White Spots On Rosewood Fretboards

N

Newbie-Doo

Member
I have noticed that a lot of the new guitars I look at have what appear to be "dry" spots on the rosewood fretboards where it looks like they didn't get the stain into the deeper grain of the wood. Is this an indication of cheaper rosewood, sloppy finish work, or just the way it is? I don't remember seeing this so much in the past.

I just picked up Schecter C-1 Artist (nice little guitar by the way) and it has this same issue. Tried a little lemon oil and that helped a little, but a week later the white spots were back again.

What's a brother to do? :confused:
 
Keep playing, those light spots will darken in time. Rosewood is a very open grain wood and in time will absorb oils from your hand and darken, a drop or two of lemon oil may help to speed up the process and is definately good for the whole fingerboard. There is no substitute for the natural ageing of rosewood, but as Ry Coder said "Playing on well aged rosewood is like playing on melted butter."
 
Tayor doesn't (or didn't) stain their fretboards.

I used to have a 710 with an ebony fretboard and it was beautiful with the light streak it had going down it.
 
I think you may be talking about white streaks which are called marbling. It's not a big deal, doesn't affect the play....usually a more expensive guitar would not have any marbling because the rosewood is selected more carefully...
 
I've seen marbling on fretboards and that isn't what this is. The dry spots are small and in the grain of the fretboard and more so at the ends, which makes me believe it was just a matter of the manufacturer not getting as much stain or sealer on the ends as they do on the rest of the fretboard.

Not a big deal. Just wondering why I'm seeing this a lot lately.
 
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