Rounds on my new fretless...

G

grue

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I just got a new Corvette Standard fretless. It totally rocks! :D:D:D

Anyway, I love that ballsy roundwound sound, and I like my big, nasty vibrato style, so I am probably going to be putting more-than-average wear on the fingerboard.

My question is, how do I protect the fingerboard without changing the deep woody sound I fell in love with at the store? I'm scared that if I use something hard like Tung oil or epoxy, I will get too much of a "Jaco" mwah, something I'm not looking for right now. Any suggestions?

Also, how do I know if my f.b. is wenge or ebony? It looks too light-colored to be ebony, and all the product descriptions say wenge, but I have seen posts that say Warwick uses ebony on all its fretless models. I figure I should probably know if I actually own the thing. ;) Plus, I'm guessing wenge wears out a little faster than ebony.

Thanks!
 
Ebony is one of the hardest woods used in guitar
manufacturing. Don't worry about rounds effecting
the board ie, chewing it up too much. Worse comes
to worse, you do a little sanding, a little oiling, and
voila, a like-new board.

Also... Little known fact, Ebony is very rarely pure
black. Ebony is usually stained to look black. Not
to mention the countless number of species of Ebony.

It's an Ebony board, unless it's custom. Just keep'er
treated as you treat the body, and you should be fine. :D
 
Thanks, that's great to know!

I can now rock out without fear. 8:
 
I play mine really hard sometimes... I wouldn't worry about the wear. My view is that it gets to a certain amount of wear and then gets no worse. I use EMPs but I've had even a noticeable amount of "wear" with flatwounds. The ebony board is really hard wearing, and the tigerstripe ebony isn't usually a uniform black... but looks pretty cool in it's own way.
When I first got my RB fretless I treated the board with tung oil... I don't really think it makes much difference... apart from the satisfaction of fiddling around with your bass. I just use lemon oil, maybe twice a year.
 
(yes I know this is an old thread)

I use lemon oil when I change my strings. The wood drinks it up mightily, and the fingerboard gets nice and clean.

Note that NOT all Wicks have ebony... up to and including non-custom shop stock instruments! Mine is wenge. The newer ones I've seen in stores this year ARE ebony.

If you're worried about roundwounds eating the fingerboard, switch to nickels. They're not as harsh as stainless and don't stay as bright as long. Nice midrange on them. I use GHS Boomers medium, and the bass isn't complainin'.
 
gc said:
(yes I know this is an old thread)

I use lemon oil when I change my strings. The wood drinks it up mightily, and the fingerboard gets nice and clean.

Note that NOT all Wicks have ebony... up to and including non-custom shop stock instruments! Mine is wenge. The newer ones I've seen in stores this year ARE ebony.

If you're worried about roundwounds eating the fingerboard, switch to nickels. They're not as harsh as stainless and don't stay as bright as long. Nice midrange on them. I use GHS Boomers medium, and the bass isn't complainin'.
Click to expand...


Warwick doesnt use wenge for fretless basses coz it's just not hard enough.They use ebony as factory standard,even on custom shops.This has always been the case.Unless your bass was de-fretted by a previous owner,it should be ebony.
Post some close up pics if you can,so we can see for sure what wood it is.
 
I'm betting you wont have that bass long enough to tear it up. It will last a good 10 years before you'll need to work on the fretboard. By then you'll be into thumbs, streamers, or even one of those hot sparking infinity's.....
 
Lemon oil and if you don't like the scratches (ok its not really a scratch but ebony is so hard it might as well be) then use a scotch brite pad with the lemon oil to buff them away.

I oil my FB every 3 months or so and wipe down my TI flats. Doing this is almost like putting new strings on imo, have a noticable difference in tone, everything comes alive after and oil and clean!
 
I read a review of the Corvette STD Ash FL V very recently, in Guitar Buyer I think. They listed the fingerboard as wenge. That's really confused me.
 
Sometimes dealers do make mistakes, they copy the info from our website, and forget that this is a fretless bass...
 
Thanks Florin.

So my 2009 Vette FL is definitely tigerstripe ebony fingerboard then? I was pretty sure it wasn't wenge.

Cheers.

Florin said:
Sometimes dealers do make mistakes, they copy the info from our website, and forget that this is a fretless bass...
Click to expand...
 
I've got some pictures of the fretless fingerboard (cheapo Peavey, rosewood, defretted by myself, not coated with anything) after 5 years of heavy use, steel roundwound strings (mainly Rotos). I'll upload them later, when I get back home.
 
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