Sibob Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Hi guys Just wondered if I could gain some opinions on epoxied rosewood fingerboards verses non-epoxied ebony fingerboards. Things I'm interested in thoughts/personal experience of: Sound/tone Wear with round/flatwounds Feel Cheers Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
such Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) My vote goes for epoxied ebony But seriously, I've had two fretless basses. One was defretted by myself, it had a maple fingerboard with a thick poly finish on it (surprisingly, the defretting operation only left little slots that weren't affecting playability). Next one had a rosewood board, and was defretted, filled, leveled etc by a good luthier. Here, the biggest surprise was that after six years (that's how long I've had the bass in its fretless form until I sold it) of daily play, slapping, gigging etc, there was almost no wear on the fingerboard - other than tiny marks - and I was using steel roundwound Rotos. Soundwise, I prefer the tone of a board with a hard finish on it. It's bright, biting and articulate, there's always many ways to mellow it down, which would be difficult the other way round. Edited May 12, 2012 by such Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guildbass Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Geoff Mason, the guy who built the Fingerbone Fretless I have said that if you had a lacquered finish you were basically playing plastic rather than the wood of a rosewood or ebony board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 It's one of these things that comes down to personal taste. I like the sound of string on wood so I would go for the uncoated board. I play a defretted Tokai Jazz with rosewood board and halfwounds. Gives me exactly the sound I want. Loads of mwah and lots of singing. I also have a Status S2 fretless with a phenolic board and that has a completely different sound. Much brighter and clearer. I often use flats on that which gives a lovely mellow tone. I find rounds on a fretless just too bright. So personal taste. I'd try different strings on the open wood board before you coat it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted May 12, 2012 Author Share Posted May 12, 2012 Cheers guys I haven't played fretless for years, and that was an unfinished rosewood board. Thinking I'll go Ebony, then I can always epoxy it at a later date...harder to go the other way I suspect Thanks Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 [quote name='guildbass' timestamp='1336806951' post='1651243'] Geoff Mason, the guy who built the Fingerbone Fretless I have said that if you had a lacquered finish you were basically playing plastic rather than the wood of a rosewood or ebony board. [/quote] A picture of the Fingerbone would be nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vax2002 Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 The harder the fretboard, the more the sustain, think of it as a moving nut, thats what you are doing, fretting the string, so the harder contact it has, the more it will fret. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Totally subjective. My preference is for coated ebony that Pedulla use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 I'm not asking what is better....simply how they compare & contrast Cheers Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanew Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) One day 15 years ago, i tried to have my fingerboard coated on my rosewood fretless. I didn't like the experience. [u]Sound/tone :[/u] i didn't recognise my rosewood fingerboard with the epoxy. Too many high frequencies, it sounded too hard for me. I came back rapidly to the original fingerboard. [u]Wear with round/flatwounds :[/u] -Without coat, my 72 JB rosewood fingerboard is still in good shape even with roundwounds. - I have a ebony fingerboard on my Godin with rounwounds for 10 years , there are marks but nothing serious. - On my Takamine B10 (ebony fingerboard), i switched with flatwounds 5 years ago and on THIS bass i really like the sound. It sings enough for me with the acoustic conception. less mwah but closer the doublebass sound. On my others basses, i only plays roundwounds. [u]Feel :[/u] with a coated fingerboard, it seems to play speeder but IMO i loose the sound so no coat for me. I would end by saying : nothing better than a "natural" ebony fretless. I hope it will help. Edited May 17, 2012 by Emanew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Rich Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) My graphite necked phenolic boarded Status S1 is a bit too bright and "clacky" but lots of mwah. Very little wear after 20 odd years. My graphite necked rosewood boarded Status S2 Classic sounds stunning, a bit more clarity and note definition than a wooden neck but with all the warmth of a wooden fingerboard. Seems to be wearing well but I've only had it a couple of years. My Fender Japan Jazz has a rosewood board and sounded very dark and woody. I coated it with epoxy but then it sounded too bright and characterless plus I went through the finish surprisingly quickly. I then rubbed it down and rubbed superglue into the board (have to apply several coats VERY quickly or you'll be stuck to your bass forever), that toughened it up without losing the woody sound, maybe a little brighter. Eventually wore through that and it's back to being bare rosewood. Edited May 17, 2012 by Fat Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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