Fretboard Oil

[Armistice]

Speaking of ebony, I'm sure I've shown you my Tele ebony fretboard before ... now that 100% jet black ebony is so hard to find and as @Greg_L suggests, environmentally irresponsible...

I bought this guitar from a selection that were in transit to Australia from Fender after playing a blonde Thinline at a particular shop. The guy looked up what was coming and I said, I'll have the cherry burst thanks. It took a couple of weeks to arrive and it was the first time the sales guy had seen the "new" ebony on a guitar, and when he opened up the case he was so shocked that, to pre-empt my complaining about it, he knocked $100 of the price I'd previously agreed.

Thing is, it didn't really bother me. It looks sorta cool anyway. Feels like ebony and I don't spend vast amounts of time staring at the fretboard to worry about whether it's "perfect" or not.

20210113_095030_resized.jpg

[Greg_L]

I like it. It looks worn in.

I'm personally fine with any fretboard wood that isn't plain maple. As long as it's brown I'm good. It all feels the same to me. I'm not digging my fingers into the fretboard anyway.

[muttley]

Speaking of ebony, I'm sure I've shown you my Tele ebony fretboard before ... now that 100% jet black ebony is so hard to find and as [mention]Greg_L[/mention] suggests, environmentally irresponsible...

I bought this guitar from a selection that were in transit to Australia from Fender after playing a blonde Thinline at a particular shop. The guy looked up what was coming and I said, I'll have the cherry burst thanks. It took a couple of weeks to arrive and it was the first time the sales guy had seen the "new" ebony on a guitar, and when he opened up the case he was so shocked that, to pre-empt my complaining about it, he knocked $100 of the price I'd previously agreed.

Thing is, it didn't really bother me. It looks sorta cool anyway. Feels like ebony and I don't spend vast amounts of time staring at the fretboard to worry about whether it's "perfect" or not.

20210113_095030_resized.jpg

Yeh, I have a load of ebony from years back and some it has marbling like that. I love it.

Ebony is not as endangered as many other timbers BTW but it's stock definitely needs managing properly. The moment you ban something you remove its economic value to those that process it and it either gets slashed and burned or smuggled. Weirdly the biggest threat to the ebony that we use is the elephant. Whoda thought it.

[Greg_L]

Ooooh. Fretboards made out of Ivory with ebony inlays!

[Lt. Bob]

Speaking of ebony, I'm sure I've shown you my Tele ebony fretboard before ... now that 100% jet black ebony is so hard to find and as @Greg_L suggests, environmentally irresponsible...

I bought this guitar from a selection that were in transit to Australia from Fender after playing a blonde Thinline at a particular shop. The guy looked up what was coming and I said, I'll have the cherry burst thanks. It took a couple of weeks to arrive and it was the first time the sales guy had seen the "new" ebony on a guitar, and when he opened up the case he was so shocked that, to pre-empt my complaining about it, he knocked $100 of the price I'd previously agreed.

Thing is, it didn't really bother me. It looks sorta cool anyway. Feels like ebony and I don't spend vast amounts of time staring at the fretboard to worry about whether it's "perfect" or not.

20210113_095030_resized.jpg

I really like that a lot.
Nice guitar .... even that little bit says that's a nice burst.

[muttley]

Ooooh. Fretboards made out of Ivory with ebony inlays!

Haha. It just happens that the trees that provided our ebony occupy the same areas as them elephants. There ain't much left in Africa.

Now we are turning to supplies in India and the Indonesian archypalego. They are almost indistinguishable despite being different species. All our tropical and exotic hard woods need managing. Not just to keep me in timber, which is a bonus, but to preserve our eco system as a whole. I'm all in favour of paying a little more if it helps.

[JD01]

I've just properly cleaned, oiled and strung a guitar for the first time.

So what kind of oil did you end up using on your environmentally irresponsible ebony fretboard as the forests wept?

Cheap bottle of lemon oil from Thomann. Really slow delivery at the moment. Dunno if that's Brexit, Covid or a combination of the two but Thoman are normally really good.

Next time I need strings and nik naks I'll see if andertons are any better. I was pissed off with them before cos of stupid delivery charges on strings.

Dunno if its placebo or not, but it does feel nice playing a clean guitar with polished frets.

[muttley]

So what kind of oil did you end up using on your environmentally irresponsible ebony fretboard as the forests wept?

Cheap bottle of lemon oil from Thomann. Really slow delivery at the moment. Dunno if that's Brexit, Covid or a combination of the two but Thoman are normally really good.

Next time I need strings and nik naks I'll see if andertons are any better. I was pissed off with them before cos of stupid delivery charges on strings.

Dunno if its placebo or not, but it does feel nice playing a clean guitar with polished frets.

Thats pretty quick at the moment. I ordered some stuff from Scotland a week ago and its still not arrived, first class post. Apparently many sorting offices are rife with the covids, ours at Chelmsford is one of them. I have heard of lots of people moaning about royal mail loading extra handling charges on stuff from the EU but haven't bought anything in yet so..

It aint a placebo, a nicely oiled board with a new set of strings is pretty nice.

[JD01]

@Armistice I think that fretboard looks really nice.

[Greg_L]

Dunno if its placebo or not, but it does feel nice playing a clean guitar with polished frets.

Probably not placebo.

Although when I was a kid I used to think my GTO ran better after I washed it. Now I knew that was actually impossible and stupid, but it sure seemed like it in my mind.

[Lt. Bob]

if it seems real it is real!

Oh good lord ..... that's Trump-think

[muttley]

if it seems real it is real!

Oh good lord ..... that's Trump-think

Are you for real?...

[WhiskeyJack]

Last time i polished my frets on my Epiphone i noticed a huge difference in how it felt. I don't ever notice any difference when i just oil the fingerboard or give any of my guits a cleaning in general. But fret polishing. Absolutely.

@JD01 I think shipping world over is genuinely off kilter. My wife and I sent all our Christmas cards out on the same day, dec 12. one of my aunts got hers two days before Christmas, my other aunt still hasn't rcv'd hers they live two towns away from each other. a close family friend got theirs just this Monday passed. Etc. All of those were domestic within the Canadian borders. Just a sign of the time i think buddy.

Also shipping rates are skyrocketing. I went ot order a friggin 7" record, it's price was 7.99 USD. they wanted 28CAD for just the fucking shipping. SO stupid. I notice that the most with records though and can't help but wonder if it i just a gouge or something?

[JD01]

Cheap bottle of lemon oil from Thomann. Really slow delivery at the moment. Dunno if that's Brexit, Covid or a combination of the two but Thoman are normally really good.

Next time I need strings and nik naks I'll see if andertons are any better. I was pissed off with them before cos of stupid delivery charges on strings.

Dunno if its placebo or not, but it does feel nice playing a clean guitar with polished frets.

Thats pretty quick at the moment. I ordered some stuff from Scotland a week ago and its still not arrived, first class post. Apparently many sorting offices are rife with the covids, ours at Chelmsford is one of them. I have heard of lots of people moaning about royal mail loading extra handling charges on stuff from the EU but haven't bought anything in yet so..

It aint a placebo, a nicely oiled board with a new set of strings is pretty nice.

Well... I ordered an innertube off Amazon yesterday evening and its gonna be arriving at lunchtime today... so not sure what's going on there.

[muttley]

Is it Royal Mail or Amazon delivery? Amazon don't hold their employees to the same working standards as RM....get sick on an Amazon gig and there are a dozen white vans willing to step in for next to nothing in return.

[JD01]

Is it Royal Mail or Amazon delivery? Amazon don't hold their employees to the same working standards as RM....get sick on an Amazon gig and there are a dozen white vans willing to step in for next to nothing in return.

Amazon - actually got the grey Amazon van. I know their working practices are pretty cut-throat... but I ordered a tube yesterday evening when I finished work at about 6PM. I was cycling around the prom with my bro in law by 1 today.