Would you paint/dye a maple fretboard?

[ross.pearson]

I suppose a bit of both, but mainly for practical reasons of wear and maintenance.

As far as wear, realistically I guess it would be no different than applying clear lacquer or poly to a maple fretboard, but it could make future fret replacement trickier.

If you got any tear out when removing the frets (which is always a risk no matter careful you are) fixing it could be more difficult to touch up than just a clear coat. I don't think I'd take it on if someone brought it to me for a refret.

Oh yeah that makes sense. I had considered issues that might occur were someone to wear through the clear, but hadn't considered issues with refrets etc in the future. I think if it were made to be seen rather than played it would be cool to do.

Good to know that it's possible, and has been done a whole bunch, but there are some potential issues with doing it.

I'll probably just leave it alone to be honest.

[Rabbit]

You could always do rectangular inlays between each fret with different coloured materials or fill the inlay with coloured epoxy .