Bringing out the lustre of a rosewood board

[blazer3]

Hi all. ( sorry if this is in the wrong section )
complete newby to bass playing, just bought myself a jazz bass copy from a local store, the bass itelf looks to have been in the warehouse for quite a while and was very grubby and dusty, everthing else has cleaned up a treat and now looks mint,except the fretboard,it still looks very dull and dusty,i"ve cleaned it once with "kyser lem oil" and while the upper board looks cleaner than it did the lower part still looks dusty.
How can i bring back the original look of the board, i love dark rosewood boards, is there anything else other than the lem oil to get the board nice and dark again.
any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Adrenochrome]

I use an antique wood restorer which is based mainly on tung oil.

[Hamster]

I had a similar issue with a cheap copy. The board had quite a bit of overspray from the lacquer finish and I had to remove that with some fine wire wool before I could bring up the grain with some lemon oil - YMMV.

[7string]

If the board looks really dark and funky, clean it with lighter fluid (naptha) a really handy solvent for cleaning. Lemon oil isn't a cleaner but it does put some moisture back in the 'board after months of playing.

I use those circular cotton wool pads which women use for removing make-up and so on as they're just the thing for this. Put a little lighter fluid on a pad and rub onto the fingerboard.You'll clean off lots of nasty, black, oily, greasy stuff. Use your fingernail on the pad to get right up to the edge of each fret.

I bought a cheap Dano guitar off of eBay last week and it had the grubbiest fingerboard I've ever seen. I used loads of those cotton pads, so many that the wife bought me my own pack (under a pound for a big stack of them). It took around [b][i]4 hours[/i][/b], over a couple of days, to get the fingerboard clean (no kidding!),


Solvents really dry out wood, so make sure you put some lemon oil/fretboard conditioner onto the 'board when it's clean. Apply the oil, leave for 5-10 minutes and then wipe off the excess. You might even need to apply it twice if the 'boards soaks up the first lot.




[u][b]**IMPORTANT**[/b][/u]

Solvents can be dangerous. Use only in a well-ventilated room or even outside. To dispose of the used pads, put them in their own carrier bag and then fill the bag with water. Make sure all the pads are soaked, then pour the water out. Soaking the used pads in water ensures that they won't spontaneously combust and are safe to dispose of.

Edited August 4, 2009 by 7string