Getting rid of the paint job on my 330 fretboard

[zinzin]

hi, i am new here, been lurking since a while first post now. i did some search but couldn't find the right threads, although i believe it is been asked many times. please excuse me for asking again.

i love my rick 330 but the lacquered fingerboard gets sticky with my sweaty hands. sliding notes it's almost impossible as well as quick barre chord changes are hard to do. anyone sanded it off? is that a good idea? with steel wool? or someone suggested to rub it of with methyl alcohol.
i'd like to do it with the frets on but i don't want to harm the instrument. i tried a very small part yesterday with steel wool and while it worked, it doesn't look to good ... is the paint job on the fretboard part of the rickenbacker sound or will it sound the same without it?

[sloop_john_b]

It is a great idea. My '68 330 has a light satin coat on it and it plays wonderfully.

I don't know how one would go about it, though (mine was done professionally). The tone will not be altered.

[cassius987]

Could you just tape off the fingerboard and use some light grit sandpaper to make it feel better to you, without actually removing the entire finish? I think that's where it's going to get really complex and possibly devalue your instrument.

[doctorwho]

Oswald, I recommend that you cross-post this under The Vibrola section where the resident luthiers will be sure to see it (and make excellent recommendations).

BTW, IIRC, the 325c58 has an unfinished fretboard. I know that my 730L Laramie acoustic has an unfinished fretboard.

[teb]

That state between the normal, varnished board and one that has been sanded clean and oiled isn't very pretty. Sanded varnish usually looks pretty bad and it would very likely really turn off potential buyers if you ever decide to sell it. I have one twelve-string that is factory varnished and one that was sanded clean and oiled when it was re-fretted and I don't believe it made any difference in the sound. I'm not sure it even made much difference in the playability, but being a twelve there tends to be less in the way of finger gymnastics going on when playing them than on a six-string.

The conversion varnish on the fingerboard is very tough stuff. The chances of sanding it clean at home without pulling the frets aren't very good and you're likely to end up with a big mess on your hands and a damaged guitar. If you want to change the feel of the fingerboard in do-it-yourself mode, I would think about leaving the varnish, but rubbing the fingerboard surface down to a satin finish. They feel less tacky than a gloss finish. This could be done with a fine abrasive like pumice stone on a cloth, or possibly with very fine steel wool (4-0).You would just be dealing with the surface and should you ever decide to sell, it could probably be buffed back up to gloss with polishing compound to restore it to what is most likely the most sale-able condition.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200724 ... -1-lb.aspx

I target-shoot old and old-style rifles as a hobby. Some are real and a couple are Italian made replicas. They're excellent rifles, but they come out of the factory in Italy with a hard, glossy finish on the stocks, which just isn't appropriate. The first thing I do to them is to pull the stocks off and rub them down to a satin finish that looks like what is supposed to be there. The result is very smooth and much less tacky to your hands. I would consider doing the same to a fingerboard if it bugged me and I believe it would make a difference, but for anything more destructive than a satin rub-down, I'd send the job to a pro. Taking a hunk of sandpaper to a perfectly good Rickenbacker is, and should be, a very scary proposal for most of us.

The top rifle is an Italian replica of an 1885 Winchester Low Wall that has had it's wooden parts rubbed down to a satin finish. The bottom one is a Winchester Model 1894 with its original finish that is 105 years old. The rub-down on the Low Wall was done with steel wool.

[iiipopes]

+1 what Todd said. Word.

[zinzin]

alright. thanks.

[kiramdear]

So, Todd, you use 4-0 steel wool to "satinize" the finish? Have you tried the micro-abrasive cloths? I've read somewhere about folks using these on the back of the neck; the fret board should be the same. I haven't tried them myself.

[cassius987]

The conversion varnish on the fingerboard is very tough stuff. The chances of sanding it clean at home without pulling the frets aren't very good and you're likely to end up with a big mess on your hands and a damaged guitar. If you want to change the feel of the fingerboard in do-it-yourself mode, I would think about leaving the varnish, but rubbing the fingerboard surface down to a satin finish. They feel less tacky than a gloss finish. This could be done with a fine abrasive like pumice stone on a cloth, or possibly with very fine steel wool (4-0).You would just be dealing with the surface and should you ever decide to sell, it could probably be buffed back up to gloss with polishing compound to restore it to what is most likely the most sale-able condition.

I was actually trying to suggest the microfine sandpaper to "satinize" the surface of the finish similar to your suggestion, as John Hall once recommended this for finished necks. I definitely should have made that more clear in my post.

[teb]

Kira, I have MicroMesh all the way up to 12,000 grit (not cheap, but great stuff). That's what I used on the 2030 and 430 bodies since I don't own a buffer. If I'm not sure what grit would give me the satin finish I want, I'll sometimes start with 12,000 and work downward on a sample chunk until I get to one that is coarse enough to yield what I'm after. For fairly hard finishes though, 4-0 steel wool is usually about right, so I just use it instead.

[johnhall]

Some times we need to do this for a restoration or other reason. We simply use a razor blade on edge and scrape it down to bare wood. Do it carefully and it looks just fine, no sanding needed.

[Rickissippi]

Some times we need to do this for a restoration or other reason. We simply use a razor blade on edge and scrape it down to bare wood. Do it carefully and it looks just fine, no sanding needed.

The thought of a non-pro (read: me) doing this at home makes me cringe a little. If I tried this, I'm sure I'd ruin my Rick. If I saw a friend doing it, I don't think I could bring myself to watch.

[david/wales/u.k]

Some times we need to do this for a restoration or other reason. We simply use a razor blade on edge and scrape it down to bare wood. Do it carefully and it looks just fine, no sanding needed.

The thought of a non-pro (read: me) doing this at home makes me cringe a little. If I tried this, I'm sure I'd ruin my Rick. If I saw a friend doing it, I don't think I could bring myself to watch.

Yea, as someone who can't even change strings I know what you mean!