erisu Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 So after selling my Ibanez ATK300 and another bass that I will list shortly... I'm raising funds to buy a Shuker bass. I want the fretboard to have a dark and tight grain feel. One of the options is having an Ebony fretboard, I've heard it's alot smooth to play on and the colour is more consistant than Rosewood which can vary throughout the fretboard. However I have also heard Ebony tends to crack easier and requires more maintenance compared to Rosewood? Is this the case or not? If I get the Ebony fretboard satin finished, it would be less harder to crack and requiring less maintenance right? Thanks all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 Ebony is the harder wearing option, and black generally goes with any body finish / colour scheme. I wouldn't advise any sort of finish on it - I just give a wipe over with Danish oil ever year or so; never experienced one cracking (all old violins and top classical guitars have ebony boards), although when it comes to refret time is is a bit more brittle - a luthier would have no problems though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 My old fretless Jaydee Roadie had/has an unfinished ebony board... in the 20-ish years I owned it, I never did anything to it other than polish it occasionally. Absolutely no cracking and very little marking even, despite the fact that I always used roundwounds. It's brilliant stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erisu Posted July 2, 2010 Author Share Posted July 2, 2010 Cheers for the reply Shaggy. I just remembered my friends classical guitar is an Ebony fretboard and he's knocked the guitar around as well but yet the fretboard is still as smooth as butter with no markings. [quote name='Rich' post='883812' date='Jul 2 2010, 11:18 AM']My old fretless Jaydee Roadie had/has an unfinished ebony board... in the 20-ish years I owned it, I never did anything to it other than polish it occasionally. Absolutely no cracking and very little marking even, despite the fact that I always used roundwounds. It's brilliant stuff.[/quote] How would you compare Ebony to Rosewood in your own experience? I mean do you need to polish rosewood occasionally as well because I never polish my basses that have rosewood fretboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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