Woodwind Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 (edited) I absolutely loathe the look of dots and blocks on the front of fingerboards/fretboards. Always have and on several occasions the presence of fretboard dots has stopped me buying a bass. I've been a fretless player for the last 6 years or so and my main bass is a defret. The aesthetics of Fretlines don't worry me in the slightest, but the dots make me want to cry, so one evening (after a few drinks) I decided to apply a layer of black vinyl tape over the board. I'd often wondered about the feasibility of this, using colours to theme a bass for particular performance settings, of a UV reactive colour for ridiculous stage presence under blacklight etc etc Would the vinyl mute the sound, would it wear through quickly? Well, it doesn't mute or dampen the sound and with half-round strings there is no noticeable wear after a fortnight of playing. The fretlines provide nice position markers on the edge of the board. I can imagine I'll keep this going while I own the bass. Edited August 27, 2021 by Woodwind 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 By "black vinyl tape" do you mean something similar to electrical tape? What about the glue residue when you remove the tape? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd56hawk Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 The same material people use to wrap cars? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 1 hour ago, Happy Jack said: By "black vinyl tape" do you mean something similar to electrical tape? What about the glue residue when you remove the tape? Bit of some sort of petroleum-based Solvent ought to clean that off. Then it'll evaporate away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodwind Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 10 minutes ago, jd56hawk said: The same material people use to wrap cars? Pretty much this, yes. The stuff I have is thicker and not as flexible as that stuff though 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodwind Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 1 hour ago, Happy Jack said: By "black vinyl tape" do you mean something similar to electrical tape? What about the glue residue when you remove the tape? Not like electrical tape, this is not particularly stretchy. I had a load left over from vinyl cutting stickers This doesn't leave a residue, but as said above if it did some alcohol would clean it off and then a good oiling of the wood would sort any drying 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahambythesea Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 So in theory you could have your fingerboard any colour you like, as long as they manufacture it in that colour. 👍🏼 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodwind Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said: So in theory you could have your fingerboard any colour you like, as long as they manufacture it in that colour. 👍🏼 Yup, precisely. The black vinyl is black the whole way through the material, but some of the other colours have a white backing which will show through as it wears, but that would take a good few hours of play. My tobacco burst instrument perhaps isn't the best canvas for colours, but on block colour instrument you could have a lot of fun with this. The 90's dance music band that I dream of getting together, would suit neon orange or yellow for example 😎 That would be most noticeable on a fretless, but there is no reason not to do this on a fretted instrument Edited August 27, 2021 by Woodwind 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 15 minutes ago, Woodwind said: but there is no reason not to do this on a fretted instrument Use multi-coloured strips... 12 Different colours, one for each note, repeated all the way up and down the board 😀 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd56hawk Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 5 hours ago, Woodwind said: Pretty much this, yes. The stuff I have is thicker and not as flexible as that stuff though Thicker makes sense. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 I've been using 6mm black tape on the upper edge of my TRB5 fretless (for some reason Yamaha side-dotted it as though it was fretted...), but it never occurred to me to cover the whole board. Kudos! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Hmmm. Presumably this would mean the nut didn't have to be lowered as much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodwind Posted August 28, 2021 Author Share Posted August 28, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, alyctes said: 9 hours ago, alyctes said: Hmmm. Presumably this would mean the nut didn't have to be lowered as much? I didn't do any setup work after putting the vinyl on, so essentially the action is now a fraction of a millimetre lower. i have the strings very low at the nut Edited August 28, 2021 by Woodwind 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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