How bad does this look to you?

W

Warheart

New member
I received a guitar in the mail yesterday and I noticed this about the fretboard:

Throughout the length of it, especially on the treble side and middle, the whole thing is pitted, in the picture, any checks you see are little depressions into the fretboard.

My question is this: Is this a case of a dried out fretboard or is it just a bad piece of wood that should not have been used?
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

I can't say for certain but it just looks dry to me. Did you buy it new or used?
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

That's just the grain of that wood.


It could be pretty damn nice to play on, with that air space under your fretting finger.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

Also, What kind of guitar would you expect to be like this?

Quality wise?
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

Looks like every rosewood fretboard I've ever seen.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

It's not the most attractive piece of wood ever, but is well within the range of normal rosewood that I've seen. Oil may or may not make a difference in the size of the pores, but either way, I can't really imagine it bothering me too much. I guess it would depend on what I'd payed, maybe.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

Kinda ugly but what does it SOUND like?

Honestly, the prettiest piece of rosewood I've ever seen (not that I'm an expert with a million guitars of experience) was a Squier Strat neck that I still have.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

You can smooth the fretboard wood by lightly scraping with a single edge razor blade in the direction of the wood grain then apply oil to recondition the wood.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

Take the strings off. Get some 4-0 or 5-0 steel wool and clean the entire FB with the steel wool(place a few pieces of masking tape over the pickups so you don't get the steel into the magnets). Then get some Old English Lemon oil & moisten a cloth and wipe down the whole board. Let the Lemon oil absorb in & repeat if necessary. It just looks a bit dry to me. Remember it is just starting to warm up. If the guitar came out of a cooler climate area its probably just dry. Lemon oil & steel wool will make it better!
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

+1 for normal but dry.

The rosewood fingerboard of my brand new Fender AVRI '62 Strat has pores similar to those in the OP photograph, only longer and there aren't so many of them.

What the OP's fingerboard has that mine does not is those fine marks running parallel to the frets.

If the instrument is brand new, I agree with the suggestion to oil the fingerboard. Once the rosewood stops guzzling the lemon oil, keep an eye on the frets for levelness. Brace yourself for the expense of a professional fret dress and set up.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

this is a cheap ass guitar isnt it.

neither my CIJ Fender or my MIA Fender or my Gibson USA guitars have this issue.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

That's not dry. The color & texture of the wood looks plenty "conditioned" to me.

That's just some fugly-ass grain on a low-grade piece of rosewood.

If you oil it, it'll just be oily low-grade rosewood.

If you sand it or use steel wool on it, it'll just be extra-sanded low-grade rosewood.

Luckily for you, it probably doesn't matter much beyond aesthetics.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

The thing to do is play it like crazy...eventually, your finger shmutz will fill in the grain.
 
Re: How bad does this look to you?

sosomething said:
That's not dry. The color & texture of the wood looks plenty "conditioned" to me.

That's just some fugly-ass grain on a low-grade piece of rosewood.

If you oil it, it'll just be oily low-grade rosewood.

If you sand it or use steel wool on it, it'll just be extra-sanded low-grade rosewood.

Luckily for you, it probably doesn't matter much beyond aesthetics.
Click to expand...

This is correct. I have only one guitar with a fretboard like that and its an old cheap POS that probably cost about $10 new in the 80s. Oiling it won't make those pores go away.
It will play fine though so I wouldn't worry about it. Unless it's on an expensive guitar.
 
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