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Want to darken my streaky Epi 339 fretboard darker, to a more even and darker colour.

Anyone know any suggestions ?

The Streakiness is accentuated due to the colour of the guitar being black, I think lemon oil will just accentuate the grain further and not bring an even tone.

I need something more substantial.

thanks
O

I've heard from multiple sources that Walnut oil (particularly Black Walnut oil) will do the trick.
I haven't tried this for myself yet but that seems to be the general consensus.

Here are before and after shots (small aplication) I've pulled from this thread on http://www.strat-talk.com/

Before Walnut oil



After teh Walnut oil

Well and THEY do make fretboard dye. Even fretboard oil makes it slightly darker.

Cheers guys, that's pretty much what I'm after... my board is pretty streaky like the one above.

Perhaps that method is a little extreme though.

Would Walnut oil make it more uniform ?

I would assume you could use any wood stain. The stuff at Stew Mac appears to be regular Fiebling's dye that is used for shoes. They make it in other colours than black if you buy it elsewhere.


http://www.fiebing.com/catalogue/dyes/

I was actually looking to do the very same thing, and after searching online found that most suggestions other than some kind of stain, were some kind of oil for conditioning wood - either linseed, lemon, walnut, etc. Another suggestion I read about was bore oil, which is used mainly on woodwind instruments, so I ordered some Roche Thomas Bore Oil and I'll see how it works as soon as I have a chance to try it out. Anyway, I hope that helps.

From my experiences with bore oil, it does not darken rosewood but instead gives it a richer colour, which has never lasted very long for me.

Narco Martenot wrote:From my experiences with bore oil, it does not darken rosewood but instead gives it a richer colour, which has never lasted very long for me.

That's kind of disappointing to hear. Oh well... I guess I'll find out soon enough. I only spent like $4 on it, so if it doesn't make it darker, it's no big deal. I was trying to keep from staining the neck, so I might try walnut oil if the bore oil doesn't work.

It does make the fretboard much richer in colour and is a lot prettier, in my opinion. It's worth a shot to see how you like it. It smells kind of nice as well.

Narco Martenot wrote:It does make the fretboard much richer in colour and is a lot prettier, in my opinion. It's worth a shot to see how you like it. It smells kind of nice as well.

Cool. Yeah, I'll at least try it and see how it looks. Probably this weekend.