Does Heritage stain rosewood fretboards?

[jamison162]

Anyone know of dark board are stained or all natural?  When I was sanding the nut slot and fingerboard edge I noticed a dark pasty like stuff but don't know if that's due to stain or just how rosewood is.

[tulk1]

Didn't see any stains sitting out when we went thru. Looked all fairly natural, to me.

[brentrocks]

i would tend to think natural

[Kuz]

All my Heritage guitars have the most beautiful dark, rich, and figured Indian Rosewood fretboards I have seen from any manufacturer!

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[Sparky]

I don't think that sort of process would even dawn on the folks at Heritage.... thats a cheap guitar manufacturers trick. I should know...

I've had a bunch of 'em. I've turned white cleaning cloths black from trying to clean the fretboards on C-note guitars.

Ya-know... its true what they say.... you can't polish a turd.

[jamison162]

Cleaned the fretboard today and the old tootbrush I use turned the rinse water brownish.....more like a stain would, it wasn't all that dirty relly.  Just wondering, I hope they aren't is all I'm saying.

[wingnut1]

None of mine are stained.

[mars_hall]

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i167/stormcrowin/20080718_0043.jpg[/img]

 

Don't know what wood this is.  What are your thoughts? 

[Sparky]

Don't know what wood this is.   What are your thoughts? 

 

Bottom front looks like rosewood.

Next looks like ebony to me, as the ebony fretboard on my Heritage is a dark brown/black.

After that it looks like a generic can of Sprite used to support a fretboard manufacturing fixture. Interesting technique.

 

Maybe they do dye the rosewood. I doubt it. I wonder if the lighter rosewoods are any different tonally

than the dark. Perhaps its just the rarity of the darker rosewoods that make them appealing. Mongo don't know.                                                                                            I had a cheap Harmony Les Paul Junior with a very light rosewood fretboard

and the dang thing sounded pretty good. This is the guitar that blackened the cloth from

cleaning the fretboard. I think it was dyed. Maybe it was dirt and machine oil, but after six applications of fretboard cleaner the black crap was still coming off.

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[JeffB]

Cleaned the fretboard today and the old tootbrush I use turned the rinse water brownish.....more like a stain would, it wasn't all that dirty relly.  Just wondering, I hope they aren't is all I'm saying.

I have had clean looking fretboards turn  tooth brush and cleaning rags brown. PRS, gibbo, strats and teles, it doesnt matter which brand.

Your hands might look clean when you play but if you were to pick up a white rag and wipe them you would soon see how dirty they actually are.

Compound that over a week or six of playing and you pretty much have the answer.

Even a white cloth wiped over a brand new guitars fretboard will pick up dust and residue of cleaning and polishing agents used in the factory.

Dont worry.

[guitarjump]

Well, just because we like the company and want to think they're great guys and gals  - and ethically superior to other U.S. companies that stain fretboard wood  - doesn't mean they don't use the staining process. I've never had a fretboard so dirty that it would stain water brown - and I gig constantly. It sounds suspicious, to me. We'd need a definite answer to be sure.

[wingnut1]

I picked up a used SG from a local pawnshop and the thing was filthy.  It took quiet a while to get the fretboard to the point I even wanted to play it and boy were the towels I used filthy afterwards.  It's a great player now and you can't beat $550 for a Gword SG Standard.

[111518]

I think it's pretty common practice to stain/dye ebony to a uniform black,otherwise a very high percentage of ebony boards would show streaks of different shades.  My 1970 es 355, which was my main guitar for 25 years, has never failed to leave my fingertips black after a long session of playing, and I've had the same experience with other quality guitars with ebony brds.  Since it is so common a practice, I've never seen it as fraud, any more than any wood finishing is fraud.

 

I've seen less evidence that co.'s regularly stain rosewood, but they use filler to seal around inlays and, as Tully mentioned, other stuff in the manufacturing process that might show up on a rag for a long time.  I've mentioned before that I mix in a smidge of oil dye when I clean and condition the rosewood boards of my guitars that I think are too red.  This doesn't make the board black, it just tones down the red and evens out the color.  (I think fretboards should be at least close to as dark as the dark edge of a sunburst finish ...otherwise the guitar doesn't look right to me. Purely a matter of my own personal guitar aesthetics). 

 

It (obviously, since I do it) wouldn't bother me to learn that a guitar maker adds a drop or two of dye if he/she liked the look of a darker board.  Everyone who works with wood uses tricks of various sorts to create an illusion of uniformity, when uniformity is called for, or to bring the unique character of the wood towards their ideal.  This seems particularly unavoidable these days, when quality wood is harder and harder to get.  It would be a different matter if a manufacturer was trying to pass off dyed rosewood as ebony, or Indian as Brazilian. 

 

My 2 cents, of course...   

[jamison162]

Well dyed or not, I finished cleaning, polishing and condition my H-150 board last night.  No Heritage has ever left the shop looking this good, wow!  My board looks like Brazillain now and is smooth and mositurized, but not sticky or oily at all.  It even accents the red tones very nicely.  I'll post some pics when I get home today.

[shook494]

I think it's just the dirt and grease off of our fingers.  I clean my 150 rosewood board periodically and it's always dirty.  It looks great when I clean it.  Just like new.  I don't think they stain them.  If they did mine would be a totally different color by now.  That's just what I think....

[Gitfiddler]

Well dyed or not, I finished cleaning, polishing and condition my H-150 board last night.  No Heritage has ever left the shop looking this good, wow!  My board looks like Brazillain now and is smooth and mositurized, but not sticky or oily at all.  It even accents the red tones very nicely.  I'll post some pics when I get home today.

 

I thought the same thing after I cleaned and oiled my H150's Rosewood board with a touch of Mineral Oil.  Brazilian or not, it is a gorgeous piece of Rosewood that feels silky smooth as I play! 

 

Also, the cleaning rag was more dirty than brown, so it did not appear to be stained.  8)

[tulk1]

Here's what you get with a truly stained fretboard. And this is after less than 10 minutes playing.

 

And here's the board after lemon oil, steel wool and a lot of elbow grease.

 

[big bob]

I don't know kids, the board on my stat dlx is easily half as dark as the board on my 575, both rosewood, I think, but am not sure, that the board on the stat dlx is not sealed IE raw rosewood, and even when lemon oiled way lighter than the 575, I promise to get off my lazy arse and photo tomorrow..

Bob

[big bob]

teaser link ( upload folder full)

left to right 575 rosewood (sealed ?) stat dlx ( raw ) rosewood, millie ebony,

they look nice togeather don't you think

http://www.heritageownersclub.com/forums/i...tach=1734;image

[Kuz]

Someone call Ren and stop this speculation.

 

Hello Brent....

 

If he can't get around to it, I'll call him in a couple days.

[brentrocks]

Someone call Ren and stop this speculation.

 

Hello Brent....

 

If he can't get around to it, I'll call him in a couple days.

 

i'll try to get in touch w/ him

[Dick Seacup]

I think it's pretty common practice to stain/dye ebony to a uniform black,otherwise a very high percentage of ebony boards would show streaks of different shades.

 

Up until the early 2000s, G&L was one of the very few manufacturers who did not stain ebony boards. They always had a consistently high quality, dark chocolate with lighter streaks appearance, though. That was one of the things I actually thought was interesting about my G&L ASAT Junior (frigging UPS killed it! Don't get me going...). The ebony on my Milly DC does not appear to be stained, however, as it exhibits the same appearance and "feel" that my G&L did. Maybe it is, maybe not. Either way, it's a killer guitar that feels great.