Protective resin/lacquer for fretless fingerboard

Snap

Got a fretless, but don't like flatwounds. Is there a treatment that can be applied to the board to reduce the risk of damage from roundwounds?

cheers

WezV

You can do the epoxy coat, but not cheap epoxy - you need something good like West Systems.  There are quite a few tutorials on line for that, I have not looked into it for a few years so there may be new methods too

Fingerboard wear can be repaired though, so personally I don't bother with anything if the board is ebony.   I also did a maple board fretless, but the wood was impregnated with acrylic resin before the build

Snap

thanks mate. It is ebony, and tbh, its not going to get heavy usage, just home playing/recording. Was a passing thought - also I have worries that it would affect the tone/play feel

GSPBASSES

Having built more fretless basses that I can remember, I never ever put any kind of finish on ebony fingerboards, apart from when the instrument was finished I would rub the fingerboard with lemon oil.

The main feedback I got from the owners of these basses was they would take 2 to 3 months to get the type of sound they were looking for.

They explained to me that it took this long for the fingerboard to mark up slightly, then the bass start losing the electric fretted bass guitar sound, then the bass would start to get as close to a double bass as you possibly can. This sound improved over the years and it may take five or six years before the fingerboard needed to be reshot. I was always most reluctant to refinish an ebony bass fingerboard as the sound of the instrument would change completely and would then take 2 to 3 months to get back to sounding anything like what the players want.

My advice would be do not put any sort of finish on the ebony and play the bass on lot so the strings start marking the ebony,  the sound will improve greatly as time goes on.

Snap

just checked, the board is rosewood, my mistake.

It sounds like the whole worry about damaging the fingerboard could be overstated.

FelineGuitars

GSPBASSES said:

Having built more fretless basses that I can remember, I never ever put any kind of finish on ebony fingerboards, apart from when the instrument was finished I would rub the fingerboard with lemon oil.

The main feedback I got from the owners of these basses was they would take 2 to 3 months to get the type of sound they were looking for.

They explained to me that it took this long for the fingerboard to mark up slightly, then the bass start losing the electric fretted bass guitar sound, then the bass would start to get as close to a double bass as you possibly can. This sound improved over the years and it may take five or six years before the fingerboard needed to be reshot. I was always most reluctant to refinish an ebony bass fingerboard as the sound of the instrument would change completely and would then take 2 to 3 months to get back to sounding anything like what the players want.

My advice would be do not put any sort of finish on the ebony and play the bass on lot so the strings start marking the ebony,  the sound will improve greatly as time goes on.

What about using EZE-oil or suchlike?

GSPBASSES

I have made a few fretless basses with rosewood fingerboard's, they don't sound that different to ebony. The feedback on rosewood fingerboard's they  markup very quickly, but also get that double bass sound quicker than ebony, but need reworking after about three years. In particular, Indian Rosewood suffers very badly on a fretless bass, particularly if it's quarter sawn. If it's slab sawn, it tends the last much longer. The ideal rosewood fingerboard is Rio rosewood, but unfortunately not available any more. Not sure about putting oil, I've never done it, so would not like to comment on it.
 I should point out that most of fretless basses I've built have been for professional bass players so they are played a lot.

Snap

thanks for the info, dead useful.

Mine will be played lightly and sporadically! I actually want to retain a hard edge to the tone, which I why I like roundwounds, not flats. If you think Pino Palladino circa 1982, with a little more gain: that's my ideal tone.

ICBM

Snap said:

just checked, the board is rosewood, my mistake.

It sounds like the whole worry about damaging the fingerboard could be overstated.

Not if you're using roundwounds on a rosewood board it isn't. It will chew up in no time.

I did quite a lot of fretless conversions back in the 80s when it was more fashionable, and the players who used rounds wrecked them very quickly.

If you don't like flatwounds, try ground-wounds or rolled-wounds, they're quite a lot gentler on the board but sound more like roundwounds. And turn the treble up on the amp.

Snap

ICBM said:

 And turn the treble up on the amp.

lol, that's about right mate.

Gizmo

CA/Super glue gives a nice glassy hard wearing finish ,i did a fretless guitar conversion for a mate a few years ago following this Dan Erlewine's/stewmac guide Done in day and as far as i know its still going strong

WezV

if you want roundwounds i really would consider the epoxy coat (or the CA method above)   if its good enough for Jaco...