Double Bass that texture one might find one an older fingerboard..

[salbassrock]

Specifically I'm talking about the texture people might find on the back of the fingerboard and even where the back of the fingerboard meets the body. That 'porous' almost smooth bark-like feeling. 1st: Is that bad to have on your bass? and 2nd: if it's not, then what can I do to get that on my bass? A close bass friend of mine has that on his old bass and I love the way the texture feels.

 

[KTFunkAlive]

Do you mean the neck? Sand it, or have your luthier do it.

 

[salbassrock]

I guess its almost as if the varnish was cracked and you could feel the texture to that.

 

[1st Bass]

My guess is that what you are referring to is a grain-raise that happened over a period of years. It happens because of absorbed atmospheric moisture...humidity cycling, essentially. In unvarnished spruce it can show up in days; in maple, it takes a little longer. In ebony it is very slow.

If you feel ike experimenting with it, you could swab a portion of the wood with a warm, damp paper towel for a few minutes, then let it dry, and see whether that produced what you were after.

I'm not really sure that's such a good thing to do, though. The old one absorbed the same amount on all sides at the same rate, then dried on all sides at the same rate. Only the front gets re-dressed, so the front stays smooth, over the years, while the back develops the texture. But since it is even, it doesn't tend toward warping.

I s'pose it's also possible that the back was simply not as smooth to start with, for expedience' sake...

 

[MostroDB]

salbassrock,

not quite sure what you're referring to, but if you're talking about the hollow bit at the back of the fingerboard (that's pointing towards the table), I guess it's just the result of someone's handwork. When I make a fb I just chisel that bit out coursely (to lighten the free part of the fb while keeping most of its stiffness, hence raise the Eigenfrequency), and then sand it roughly w/ 40 and 80 grit, and leave it at that. After fitting, a bit of BLO and that's it, as I can't see the point of more work. I guess on mass-produced fb's that bit will be routed-out with dedicated machines, leaving a much smoother finish.