How to make rosewood fretboard DARK [Like Brazilian] 

Much better than my method of wearing sunglasses when I play-this lasts longer😂. Great- thank you!!

I use the Old English Scratch Cover For Dark Woods. Apply just like you do lemon oil. I mix the lemon oil with a few drops of this product, rub it in thoroughly and let it dry. I use it on all my rosewood fingerboards that aren't as dark as I would like. Fantastic results and super easy.

I've used Higgins India ink followed by Boiled Linseed Oil on a few pale fingerboards with pretty good results.

Beautiful results. The guitar looks much better with the dark fretboard.

I like a nice dark rosewood/ebony colored fretboard. Excellent work

Hello my friend, it was me who asked the question in your previous video. So thank you for your detailed answer. 😊

Now why don't the guitar makers understand that light colors like pau ferro is just unappealing especially when compared to a dark colored wood like ebony or Brazilian rosewood? I know pau ferro is cheaper but can't you make it darker somewhere along the way?

Looks good, interested in seeing how it holds up after a few months.

Do the people commenting not understand who they are talking too? This is one of the best art restoration experts on earth. You fools are trying to give him some tips and criticism??? Oh I wouldn't do that!!! Man who gives a shit what you would do? Y'all need to start your own RU-vid channel and show him how it's done. GTFO.

Beautiful result!

Been looking for this for ages! Thanks for sharing! Beautiful result/guitar there!!

Wood being wood you'll always have variations in the colour. I have several great looking (real!!) palisander fretboards on my instruments, and they're all different in shade. On cheaper guitars I've used leather dye: Apply with a fine brush (you have to get underneath the frets too), let it soak in the pores for a while, and then use a little solvent to take it back to bare wood. Then apply a thinned dye to even it out, and wipe all excess off again, buffing it as you go. Works great & depending on the colour dye you can even get a pretty convincing "ebony" 😜👍

Very nice & thanks for sharing this with us !! :)

That fretboard looks amazing.

Well done sir!

Looks really good i will try it!

The Nitrolack colour you're using 'Nogal' is actually walnut, not black. Just a heads up for anyone else wanting to give this a go.

The fingerboard is black and it looks cool and really good.👍

The rosewood board on my LP was light with a dark grain running down one side. I wanted to darken it without losing the redish tint. I wiped it down with F-One oil and let it sit a few days to soften and open the pores. Then wiped it down with grain alcohol (Everclear). Then applied Fiebings dark brown (not black) leather dye with a cotton swab being careful around the fret makers and neck binding. The grain alcohol will take it off if you get any on them. Wipe off after 10 minutes with blue paper shop towels. Let sit overnight to dry. Then applied a thin coat of Monty's Montypresso wax (won't stain markers or binding) with shop towel dipped in grain alcohol to softens the wax. Heat it with a hair dryer and rub it in and let sit for an hour. Then apply a thick layer of Monty's and let sit for 72 hours. Wipe off heavy wax with one shop towel while working it. Then buff it out with a shop towels (especially against the frets). Keep buffing until the towels come out clean. Beautiful dark rosewood finish that looks like the Brazilian rosewood board on my 72 Martin D-18. And has a beautiful feel to it. More wait time than work time.

Each to his own, but I’m not convinced this is good for the wood, Inlays and binding, But it does look very nice indeed 👍🏻

nice, I would like to ask if the fretboard will fade after a period of use?

Just curious after 4 months how this is holding up(?) has the neck or fretboard been effected from the chemicals? And has color stayed consistent? I ordered both the caustic soda and ferric acid along with another Ebony tint similar to nitorlack. Can you recommend something that works the same as the Molotow you used to mix? Or if I even need it? I planned on just mixing the ebony tint with alcohol but I’m trying to find something similar to what you used so I know I get a close result.

I personally don’t mind the lighter color myself. And pau ferro is an awesome fretboard wood. I’m a luthier by trade. Pau ferro and Indian laurel are actually very rigid, bright, and hard tonewoods. Even in raw fretboard blank form, they ring nicely.

I darkened the rosewood fretboard on my telecaster using leather dye. I washed / rubbed it down with alcohol before applying the dye. After letting it dry etc. it rubbed off after a while... Would love to find a long term solution. Perhaps oiling it afterwards may help to seal it. I also bought Montypresso Relic Wax from Monty's Guitars which worked a bit better.

Very nice results!! Do you maybe know, what would be the best way to make it look like very dark ebony, basically black?

Looks great 👍🏼! How’s it holding up? Have you been playing it and testing to see if it wears away?

Wow! This is amazing! I had a guitar (black les paul master's copy) and then I was pleasantly surprised that the fingerboard was rosewood and dark. I'm really like dark rosewood fingerboard, really wanna make fingerboard more darker for my ac.guitar(cheap Indonesian Cort) but I can't do it now....

Easy mode perfect : Leather Paint , works

looks very very nice

Nice idea!

Брал 2 перманентных маркера - черный и красный, красил ими накладку, далее смывал излишки краски спиртом. И так раз 5. В итоге накладка стала очень глубокого черно-красного цвета, хотя до этого была серо-коричневого стремного цвета. А еще парни красили краской для волос из ашана - и тоже получалось )))))

awesome!

Some years ago, a Fender Custom Shop employee told me that they used something used for darkening riding saddles to darken fretboards. I bought some. Messy as all hell, but worked beautifully.

First off, after applying the dye sure the board will indeed look nice and dark. However once you start playing this instrument ( especially in warmer environments where your hands may begin to sweat ) this dye will get on your hands just like a new guitar with crappy frets on it typically do to your hands. In time as the board wears in you will begin to develop ‘light spots’ and then you will need to repeat this process again. For me, I’d just oil the board and leave it as it is but that’s your choice.

Hello! One luthier said that "lemon oil" from Dunlop and similar companies is not lemon oil, but a flavored by-product of oil refining. I checked and it's true, the certificates of such products indicate 90-95% White Mineral Oil in the composition. It is a distillate of petroleum with flavoring. The same luthier told me that you can use cheap natural oils that are sold in pharmacies (for example, castor oil). I tried, the result was good. What do you think about this?

Excuse me if i came back: can you tell me that Nitorlack brown what exact product is? They have a brown in the "NitorTINT" line for classic and/or electric guitar and then thay have a "stain" line (water based dye). What is you Nitorlack brown? Tnx man!

Teak oil will also darken the board. I used that on my guitars for years, but switched to mineral oil because it's cleaner.

I want to do my 335 so bad. I’m so happy to see that it works. I would like to know what I need to buy to do it.

I shall try this on an Indian rosewood board that a lot of builders use. The Indian rosewood usually has wavey grain patterns with light/dark contrast also the feel is harder than Brazilian rosewood. How does your 335 feel after the process, different , better? Thanks, for your demonstration.

I personally had nice results with china ink

Colortone guitar stain I tried india ink, hell even acryllic paint and tape. But no just use colortone stain and plop a few drops, rub it in with a lint free cloth and let it soak in the wood for a dark color. I used tobacco brown and did not dillute the mixture when applying.

I'm not too convinced by the application of dye, as my first instinct would be to work with what is already present in the wood. I'm unsure how fuming Rosewood with say a strong oxidiser like say, ammonia, would work since this is something I reserve for woods like white Oak and Cherry rather than exotics. Fuming does penetrate the wood however, so it isn't a surface finish like a dye. The problem is carrying this out on an existing guitar....the ammonia fumes may not play well with the inlays, glues, nylon nut or fretwork. It will also manage to reach the Mahogany, which itself does look amazing when fumed.

What's the reaction between sodium hydroxide and ferric chloride, and how does it affect the wood? Does it mess with polyurethane lacquer or nitricellulose?

Очень полезное видео, спасибо. 👍

Awesome

Muchas gracias!!!

Greetings Dr Nitro! First, I really enjoy each video you made. You are doing a great job. My question is about Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda); What type of solution sodium hydroxide are you using? What is the mix do you used?

Do not use dyes if you actually play guitar. The dye comes off when you play. Gibson dyed some of their custom shop LP's when they got a bad batch of wood and they stopped as soon as they found out it did not work for long.

Thank you for this video! That really was a great result

very nice work my friend, EBONY Necks for President all the way have a Black Gibson Doublecut with Rosewood/fret but truly want to make it look darker to go better with the black Gothic look of my guitar just trying to understand which are the right products to use cos i have to make sure of not ruining my ultra rare Guitar you know? any advice would love to hear it

Brazilian rosewood is all shades, some light some is black?

You gotta show exactlly what your using while your doing it,to help anyone

What is caustic soda?

which acid reacted with that soda?

Dr Nitro, I hope everything is going okay. It’s been a couple of months since your last video so I thought maybe should check with you since I really do like your content. Best regards

Everything he's applying to the fretboard up to the wood tint is just cleaning the fretboard. For the stain to bond you need to open up the wood surface with some light sanding and make sure it has no oil or dirt.

Добрый день. Извиняюсь, не могу перевести состав кроме соды, по процессу ясно, а по итогу работы - восторг!!!!

Are there enough tannins in rosewood to use an iron acetate mix? (Steel wool and white vinegar)

Have you seen any ill effects on the binding or inlays from your various treatments?

WOW Master!!! may i ask if there is any method to turn a maple fingerboard into a dark rosewood fingerboard? Maybe this method overlapping serveral layers of the die?

Wow it looks great! You have so many tips, so I wanted to know if you had a method to yellow/age bindings under a PU clear without sanding and respraying an amber coat on top? Any secret technique for that? Thanks a lot. Damian

Are you a Bond villian? Brown Finger by any chance?

i tested some necks and after installing and playing several of them i noticed my finger tips all “dyed.”

FeCl3 is a salt, not an acid) thanks for the video

does it work the same even without pherom acid?, thanks

Эх, жил бы я рядом, не задумываясь заплатил бы Тебе за релик своего LP.. Это просто сверхмастерство какое-то..

Уес субскрайбер кавэр дис вуд

I personally wouldn't do this to my rosewood fret board guitar(s). But rather interesting.?

What are you using on this i can't understand what you say it is

Appreciate the channel. I still think gibson copied your greenie job. They probably are one of your patreons.

What do you think it will do to a micarta fretboard?

I didn't understand when u were listing certain ingredients. I tried to get youtube closed captioning to help but it said "sorry bro, no idea" lmao

Will this work on Pau Ferro fretboards?

Hi, how can I buy a set of your goldie pickups?

How to make a dark fretboard lighter?

Just use this and save yourselves the hassle of acids and dyes>>> Monty's Montypresso - The Original Guitar Relic Wax

Немного алхимии😊 Ок, а от пальцев со временем не появятся светлые проплешины?

Can you type here the chemicals you used? Thanks!

Brazillian rosewood isnt dark at all. With vintage well played guitars the natural oils from the hands make it dark over time. New Brazillian rosewood looks very much like the original there on your guitar. Look it up.

Very interesting. I've been using Angelus brand leather dye to darken rosewood (and to age plastic parts) for a while now. But it's always good to see different ideas put into practice. Well done! But you need to be careful about using the word 'Brazilian'. It has quite a different meaning for most English speaking people, and it's not to do with guitars.....

It looks great, but does it dry out the wood over time? Acid on wood doesn't seem like a good idea

Potassium Permanganate

Nice! Does it work on Laurel too?

I will never buy a guitar with a light fretboard ,cheap wood

Theres no way i would use that many different chemicals on my fretboards..you have no idea what it will do to the wood long term

А не проще маслом цветным сразу?

Скажите пожалуйста, это видео будет на русском языке? Спасибо большое, очень нужная информация!

what we need, more FAKE guitar parts ...

Nice jobs 👍👏👏👏

Use shoe polish.workscjust fine

I cannot understand this guy.anyone else.costic soda?and what?