3 neck and neck maintenance questions.

[zeronyne]

I swear I tried a search on these.

 

1) All of my basses have rosewood fretboards. I want to darken/condition them. Of the usual suspects, which do you think would do the best job at keeping them near-black? Also, will any of them hurt intricate inlays?

 

2) Is it a horribly difficult endeavour to adjust a replacement neck once it has been bolted on successfully?

 

3) Does the fretboard wood (not neck wood) on a fretted neck make a tonal difference if you employ good technique? A significant, quantifiable difference?

[Bob Gollihur]

Originally posted by zeronyne:

I swear I tried a search on these.

 

1) All of my basses have rosewood fretboards. I want to darken/condition them. Of the usual suspects, which do you think would do the best job at keeping them near-black? Also, will any of them hurt intricate inlays?

 

2) Is it a horribly difficult endeavour to adjust a replacement neck once it has been bolted on successfully?

 

3) Does the fretboard wood (not neck wood) on a fretted neck make a tonal difference if you employ good technique? A significant, quantifiable difference?

1- black leather dye is often used for staining ebony, to make the color more uniform, especially since pure black ebony costs so much these days. This is not the stuff you get in the shoe dept. at KMart, but the type leatherworkers use to color raw leather. You can get some from Stewart-Macdonald http://www.stewmac.com/

 

2- Not really. It can be a pain in the neck if it's the Fender style with the buried truss rod at the body end, requiring a partial dismount. Such is life.

 

3- Yes, it can. So many things factor into it, but yes.

[zeronyne]

Thanks Bob! I never thought of intentionally dying the rosewood...I'll look into it! I have an Ibanez EDA that will serve nicely as a guinea pig...

[Tom Capasso]

I had your question about fretboard woods. I was lucky to be in a shop (Rudy's) that had two MTD Americans. Both had ash bodies, the same PUPs and preamp, both had maple tops on the body, and wenge necks. One had a maple board; one wenge. I set the preamp to flat and played both. I could hear the difference - the maple was sharper, with more high end. Since I don't like that high end snap, I fiddled with the pre on the maple board bass and got it pretty close to the wenge sound. I could also get the wenge pretty close to what the maple sounded like flat with some EQ tweaks.

 

Tom

[_Sweet Willie_]

In response to #3 -- yes. Different woods for fingerboards sound different.

 

As for #1 -- a question for you: why do you want to darken the rosewood?

 

Peace.

--SW

[zeronyne]

Originally posted by Dr. Sweet Willie:

As for #1 -- a question for you: why do you want to darken the rosewood?

Purely cosmetic. I don't like dark rosewood against gloss black. It's too close.

 

My EDA is matte silver and wacky-futuristic. I want the fretboard to be black to complete the modern aesthetic. It presently has a very mottled brown surface-extremely unpleasant.

 

Again, no sonic or mechanical reason...I just like black or maple fretboards against solid color bodies, nothing in between.

 

Now if the finish shows grain or is a burst, then anything goes.

 

But a black fretboard is louder, right?

[_Sweet Willie_]

Thanks, zilch-niner. I understand your aesthetic preferences now.

 

Next question: Why the curiosity about fingerboard woods and tone? You got something up your sleeve, champ?

 

Peace.

--s-dub

[Tom Capasso]

Hey single digits,

 

Do Not go to Brubaker Guitars. You would think them ugly...

 

Tom

 

http://www.brubakerguitars.com/galleryimages/13big.jpg

 

http://www.brubakerguitars.com/galleryimages/classicaxe.jpg

 

http://www.brubakerguitars.com/galleryimages/2001NBS1.jpg

[bruiser_dup2]

Regarding leather dye-- I stopped into the local shoe repair place and bought a partial bottle from the old guy who ran the place. A little goes a long way-- a few ounces will cover a lot of fingerboards.

 

Bruiser

[g.]

I like ebony because I kind of came up on the brighter maple sound. The two have some similarity, It's not as if the entire note is brighter - it's mainly in the attack. It can be pretty sublte on a band-limited bass rig, but it is there. I notice it on a fretted bass as well as on a fretless.

[g.]

Wow, Tom,

 

#1 and #3 are pretty nice. Once I got over the initial shock my staidness stood aside and I began to see the work. Good stuff. I must look around on that Brubaker website.

[NV43345]

The only thing I treat my Rosewood Fretboards

with is Boiled Linseed oil. It leaves a nice rich

well oiled look on the board.

[wraub]

Tom, #1 in your post, the green/yellow bursty-thingy singlecut- Should be mine,immediately.

 

#2-looks like it was made for a clown. Not meant to be an insult, I mean that, literally, IMO, the order came from someone named Binky or Noodles or something.

 

#3-looks ok, I guess. Not wild about the peghead.

But man, #1. Sweeeet.

 

Oh, and ebony, all the way. And I agree with Zed-nine, the rosewood look does not go well with every finish. I have a black bass w/ a rosewood board, and it has always looked "off" to me.

Many basses I have seen look "off" in the same way.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[g.]

wraub, I see we have similar fashion deficiencies ; }

[wraub]

Finally-common ground.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[Tom Capasso]

I suspect that the yellow in the yellow-red guy isn't really as bright as that. I like the idea of the burst continuing into the neck/fretboard.

 

There is another that was on the Roscoe site where a purpleheart board had radical variations.

 

My color prejudice is with unstained ash or alder bodies and a maple fretboard. No contrast, but not matching either. Many otherwise outstanding basses have this combo, and I can never look at them.

 

Tom

[Fred TBP]

The guy that darkened my fretless rosewood boards used something he called "China black" that he got from a woodworking supply house.

 

I lost touch with him some time ago and couldn't find the place he bought it from but you might want to start with the woodworking catalog.

[Mr. Phil]

Maybe another thing you can use to darken the rosewood board:

Bichromate of Potash

[zeronyne]

Originally posted by Tom Capasso:

Hey single digits,

Do Not go to Brubaker Guitars. You would think them ugly...

I usually only like black and grey, but this one is gorgeous:

 

http://www.rhee.net/bbx.jpg

 

I wonder how much a finish like that costs, especially with the spalt.

[doc taz]

from my view:

 

1. No, I wouldn't bother. I love the natural color of my rosewood fretboards. Coloring them might affect the sound. I also don't want anything to f*** with my 5 string's beautiful abalone dots. Don't want to take that chance.

 

2. The other folks are right on this issue.

 

3. Yep, it sure does matter. It's probably why my choice of using nickel roundwounds gets me the tone I want. Not too warm, and not too bright. More like a smooth piano tone. (usually D'Addario XL's for the wires)