"Fake" wood fretboard

So I got this neck for a little toy project (oil can guitar) for 23 bucks, but the fretboard does look suspiciously artificial. It's supposed to be palisander but I don't think so. I tried to sand it lightly but the "rippled look" remains, so these are not machine marks, it looks like wood fibers pressed or "printed" in layers. What do you guys think?

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Not sure if I should do anything with it? I heard it has a tendency to have fibers break out, so some people seal it.
I thought I might just tru oil it together with the rest of the neck, can't hurt, right?

Thanks! :-)

It looks like "engineered rosewood" to me.

I have no first-hand experience with it as I have avoided it like the plague, but there are numerous threads here on how to deal with it.
The most common fix is sealing it CA. I'm not sure Tru Oil, poly or lacquer will be adequate though.
I'm sure others will chime in with the appropriate do's & don'ts.

I have 3 engineered necks
Sanding sealer was probably the best approach.
I did remove all the frets first though which I guess made it a bit easier to deal with.

The one on my 'Mustang Duosonic' was radiused to 7.25" and seemed to smooth out those grooves.
Also stained it with F&W mahogany which made it look more like genuine rosewood.


In future I'll just avoid using them altogether.

cheers Mark.

It's certainly not rosewood. Definitely manufactured. But not all manufactured woods are the same. Some of them are pretty good. However, that example seems similar to the not so good type the PNG factories use. You should be able to sand it flat, you just have to be fairly aggressive, start with maybe 80 grit and work your way up the grits (and be prepared to polish the frets afterwards).

The main issue is loose fibres and large bits pulling out when masking tape is pulled off them. So I'd first see if that's happening on a test section with masking tape. If it's all solid and nothing comes off, then simply sand. If you find fibres pulling off, then it needs securing. Personally I'd use thin CA as it will wick into the 'wood' and will hold the fibres in place and not just sit on the surface like sanding sealer which will just fill the gaps. CA is the better long-term solution IMO. The downside of thin CA is that it gets everywhere, so mask well and apply in small amounts. I put it on in the middle of the each fret section and smoothed it out with a cloth (wear disposable gloves to avoid getting stuck to the neck). I'd spread it all over the inlays as well as you'll be sanding it off again (but it will polish up nice and clear if necessary).

I just tru-oiled the fretboard on my first build. Sadly only after taking chunks out with masking tape.

I might be one of the few that have not had a problem with my one.
I rubbed fretboard wax into it and it came out just fine.
I play that guitar almost every day and honestly cant tell the difference.


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So I started to seal the fretboard with super glue and ... It started to look quite real?!

I had it covered with masking tape over night while the first coats of true oil dried, and no chunks came out when pulling the tape off. Probably one or two small fibers, but certainly less than from my "real" rosewood boards. So could this be some kind of real wood, or is it just very well manufactured?

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Anyway, I'm pretty confident it's gonna be a nice neck (besides the fact it's not my favorite thin form factor).

Well manufactured by the sound. So good news.

The first kit I made had this and I actually think its made of recycled plastic. I had to trim off some overhanging fretboard and it was most assuredly not a wood product of any form.

The engineered boards are normally a softwood, typically spruce, in a plastic resin. it's definitely an engineered board. If it't not shedding fibres, then don't use too much CA glue. I'd be tempted to scrape it flat, using a sharp Stanley knife blade, rather than sand it, at least until you've got it almost flat. It's more controllable than sanding.

So kind of like cultured marble being ground up stone in a polymer binding medium. That's why when I cut it the sawdust was all powdery and smelled like plastic.

Very much like that. But some of the fake woods are much better than the 'blackwood' style with really fine fibres and good looking grain patterns/colour variations.

I’ve got a kit coming in November that’s probably going to have an “Engineered Rosewood” fretboard. What do you guys think about sealing the cardboard thing with Tru-oil?

This guy has had success with it. What do you think?

https://youtu.be/pSEzOkPk3CQhttps://youtu.be/pSEzOkPk3CQ

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Originally Posted by MusicStudent1

This guy has had success with it. What do you think?

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Judging by the word count, I think he's being sponsored by Tru-Oil.

cheers, Mark.

TruOil is a finish, not a glue. If the board is well made, then it doesn’t need to be reinforced or have a finish applied as you can get it looking and feeling fine by sanding. If the fibres are loose, then IMO, you want to firmly glue them in place, which means CA or thin epoxy. That’s the engineering solution.

Just ask yourself ‘Would I glue a neck in with TruOil and trust it to hold?’ OK, CA isn’t the right choice fir gluing neck in either, but it would certainly be strong enough to hold firm.

But really, I’d just avoid any kits with engineered boards. There’s no need for them now and you should be able to order the kit with a real wood board.

The thing is, you often can't avoid it until you receive the kit. The neck I ordered is supposed to come with a palisander fretboard - I think we all agree that it's not real palisander that I received. I think sometimes even the sellers don't really know what the factory packs in the box, as they probably won't have the time to inspect each and every kit so closely. But on the other hand, I think the neck I received looks and feels pretty fine now with CA and tru oil. I don't think I will be able to tell any difference when playing.

If it's not what it says, then send it back.

I think that could turn out difficult when ordering from China ;-)
Besides that, I think there are quite a few players who wouldn't even know the difference. So.. If it feels good, I'll keep it, no matter what kind of wood.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

TruOil is a finish, not a glue.

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You are the one insisting that it should be glue.

Despite being guilty of using products for purposes that they weren't designed for..
Tru-Oil is indeed a finish and in this case it certainly works.

cheers, Mark.

There's a degree of nuance here. Tru oil is not an engineering material and is not intended to provide the strength that an engineering polymer like epoxy or cyanoacrylate will. The drying oils oxidise as they cure, producing a solid, but they don't, as I understand it polymerise to produce molecular chains in the way the other two will. Nevertheless the very presence of a solid filling the gaps between fibres is surely going to improve the stability of the surface, albeit somewhat marginally.

So if the fibres are loose and the surface not properly consolidated then you need a proper engineering product. But if the surface is basically sound, but could benefit from a little extra assistance, then the finish will provide that. In particular I think it would reduce the rate of wear of the board in the medium/long term - something I don't suppose we know much about yet.

I’d be open to using some kind of epoxy to harden the fretboard. What epoxy do you guys recommend?

I ordered my kit knowing full well the neck was going to be engineered rosewood. If it shows up with real rosewood, great! However, I need that specific neck and it’s got the engineered board so I’m going to see what I can do with it.

I used SP systems eposeal, which is a heavily thinned penetrating epoxy primer. But the smallest available quantity is about 50UKP, and is enough for about a thousand fretboards.

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Originally Posted by JimC

I used SP systems eposeal, which is a heavily thinned penetrating epoxy primer. But the smallest available quantity is about 50UKP, and is enough for about a thousand fretboards.

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Thanks for the info. I’m located in the US and that product doesn’t look like it’s readily available here.

Ok, let’s switch back to Simon’s CA idea. What about this stuff?

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tool...4.html#reviews

It looks like it’s somewhat slow drying and comes with that brush. I don’t think it would take more than 15 minutes to “paint” an entire engineered rosewood board with the stuff.

That is what we’re discussing, right? Gluing this flaky “engineered” stuff together so it doesn’t come apart. It seems the super glue idea makes sense.

I have heard you don’t want to inhale that stuff so I’d be wearing a respirator before I began “painting” the board.

I’ve never done this before but what’s the procedure? Coat the board with the CA superglue then buff with steel wool and you’re done?