Maple fretboards.......

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

I declare a misnomer.
I doubt anyone owns an acoustic that got played anywhere close to what this guitar was to get to that state

Well, my guess is that you’ve never spent much time hanging out with guitar repair techs as they try to fix some of the atrocities that cross their workbenches. I’ve seen lots of fingerboards on acoustic guitars that have been more chewed up than these two, rosewood fingerboards, mostly. Some guitars that come in to be worked on are just filthy, with grayish grime and gunk covering the top and deep runnels dug into the wood of the fretboard.

Some folks never clean their guitars, and evidently don’t bother to wash their hands before they play, either. If in addition to that they’re heavy smokers (and many of them seem to be,) nitrocellulose finish can be softened by the solvents present in tobacco smoke (benzene, acetone, etc.) which over the course of years of exposure can turn the lacquer permanently gummy and tacky to the touch.

The fingerboards on those guitars are often quite chewed up, whether by untrimmed fingernails, poor personal hygiene, over-oiling of the fretboard, sheer neglect, or a combination of all those things.

So, yes, accelerated fretboard wear and damage on acoustic guitars is not nearly as uncommon as you might guess.


Wade Hampton Miller

[drive-south]

The guitar tech for Mike Campbell said if he cleaned the fingerboard on any of his guitars he would be fired. Mike likes them grungy.

Not my thing. I'm a neat freak.

[printer2]

I have dyed maple with violin dye, black as any ebony, no idea for how long but I would like to try a toriffied board that is dyed. Hard rock maple would be the only one I would feel would be hard enough. I made a nylon guitar with walnut fretboard, it has some grooves at the second fret E and A string. And it is not like I played it to death. Not to say it was the hardest piece of walnut I had though. Ebonized oak and it made a decent looking fretboard.

[Steel and wood]

I've never seen an acoustic with a maple fingerboard but I'm guessing its more tradition than anything else as to why. (Was foreign up until the time Leo introduced them on his Telecaster and then Stratocaster although he later offered rosewood to please others who didn't like the way it showed up play wear over time).

I don't see why you couldn't though.