a old Strat. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the fretboard before installing the new frets.
It happens.
It happens.
Painted fretboard.
Fine and dandy.
Not my cup o' tea.
For the same reason that both of basses have natural wood finished bodies.
I love the look of natural unpainted wood!
I don't think it would work so well on a fretless fingerboard though.
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I'm not sure what the difference is... the fretboard did not have an oil finish on it.
I guess this whole thread kinda confirms that fretboards COULD be painted more frequently. If all maple boards are clearcoated, it makes me wonder why there arent colors or designs painted beneath the clear. Why just stick to dots and MOP inlays? Stencils could make this easy for big production runs. It seems all fret-dressing concerns would currently apply to all clearcoated necks (as well as potential string wear for the aggressive player), so perhaps it's from customer interest / increased cost. I, for one, would love to see more fretboards like those represented here. That So-Cal Speedshop design is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. I am curious what the demand would be for a production run like that. I know I'd love a Redneck Ric!
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Also, I painted one of my DIY fretless boards black before epoxy-ing over. I figured since it's under epoxy it wouldn't affect the tone.
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I painted it metallic black first, then after that dried, I used painter's tape to mask out the fretlines (it was a DIY defret, so even under the black paint the lines were still visable) and sprayed on dark metallic purple lines. Then epoxy. It sounded great, but that's probably because of the epoxy and not the paint
This is a KILLER look and a great DIY job! Very encouraging. Now the question remains... to defret or not?
Sorry it took so long to reply. First I mixed an amber base and hand rubbed it into the fingerboard. ( This seems to work best for me, because I do these projects at home and the fumes from sprayed finishes sicken my wife.) When it dried completely it was time to mask the neck around where the lettering would be. A thin coat of black paint was then applied. A second coat followed because wood was still visible. After lightly sanding, four or five (should have written it down) clear coats were added and sanded. Final results were acceptable, but nothing to write home about. If this had been a fretted neck, I would have masked off the frets with very thin tape (like Scotch tape) in order to get the finish as close to frets as possible without leaving a gap around the edge of the fret. Razor blade removal of the tape is easy. Most finishes are sprayed on, but if you do decide to apply them by hand, make sure you wear gloves and have a drop cloth.
