Best Way to Darken a Rosewod Fretboard

[Dave Trickey]

I'm not a maker or repairer; just a player and enthusiast. My question is this: what do you experts believe is the best way to darken a lighter rosewood board? I know certain oils (lemon, orane, mineral, etc.) will darken somewhat, butare there better,longer-lasting solutions such as black leather dye? I'm a little fearful of dyes on my rosewood and I still want to have the grain showing. Also I don't want to damage the inlays or frets. Thanks!

[Dave Trickey]

Just saw another post here discussing the same thing. Sorry!

[Mike Kolb]

(I couldn't find the other post, so I'll respond to this one anyway....)

One of the mainstays in my "liquids" arsenal is Old English dark-wood scratch cover. It gets used more often than I'd care to admit, but it's dynamite stuff for minimal coloring and light oiling on a fingerboard.

Truth be told, there's not a guitar (other than with a maple fretboard, of course) that leaves the bench without a quick swipe of Old English down the fretboard just prior to restringing. An 8oz bottle of it lasts me about a year, so it's used sparingly, but often.

It doesn't seem to affect inlays or frets, but adds a nice patina to the rosewood and a light sheen to ebony. I'll use about a drop per "fret square", rub it in with a rag, leave it set for a minute or so, then swipe it up with a clean rag. Just seems to add a nice touch.

[Dave Trickey]

Thanks Mike. I'll give it a shot.

Dave

[Doug T]

The guy my dad learned to make violins from used to keep a bottles of liquid shoe polish in his stock. I have no idea what it was, other than it was nearly transparent, but came in many different colors and had a swab in the end and it was the consistency of warm maple syrup. The bottles appeared to be at least 50 years old. He used it to dye the fingerboards. end button, and pegs. The red-brownish one he used on rosewood fittings and I even saw him stain the inside of the peg box with it. Like I said, I have no idea what the formulation was, but I can tell you, he did say it was just liquid shoe polish, not his own mixture of stuff. Has anyone else heard of this stuff? Glass jar that was opaque. Fairly strong smelling. The nice thing about it, lots of colors.