Staining Rosewood

[golgotha]

Hello!

I am currently having a Warmoth neck shipped to me. I got a good price on a pre-made neck so I got it. However, I want to make the board look black like ebony. My question is: Can I stain the fretboard and not screw it up? It already has inlay in it and also the frets can I stain over all of that?

Thanks!

[Primal]

Stewmac sells a fretboard stain used for macassar ebony to make it uniform black rather than streaky like it usually is. You might be able to use that on your rosewood fb... maybe someone here has done that.

[golgotha]

That looks good. I asked them if I can use it on rosewood, I will hopefully hear back soon.

Any one else?

[GregP]

I'd be very very careful about the inlay if there is one. If it's been scratched or otherwise has a non-polished surface exposed, the dye could get right in there. Even if it's polished-looking and shiny, I wouldn't take the risk myself with a 'blanket' stain over the whole area. I guess you could try it on the 22nd fret if you don't mind it possibly getting messed up.

I don't know enough about such things to say for sure, but I've been researching inlay, and one of the techniques used is to get dye/particles (ie. epoxy and dust mixture) into scratches and wipe off the excess. That to me implies that on perfect inlays, you could in theory wipe off the dye without negative repurcussions.

Still a risk, though, for the paranoid. If you're not particularly paranoid, you could just go for it, but I assume no responsibility.

Greg

[golgotha]

Gotcha!