Aboutpaul wilczynski Expertise Anything concerning building, tuning, theory of construction. Specialist in finishing (40 years' experience); extensive knowledge of Rickenbacker instruments of all vintages. Rckenbacker factory connection on personal level; ONLY licensed Rickenbacker luthier in the world.
Experience Extensive. I build and restore electric and acoustic guitars (steel string and nylon classicals). I build all of Rickenbacker's acoustic instruments in my own shops in San Francisco and Healdsburg, CA.
I write two online columns with a total of over 15,000 posts since January, 2005.
Google my name or my screen name, "jingle_jangle".
Organizations American Guild of Luthiers.
Publications Mostly automotive and hobby (in the past).
Education/Credentials Manage the University Department workshops(Industrial Design) in SF, also have taught and written design and fabrication classes for almost a decade. Have produced online classes, written curricula, syllabi, etc. Run an online forum for my students (500 in number).
Awards and Honors Awards won for product, vehicle, and preschool toy design in the past.
Past/Present Clients Rickenbacker International Corporation, Waterstone Guitars LLC, many Fortune 500 companies before I worked in guitars (I ran a design studio for 22 years). I have hundreds of individual--private party--customers.
Expert: paul wilczynski Date: 7/7/2008 Subject: Fingerboard Dryness
Question Hi Paul. I bought an Allparts Strat neck (wich i regret so much, should have
bought the fender!) with jumbo frets, rosewwod. It took me a while to realise
what the problem was. I slide my fingers a lot, I play blues, and somehow
they stopped sliding. New strings would become weird in a few minutes.
tryied all dunlop care products but still. The fingerboard is dry. feels really
bad. Just read about the metal flakes, it is the frets. The dryness, I'm from
Europe and brands here might have another name. But basically i wanted to
treat my fingerboard to make it good like any other. If you can give me some
name of a product(s). I dont know how the factories do the finish in the
fingerboard but you might know. Let me know waht you think. I have these
small cracks and feels really dry...
I wish i could burn it and get a decent fender neck but I have to make this
one good...
Answer You could do a few different things to make this fretboard right. Here are two:
First method: Clean the fretboard thoroughly with some lighter fluid (naphtha). Clean especially carefully around the frets. Get all dirt and grunge out of the cracks and crevices.
Next, brush or spray on a coat of clear nitrocellulose lacquer and allow it to dry thoroughly. It will raise the grain slightly. Knock down the grain with some #000 steel wool (very fine), scuffing across the grain. Repeat the application of the nitro, and steel wool again. You should do this three or four times.
You will be removing the nitro from the frets when you steel wool, so no problems there.
After a final steel wooling, apply some paste floor wax with a rag and buff thoroughly.
Second method: Spray a thick coat of Dr. Stringfellow's Lem-Oil over the fretboard. You can either leave the strings off or leave 'em on. Either way, let the Lem-oil soak into the rosewood for a few hours. Wipe off excess and spray a second coat. Let this coat sit overnight and penetrate. Any excess? Wipe it off, too.
If the board doesn't feel better, you can remove the strings, steel wool it as above, then apply paste wax also as above.
Either way should get your fretboard feeling better.
I'm sorry, but your comment about metal flakes doesn't make sense to me...perhaps you could re-state it in clearer language?
