Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

What type of finish is on the fretboards of this 2003 Rick 360/6 (midnight Blue) and what do I treat the fretboard with, polish or oil? My ebony and rosewood fretboards on my other guitars I use an oil specially made for that purpose but the Rick looks like it has the same finish/gloss the rest of the guitar has on it. What do you use?

Nothing.

I love RIC fretboards!

Cole

First, I use a razor blade to scrape off the existing finish and expose the bare wood. Then I use Gerlitz Guitar Honey. But that's just me.

However, if you like the finished neck, a little naptha, a cotton rag, an old toothbrush, and some elbow grease should clean the mung off nicely.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I love the glossed-over fretboard just like she came.

I'm with Cole and Paul. It's a Rick feature that I love, too.

Adam, although on one of your Lazarus Ricks, it would be easier to strip the old finish off a fretboard (especially if you've removed the frets), doing this on a new or recent vintage Rick simply won't work well. Not to mention that, once you've removed the frets, the fretboard could be sanded better than scraped, and chemical stripping also becomes a possibility.

The new conversion varnish is very difficult to get out of the fretboard wood, because, while the wood is very hard and long wearing, it is still quite open-grained. Then, truth be told, that finish penetrates into the fretboard anyway. So though it is no longer shiny, unless you really remove about 1/4 mm after the top level of varnish is gone, you've still got a coated fetboard. Guitar honey is meant to penetrate, and it ain't doin' that on a 2003 guitar, unless the fretboard is down to bare wood.

Leave it alone, I say!

Paul,

Two of my fretboards were sanded, but more as part of a "improvement" measure. Both were destined for refrets, so a radiused block did the trick nicely after the frets were pulled. However, the real reason for the full-on assault was to get a constant radius across the width of the neck. The fact that I ended up with a bare fingerboard was just an added bonus. True, I would have sanded the varnish off anyway, but I wouldn't have needed to take 1/16" off the middle to do so.

However, a third neck *was* just scraped lightly with a straight blade - and it came out just dandy. There may be traces of varnish left in the grain, but not enough to worry about. Again, the fingerboard on this one needed a little cleanup regardless, as the varnish was trashed/partially removed before I got my hands on it.

I don't seriously recommend that folks buy a new or pristine vintage guitar and immediately go at the neck hellbent on destruction, but for a used instrument that needs a fair amount of work, why not fix it up the way that I want? I mean, I'm the one that's going to be playing it, right?

Adam, 1/4mm is not 1/16", but only 1/100" (.010).

And your last paragraph, missing as a qualifier in your first post, was what I was after (for clarification) anyway.

So, thanks for the clarification. Used guitars needing fretboard work: Your preference is to strip or scrape. Fine. But Frank's guitar is a 2003, and probably minty fresh, with him wanting tips to keep it that way.

Paul,

I know how to convert from metric to English measurements. My point was that the radius on the fretboard was so inconsistent across its width that I needed to take 1/16" off the center of the fingerboard to get a consistent radius from edge to edge. In other words, from this to this.

Which neck would you rather play?

In any event, I probably would scrape a minty fresh 2003 if it were mine. However, there's no point in getting into that situation in the first place - so the odds of me ever owning that guitar are, at best, epsilon . IMHO, that's another reason to buy used - that changes that I make are part of a process that, in its entirety, not only makes the guitar more enjoyable to play, but more valuable as well. OTOH, it's doubtful that scraping the neck on a "new" guitar will increase the resale value, regardless of any subjective opinion about playability.

Frank, to get back to your question: "nothing" is correct, meaning a simple wipe-down with a cleaning cloth on occasion should be fine.

If day-to-day grime builds up, a little guitar polish - the type recommended in other threads - can be used. I've had to use light rubbing compound on some older fretboards that had not been cleaned next-to-forever to get rid of the entrenched stuff.

Adam:

I read and re-read your previous post and the 1/16" only made sense in relation to my comment about scraping.

Thanks for once again clarifying. You know, sometimes, when I think I'm being wordy, I realize that it's all for a good cause--clarity. So I go on and run off at the mouth. People can tune me out, but they never sit there and go, "Huh?"

Lemon Oil works great.

Cole

Thanks J.C..So what does Adam think about the fretboards and keeping them cleaned with what?

Uh oh. Here we go again...

Your turn, Adam...

Geez, Frank, I can't tell if you're trolling or genuinely curious. In either case, I'll be your huckleberry.

For a finished fretboard (such as a normal Rick), I'd first try a clean cotton rag by itself. If that doesn't work, I'd try a little naphtha on that same rag or an old toothbrush (if the rag didn't work) to take off the accumulated finger goo. Once the mung is off, you're done. And I'd do this with the strings off (although it's not necessary), as it's a lot easier and faster.

If it's bare wood, I'd do the same thing, only I'd follow it with a quick application of Gerlitz Guitar Honey every couple of months or so. You don't need to overdo it on the oil; fretboards don't dry out *that* fast. Some folks use a little 0000 steel wool on a bare board, but you really need to watch the filings; they tend to end up in inconvenient places (like pickups).

As anecdotal evidence, I bought a guitar in 1992. I didn't change the strings until I finally broke one in about 1999 (they were getting kind of dead anyway ). Needless to say, the fingerboard was brown ovals of wood surrounded by peaks of crud; the frets were shiny crests on a ridge of goo. The naphtha, rag, and brush brought it back to new. The point being, the naphtha treatment should certainly take care of almost anything you need to remove.