i'm lookin for a good oil to darken my fretboards. suggestions?

[littleredguitars2]

 i have 7 guitars with a rosewood board. haha. go figure. looking for a good fretboard oil to darken it a bit and overall treat them. any suggestions?

[Philly Q]

Fret Doctor.

http://www.beafifer.com/boredoctor.htm


Don't be put off by the hokey looking website, it's good stuff, much better than the lemon-scented mineral oils sold as "lemon oil".

It's not a stain, so it doesn't actually colour your board, but it does make it look darker, especially if it's a dry, open-pored piece of rosewood.  On the other hand I've got one LP with a very light-coloured but close-grained board (looks almost like pau ferro), and the Fret Doctor hardly changes the colour of that at all.

If you wanted to permanently stain your boards - to look like ebony, for example - there are products available for that too.  Try the Stewart-MacDonald website.

[littleredguitars2]

thanks for the tips man. i'll definitely check them out

[Afghan Dave]

Leather dye to darken the rosewood.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Many companies use a leather dye to stain streaky ebony boards to a darker black.

I have a bottle of Fiebings dye that is good for this

http://www.fiebing.com/catalogue/dyes/

[Philly Q]

Do those dyes start coming off again if you subsequently oil the fretboard?

[5F6-A]

Another user of fret doctor here.

Love the stuff!!!

[Lew]

pffft just play it

[littleredguitars2]

would i have to be careful not to get the dye on the frets or fret markers?

[AndyR]

Sounds like you're interested in the dye possibilities... but I'm another Fret Doctor user here :D

I do have some sympathy for Lew's "pffft just play it" :lol:, but I have to say that the best looking board I have, although it got like that from playing (and lemon oil, and Fast Fret), took some 20 years and hundreds of sweaty/greasy gigs to get like that!!! :lol:

[Afghan Dave]

Just dye it.. the dye wont stain plastic dot markers or metal frets, just the rosewood. I wouldn't know about real clay dots though. :)

[ericsabbath]

the fiebings leather dye they sell on stewmac is pretty good
if you're in the UK, I remember I bought mine from some guy on ebay UK

[ericsabbath]

you only gotta be careful if your bigger inlays and neck bindings are very worn, with marks and scratches
but it won't stain a plain surface