Cougar
Enlightened Member
I picked up a cheapo $100 "Oscar Schmidt by Washburn" 6-string many years back when I still knew next to nothing about guitars. It's an OG2CEB, ebony with an abalone rosette. :tiger: It's an OK guitar with an undersaddle pickup (I discovered when I pulled off the saddle!). Then after several years when I became more interested in guitars, it moved to the bottom of the pile pretty quickly.
It's got a nice rosewood fretboard and bridge, but they're super light brown/tan rosewood, you can see in this first picture, which looked lousy on this cool black guitar. So I thought this was a perfect opportunity to see if I could stain the fretboard and bridge to blackness!
So I roughed them up with steel wool so they'd accept the stain, cleaned them with odorless mineral spirits, masked them all off, and laid on the ebony stain. Let it sit for the requisite time, then rubbed it in.
Well, it didn't work. It did darken the board considerably, but it didn't get to ebony. The bridge resisted the stain the most. I guess I had to hit both with a little stronger sandpaper (still very fine). I'm wondering if black shoe polish might have done better. That dries, too, right? Actually it's now a nice dark rosewood. Much better than before anyway!
I was stupid not getting a 'before' shot. This is from many years ago. Look how light the fretboard and bridge are!
Much cooler now! The thing plays darn good for a $100 guitar!
It's got a nice rosewood fretboard and bridge, but they're super light brown/tan rosewood, you can see in this first picture, which looked lousy on this cool black guitar. So I thought this was a perfect opportunity to see if I could stain the fretboard and bridge to blackness!
So I roughed them up with steel wool so they'd accept the stain, cleaned them with odorless mineral spirits, masked them all off, and laid on the ebony stain. Let it sit for the requisite time, then rubbed it in.
Well, it didn't work. It did darken the board considerably, but it didn't get to ebony. The bridge resisted the stain the most. I guess I had to hit both with a little stronger sandpaper (still very fine). I'm wondering if black shoe polish might have done better. That dries, too, right? Actually it's now a nice dark rosewood. Much better than before anyway!
I was stupid not getting a 'before' shot. This is from many years ago. Look how light the fretboard and bridge are!
Much cooler now! The thing plays darn good for a $100 guitar!
