Darken the fretboard

[sandbag]

Anyone know of good ways to darken the wood on a fretboard? I heard about someone using shoe polish or something of the sort.....can i just use regular wood stain?

[emperor_black]

how about oiling it? I am considering oiling mine. A member suggested a couple of Dunlop products. One was for cleaning and other for conditioning. now sure if that will darken the wood or not.

[MountainDog]

Search under 'ebonizing'

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=SERVE&sku=4236&ITEM=catalog/sku.html

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36214&highlight=ebonizing

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27510&highlight=ebonizing

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/ebonize.htm

[sandbag]

cool man thanks for the links

[Sanctuary]

how about oiling it? I am considering oiling mine. A member suggested a couple of Dunlop products. One was for cleaning and other for conditioning. now sure if that will darken the wood or not.

Lemon oil will naturally darken the board. Of course you will have to keep oiling the board to keep it dark because once the lemon oil evapourates it's back to square one. I've had good luck with the Dr Stringfellow (Kyser) stuff.

[emperor_black]

Lemon oil will naturally darken the board. Of course you will have to keep oiling the board to keep it dark because once the lemon oil evapourates it's back to square one. I've had good luck with the Dr Stringfellow (Kyser) stuff.

Is this the one?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Kyser-Dr.-Stringfellow-LemOil?sku=421902&src=3SOSWXXA

[VitaminG]

that's the one. Good stuff.

[charvel750]

What's wrong with rosewood?! Just get an ebony neck if you want it black...

[VitaminG]

oh, I meant to mention before: lemon oil will only really darken a rosewood fretboard if it's particularly dry. A couple of my Model series Charvels show no difference when you oil them - they will look cleaner once you're done, but no darker. Partly because the rosewood is so dark already, but also because I never let them dry out to that state anyway. And I probably only oil them once or twice per year

[Leo Chang]

After extensive Googling, I came across this:

Fret Doctor

http://www.beafifer.com/boredoctor.htm

It doesn't "darken" the fretboard per se, but rather restores the fretboard to its original color.

I have applied it to all my rosewood and ebony fretboard guitars with great results.

My DK2 had a almost orange color rosewood board, and I bought it used like that, so I always thought that's just the way it is. With a single application, the orange was gone, replaced by a very dark chocolate brown. Not only that, now I can actually see the beautiful grain that it has always had.

Same story for my 2004 DK2S, which had a very dry and very pale rosewood board.

I have the Dunlop system too, but after using the Fret Doctor, the Dunlop system feels very gummy and artificial. Whereas AFAIK, the Fret Doctor is mostly natural. It sure FEELS more natural, and doesn't have that artificial chemical smell that all commercially available "lemon oil" have.

[Bengal65]

After extensive Googling, I came across this:

Fret Doctor

http://www.beafifer.com/boredoctor.htm

It doesn't "darken" the fretboard per se, but rather restores the fretboard to its original color.

I have applied it to all my rosewood and ebony fretboard guitars with great results.

My DK2 had a almost orange color rosewood board, and I bought it used like that, so I always thought that's just the way it is. With a single application, the orange was gone, replaced by a very dark chocolate brown. Not only that, now I can actually see the beautiful grain that it has always had.

Same story for my 2004 DK2S, which had a very dry and very pale rosewood board.

I have the Dunlop system too, but after using the Fret Doctor, the Dunlop system feels very gummy and artificial. Whereas AFAIK, the Fret Doctor is mostly natural. It sure FEELS more natural, and doesn't have that artificial chemical smell that all commercially available "lemon oil" have.

Good stuff Leo. Thanks for the post!

[zeegler]

Black sharpie works great.

[Special-K]

I've had good luck with the Dr Stringfellow (Kyser) stuff.

Me too

[JacksonWarrior]

Heres a pretty good tutorial:http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8862

I dont know how much I agree with soaking the fretboard with conditioner as much as he's suggesting. It has petrolium distilates in it most likely and dry wood is gonna swell as it soaks more and more of it up. The fretboard on my 2001 WRMG was pretty dried out when I got it so I soaked it pretty good with Gibson's Luthiers Choice fretboard conditioner, using the method this guy suggests, and I believe this is what caused some of my high frets to spring a bit. I am considering ebonizing my rosewood too, but then again, it sure is pretty how it is.

[Jackson-Charvel]

Fretdoctor works great I am a happy customer of that product.