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

Hi Guy's, I'm thinking of a new build (when I have put some money aside) and I have an idea that will make a neck look very differently as a usual neck.

My plan is to go for the EX-1 with black hardware.

I'm thinking of doing a (spray)paintjob with gloss black and then make some stripes with maskingtape (like the Eddy van Halen strat) and use matted black to repaint the body. After removing the maskingtape I should get a van Halen like body with gloss and matt black finish.

Now the neck... I want it to be matted black finished. Now the back and headstock is easy but comes the fun part. I want to (spray)paint the fretboard as well. First with matted black and then I want to (spray)paint) the parts of the fretboard (where you would normally find the dotmarkers) with gloss black.

But what paint or lacquer is strong enough to endure the strings working on the fretboard while playing? I was thinking of paint that is used in the automotive industry but is there something els I could use? And how could I mask the frets?

You could always apply a thin coat of epoxy resin over your board after the paint has gone on.
You’d probably want a thinned board, paint your graphic, then build the board up with the epoxy to a rough final height, radius it, sand and polish it, then slot it for your frets.
Trying to do it between already fitted frets would be a nightmare.

You could also possibly use an undiluted black stain such as colourtone (undiluted it is black as black can be) and maybe replace the dot markers with a glossy plastic or other material. With the stain you could do easily with frets on.

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Originally Posted by vh2580

You could also possibly use an undiluted black stain such as colourtone (undiluted it is black as black can be) and maybe replace the dot markers with a glossy plastic or other material. With the stain you could do easily with frets on.

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Could be an option but I want to stick to my original idea. So no dotmarkers visible ;)

I should stop making suggestions towards Black EXs seeing as mine has been a nightmare disaster.

you could custom order a kit with ebony fretboard and no markers

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

I should stop making suggestions towards Black EXs seeing as mine has been a nightmare disaster.

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Haha Frank, that's exactly the answer that I'd thought you would give. Bummer on yors but you'll figure it out sometimes ;-)

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Originally Posted by Dedman

you could custom order a kit with ebony fretboard and no markers

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True, but I really want the fretboard to show a matted finish with the fretboard at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and so on to be glossy black.
C'mon guys, that would be great looking! Will it? Or am I the only one possible to visualise this?

Oh! I see what you’re going for now. Tough to find a coating that will stand up to it for long, and fiddle to do cleanly between frets,

My Westone Spectrum MX has a red fretboard which is as tough a paint finish as anything I've ever seen! I was told once that the paint was probably a catalysed polyurethane; does that sound right?

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Originally Posted by corsair

My Westone Spectrum MX has a red fretboard which is as tough a paint finish as anything I've ever seen! I was told once that the paint was probably a catalysed polyurethane; does that sound right?

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

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.

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...

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Originally Posted by 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...

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

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

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.

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.
Attachment 23064
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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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

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.

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

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Originally Posted by Kick

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

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

Here is another option:
Use whatever means to ebonize the fretboard you like - ink, another technique, whatever. Do what you need to do to make it black.
There should be little need to mask the frets - as most substances will find it difficult;t to permanently stick to the metal of the frets - and even less so if you polish them first. A very fine grade sandpaper should remove most traces of any substance on the frets - mask and polish as you would if doing a fret dress.
Simply replace the fret dots with polished black plastic. Many older guitars had plastic fret dots and they worked fine...
This would give you a matte black fretboard and gloss black dots.

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Originally Posted by stan

Here is another option:
Use whatever means to ebonize the fretboard you like - ink, another technique, whatever. Do what you need to do to make it black.
There should be little need to mask the frets - as most substances will find it difficult;t to permanently stick to the metal of the frets - and even less so if you polish them first. A very fine grade sandpaper should remove most traces of any substance on the frets - mask and polish as you would if doing a fret dress.
Simply replace the fret dots with polished black plastic. Many older guitars had plastic fret dots and they worked fine...
This would give you a matte black fretboard and gloss black dots.

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But I want a matte fretboard except for the fretboard between the 2nd and 3th fret, the 4th and the 5th, 6th and 7th and so on. These area's on the fretboard must be gloss black (and no dotmarkers).

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Originally Posted by corsair

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

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Ok... new account - the old one was being a little hesitant in letting me on from our desktop, and spat the dummy, hence the new handle!

I've got some photos of the neck but unsure how to proceed now. Is there an image program in here, or do I have to look for an outboard one?

In the meantime, go here...

http://forum.westoneguitars.net/

... then go to Members Westones and, then put Spectrum MX Trans red into the search engine.. that's mine.

I have tried but I think I can only see the Members section when you have an account ont that forum.

But I have seen the trans Blue and it is lookking quite nice :)

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Originally Posted by Kick

But I want a matte fretboard except for the fretboard between the 2nd and 3th fret, the 4th and the 5th, 6th and 7th and so on. These area's on the fretboard must be gloss black (and no dotmarkers).

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Ahh, sorry, reread this...
You could put in big block markers that take up the whole section.... tricky idea, good luck