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Silly fretboard question - Why arent they painted?

#121
jamro217 said:
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.
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Awesome, thanks!

I only have one bass at the moment, but once I get my new one in a few months, I'm going to refinish my current one. I'll likely get rid of the body paint first to see if the wood below is good enough for a natural finish, but if not I'll be painting it and very well may do the board as well. I'll post my results if I do.
 
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#122
Best of luck to
Matthew_84 said:
Awesome, thanks!

I only have one bass at the moment, but once I get my new one in a few months, I'm going to refinish my current one. I'll likely get rid of the body paint first to see if the wood below is good enough for a natural finish, but if not I'll be painting it and very well may do the board as well. I'll post my results if I do.
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Best of luck to you. The next project I'm working on is a fretless neck through with two Jazz bass pickups in the usual spot ('60's style) and a Schaller humbucker in the neck position. The wiring will feature two distinct channels, one offering each pickup on or off in parallel, the other with different combinations in series. Enough switches and knobs to guard against neck dive. The neck will be maple with a maple cap for the fingerboard. I bought a 4 oz. bottle of black Fiebing's leather dye at a local tack shop. This is used to dye saddles, but I saw it available for this application in the StewMac catalog. I've never used this product before, so I don't know what to expect. I plan on staining the fingerboard to resemble ebony, without the headaches of the real stuff (cracking, etc.) The hardness of maple is closer to ebony than rosewood is, so hopefully when the clear topcoats are in place, it'll look and sound similar to an ebony boarded bass. If you are considering darkening your fingerboard, this may do the trick.
 
#123
jamro217 said:
Best of luck to

Best of luck to you. The next project I'm working on is a fretless neck through with two Jazz bass pickups in the usual spot ('60's style) and a Schaller humbucker in the neck position. The wiring will feature two distinct channels, one offering each pickup on or off in parallel, the other with different combinations in series. Enough switches and knobs to guard against neck dive. The neck will be maple with a maple cap for the fingerboard. I bought a 4 oz. bottle of black Fiebing's leather dye at a local tack shop. This is used to dye saddles, but I saw it available for this application in the StewMac catalog. I've never used this product before, so I don't know what to expect. I plan on staining the fingerboard to resemble ebony, without the headaches of the real stuff (cracking, etc.) The hardness of maple is closer to ebony than rosewood is, so hopefully when the clear topcoats are in place, it'll look and sound similar to an ebony boarded bass. If you are considering darkening your fingerboard, this may do the trick.
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Yeah, I've seen that stuff before. I think you still need to put a finish on it though, I recall reading some negative reviews on the Stewmac site about it rubbing off on the strings/fingers after use, but maybe the users didn't allow for enough time to cure? I'm not sure, but thanks. I did forget about this product.
 
#124
Matthew_84 said:
Yeah, I've seen that stuff before. I think you still need to put a finish on it though, I recall reading some negative reviews on the Stewmac site about it rubbing off on the strings/fingers after use, but maybe the users didn't allow for enough time to cure? I'm not sure, but thanks. I did forget about this product.
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If you allow it to dry completely then apply a few clear coats to seal it in it should be okay. The tricky part is finding out what clear coat will work best without any unforeseen reactions (wrinkling, fisheye, spontaneous combustion...).
 
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#125
U-POL #1 Clearcoat is a very good rattlecan clear for general paint use. Dries rock hard, sands to a nice shine plus it has UV protection. I think I'm going to try a surfboard epoxy which is made to appear bright and clear (2 part / brush on)
 
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#128
And to all this "strings hitting the fretboard" stuff.... (on fretted basses, obviously)
I've been playing all weekend with that in mind. Even TRYING to mash the strings, they don't touch the fretboard. Fretting in the middle of 1,2,&3, it takes a bit of effort to get even the lighter gauge stings to touch. I don't think this will be a legitimate concern for most bass players...
 
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#130
i'm resurrecting this old thread. i read this thread while doing a build, and couldn't figure out what to do with the fingerboard....so i painted it metal flake. thanks for all the input! :)

IMG_20180204_134810_253.jpg


ps, build thread here:
my lane poor conversion
 
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#131
Robroy said:
I've got a five string fretless with black tape wound strings. I'll bet it would look incredible with a gloss white fretboard.
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I once nearly bought a black Strat with all black hardware and a rosewood board. An actual black-painted fingerboard with black strings would have looked good. I don't think you can realistically get black fretwire, though.
 
#133
If you are willing to put a bulletproof layer of expoxy over it, I suppose any fingerboard paint will survive. My fretless Jazz Bass was factory coated by Pedulla years ago, and is still looks nearly pristine. Unfortunately, many of the two part clearcoat systems are highly toxic, and require specialized equipment to apply. One interesting new material is the Solarez and similar UV activated clearcoats. It’s an extremely tough material used on surf and skateboards. I can picture something like this over almost anything on a fingerboard. It’s toxic too, of course, but can be used with an ordinary respirator and ventilation.
 

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