Thread: Maple Fretboard Finish

From what I have learned so far I thought fretboards were not finished, exept for a wipe of oil after being fine sanded, like linseed oil, but never heard of shellac or poly. cheers Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

From what I have learned so far I thought fretboards were not finished, exept for a wipe of oil after being fine sanded, like linseed oil, but never heard of shellac or poly. cheers Rob

Every Fender maple fretboard ever made, has either nitro or poly (Except the 300 EVH replicas, which were just oiled lightly). And Linseed oil has got to be the worst finish on a fretboard ever...

To the OP, any of those ones you suggested will work. Oils or oil based stuff will obviously attract more dirt and grime over time than Poly or Nitro.

[QUOTE=rhoads56;1229507] And Linseed oil has got to be the worst finish on a fretboard ever...


Is it the worst thing ever on the finished boards your talking of or all fretboards ?

I've only really been reading about acoustics , and I think the fretboards and saddles on them are finished that way, also I was thinking boiled linseed and thinned with turps as it dries off.

I went in to a guitar shop a while back with an Ibanez acoustic to ask some advice, I had wiped the guitar down with a thin oil and turps mixture and rubbed it off with a clean rag, he said ok for the fretboard but never on nitro, never never , Ok but why ? I asked, I think his answer was it's no good for it and I left.

so does any one know what is so bad about linseed oil or turps on nitro ?

And why did my quote thing come up different ??

G'day Auscab,
I have a deluxe strat with a maple finger board and I use abrasive vinyl (8000 grit) to polish it and the frets after profiling (no oil or cleaner) with great results - poly finish. On my rosewood and ebony fingerboards I use the dunlop 65 system (01 cleaner and prep followed by 02 deep conditioner- oil).
Cheers,
James

Interesting James , I had never noticed a finish on electric fret board's , I have only ever picked up and played a Maton electric once,and that is the only electric I have ever played, about 5 minutes in a shop. The way I see it is because I am such a below average player why make it any louder,lol, but I do like the thought of playing something with less string tension for a while to see what it would be like.cheers Rob

G'day Rob,
Instead of switching to an electric you could investigate accoustic guitars with shorter scale lengths. The origional Red Special has a 24" scale length which helps Brian May perform very subtle vibrato and bending effects. The downside (apparently) is you lose some dynamics compared to a longer scale length.
Cheers,
James

Originally Posted by rhoads56

Every Fender maple fretboard ever made, has either nitro or poly (Except the 300 EVH replicas, which were just oiled lightly). And Linseed oil has got to be the worst finish on a fretboard ever...

To the OP, any of those ones you suggested will work. Oils or oil based stuff will obviously attract more dirt and grime over time than Poly or Nitro.

Thanks Perry,

I might go for a poly finish .

Greg

Maple fretboards do require a lacquered finish or all the oils off your hands and dirt will soon cause problems. Fender used nitro back in the 50s and sixties and changed to polyester when their thick skinned finishes came in in the 70s. They then changed to polyurethane finishes allong with the Squire etc. Rickenbacker and Peavey along with a few others have done the same on maple and Rickenbacker Padauk fretboards. Fender would only sand to a min of 180 grit along the board before applying the lacquer which is why on some vintage boards you do see some sanding lines and allways best to cut fret slots and lacquer and polish before fitting the frets. Recently I have had a couple of USA Strats about 4 years old for refinish and have noticed they are for quickness using some polyester finish again.
As to linseed and other oils on a nitro finish there isn't any need and not a good idea. If you take unplasticised nitro and add small amounts of linseed and castor oil you now have a plasticised nitro finish or what can be known as brushing cellulose. Very rare for the nitro to absorb anything but it does let moisture out, but adding a plasticiser to the surface may over a period of time soften the finish but I can't say for sure. What will happen is the oil will get under the frets and soak back into the fretboard and you will start to see black oil creeping under the lacquer finish either side of the frets. The lacquer will then start to lift so, not good. I have a customer who insists on maple necks on his Strats to enhance the quack from the in between pickup position and to help his playing speed he sprays WD 40 onto the neck and wipes with a cloth during a perfomance. Total madness as the necks get saturated via the fret slots and he goes through and has to replace on average 2 necks per year.

[quote=auscab;1229601]

Originally Posted by rhoads56

And Linseed oil has got to be the worst finish on a fretboard ever...


Is it the worst thing ever on the finished boards your talking of or all fretboards ?

I've only really been reading about acoustics , and I think the fretboards and saddles on them are finished that way, also I was thinking boiled linseed and thinned with turps as it dries off.

I went in to a guitar shop a while back with an Ibanez acoustic to ask some advice, I had wiped the guitar down with a thin oil and turps mixture and rubbed it off with a clean rag, he said ok for the fretboard but never on nitro, never never , Ok but why ? I asked, I think his answer was it's no good for it and I left.

so does any one know what is so bad about linseed oil or turps on nitro ?

And why did my quote thing come up different ??

i have done a few maple boards with danish oil with nice results
DO is turps, boiled linseed and urethane varnish [i use gloss] 1/3 of each. surface prep is critical and i mean sand to a polish - the turps thins out the mix and it draws the varnish right into the pores of the wood -it goes off and you have a waterproof surface which looks like polished wood ie no obvious layer of lacquer to chip crack or flake of - not sure what function the BLO has but it certainly pops the grain

the kicker is application - 3 coats each taking 5 minutes - no sanding at all required

i can tell you this for nothing - once on its damn hard to get off -