Stain a Fretboard

[Johnny the Kid]

Hey guys, I'm going to start work on a Jazz Bass body that I bought two years ago. I'm gonna buy an unfinished maple neck from Warmoth and I was curious as to whether it would be possible to stain the fretboard red. If not then the maple will do just fine, but I wanna do something really cool with the bass and I think a red fretboard would help further that goal. Any help you guys have would be awesome.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Stain a Fretboard

You can buy the red stain for sure. Maple is a little variable, with very open pores and very closed pores existing on the same planks. I find that staining produces very inconsistent results, and mixing stain into clearcoat much better. If you go for a very light mix of stain into meths/water and repeated coats then I find this works better to avoid the inconsistent uptake.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Stain a Fretboard

Actually I just did a good search of "red fretboard" and what I had in my head looked much cooler than how it would turn out. I'm gonna just go with the maple neck and a clear coat.

I'll leave this thread open for anyone who wants to add to the discussion in case something like this comes up in the future.