You guys have seen me do fingerboards before, so no need drag it out unnecessarily... the pictures tell it all, just progressively move from sanding blocks and beams with coarse sandpaper to the trusty old Black & Decker power-sander, to the 'Mouse' palm-sander with varying grits down to ultra-fine. After that, I wet-sand the rosewood with 1000-grit sandpaper, allow it to dry, buff with 0000 steel wool, rub in some lemon oil, then treat it with Minwax bare wood finishing wax, followed by a good cloth buffing. All that produces a very hard, glassy playing surface, and makes that old wood just glow.
Lemesee... while we're talking about it, Paul had a question about the radius of the board. Yes, you're not seeing things, it really does have some complex curves and cuts rather than just a compound radius. Mostly what you're seeing is what's called the E bevel, on a cello a C bevel, or more correctly, the Romberg bevel. It was invented by (and named for) Bernhard Heinrich Romberg (November 13, 1767 – August 13, 1841), a German composer and cellist. The bevel gives more clearance for that string to travel. With newer string technology, it's not really necessary, so a lot of builders have phased it out. Some players prefer it, some don't.. I do, but it isn't a deal-breaker. I'd like to tell you I use some fancy tool or template to go by when I plane a fingerboard, but the truth is it's just a very true straightedge and good old-fashioned eye-ballin'. When you get done, there's a big pile of Brazilian rosewood dust. (I save it, for filler, like around those side marker plugs)
I'm up here again today working on replacing some of these missing pieces of veneer, focusing on the worst ones. We'll get to that post on soundpost fitting sometime this week maybe... I'd like to finish this one up and get it back to the store soon. I hear they may have an interested buyer. Old Kay basses in good shape are sought-after around here.
Next up in Part 3; filling in a missing chunk of plywood.
