Is there a paint(spray)/lacquer for applying on a fretboard?

[wazkelly]

Hi Kick, nice concept with a few challenges.

Biggest one is the standard rosewood fretboard.....not many guitar makers other than Rickenbacker bother with sealing them, and these days Riccy's probably use Bubinga instead. The open porous grain structure would need a lot of filler to then allow the painted surface to stand a chance of working and not show premature signs of wear.

On my J Bass I bought some Black block fret marker stickers which are basically very thin vinyl sections that were stuck over an already Tru Oiled maple board with then a few more diluted TO coats on top to keep them in place. This could be an idea for the glossy 3,5,7,9,12,15,etc markers. For the matte black look underneath, Tony VH2580's idea of a very dark full strength dye or stain done first and then same stuff added to ebony timber mate to fill the grain but this will require some sanding to get a really smooth surface. A Satin Poly over the lot might work to seal things and retain some of the matte look.

There are also a lot of things around at the moment with 'Piano Black' trimmings and suspect it may be 2 pack epoxy type stuff. Not the easiest or healthiest stuff to work with.

Dedman's idea of an Ebony fretboard special order is the easiest solution as you can add shine in the desired sections and remainder is naturally dulled anyway, or a bit of light 0000 steel wool scuff sanding could help things along.

[Kick]

Thanks Waz for thinking along with me. I also have been thinking about some very thin material to glue over the fretboard. This material should be hard enough to endure string wear off. Two things to figure out; what kind of material and does it come in matte and gloss finish...

[wazkelly]

Thanks Waz for thinking along with me. I also have been thinking about some very thin material to glue over the fretboard. This material should be hard enough to endure string wear off. Two things to figure out; what kind of material and does it come in matte and gloss finish...

Need to see if stick on vinyl comes in matte as well as glossy.

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[pablopepper]

Vinyl does indeed come in matte as well as gloss, but there is no way it will standup to use on a fretboard. It also discolours with wear and will eventually wear through and leave a sticky mess from the adhesive. Long story short: don't use vinyl on a fretboard.

[Tweaky]

You could use Winsor & Newton Indian INK to dye the fret board, they have several types, you want the one with the spider on the bottle, it contains Shellac, which dries hard, and is also used as a guitar finish in it's own right.

I've dyed my ES-3 kit's fret board with it.[I've also removed all the frets and block inlay so I can put real MOP inlays in instead, but that's getting beyond the scope of this thread]

You could lightly dull the finish with fine steel wool on some frets, and buff the ones you want shiny.
It might take a few applications to get enough of the ink to impregnate into the fretboard, to do what you want to do [getting some frets dull without removing to much will be the difficult thing, but not un-doable]

In any case, it's just a matter of keeping on applying enough Ink till you get the effect that you want, you don't really need much for a single coating, so a single small bottle should be more than enough to get the job done.

Eventually the shellac will wear through with playing, all you need do is apply some more over the top to get it back to the way you want it.

IMHO using epoxy over some frets and not over the others [shiny/dull] will firstly give the fretboard a weird sort of inconsistent feel to it, and secondly might cause the fretboard to do some weird thing regarding keeping the frets in, this is just hypothetical, but I'm basing this on the fact that the frets that arn't sealed with epoxy will still allow moisture to get into the wood, so your going to a get a neck with varying amounts of moisture running down the neck, which might over time be the cause of some frets wanting to pop.

[Kick]

Thanks for the info Tweaky. I'll have a look at this. Only problem could be that I'm in The Netherlands so chances are few to get this brand of ink somewhere around here in Europe. But I won't give up on my idea and perhaps I can find some replacement ink.

[chrissyinbkk]

Thanks for the info Tweaky. I'll have a look at this. Only problem could be that I'm in The Netherlands so chances are few to get this brand of ink somewhere around here in Europe. But I won't give up on my idea and perhaps I can find some replacement ink.

Can be bought in the UK Kick so would have thought you can get in the Netherlands...
http://www.winsornewton.com/uk/shop/...g/drawing-inks

[Tweaky]

Just go to any Artist supply store and they will have it, it's one of the most popular brands in the world.
It's used by anybody that is into calligraphy, and comes in shades of Brown, Blue,Green etc.

[Kick]

I already found in here as well. But I have some other options but this is good to know.

[corsair]

Could you post a picture of that neck please? I'll do some research on that 'catalysed polyurethane'

Yep; sorry about the delay; I'll get some up tomorrow!