Hey Harley, the lemon oil you have will be fine. You should oil all your unfinished finger boards at least every 6 months and more often in really dry climates, I generally do it whenever I change strings.
A friend of mine bought a nice jazz bass which sounded great, (IIRC it was a made in Mexico one). He got me to put flat wounds on it for him for finger comfort. Totally ruined the sound, he maintained he could just turn up the treble on his amp, didn't help much. If you want it to sound lifeless, put on flat wounds.... You could try Alembic strings, the have some with elliptical windings so easier on the fingers and frets but keeping the lovely resonances.
Hey Richard,
Okay,...let me expound a little bit on where that notion came from.
As a guitar player, like many over the years, I was profoundly influenced by the sound and stylings of Jimi Hendrix. I'm sure Jimi must have left some sort of impression with you too.
Well then, much in the same way Jimi affected and influenced so many guitarists around the world, I was also affected and influenced a couple of years later by a bass guitar player in the same way. His name was Gary Mervyn Thain.
Gary always used a Jazz Bass with flat wound strings on it, and he always played with his fingers, never a pick. He said this is the way you get a "true bass" tone. If you ever listened to Uriah Heep's classic line up, or even The Keef Hartley Band, there's no way I could ever call the tone of that bass guitar lifeless.
What sort of rig did this friend of yours play his bass through? Gary played through Ampeg V-4B's and SVT cabs, but his tone came from his fingers, and his heart. I loved the tone he had with Uriah Heep. It Rawked
I'm not bothered by the finger comfort aspect of it, the round wounds on my P-Bass don't bother me in the least, and I am fascinated with the range of tones I can get from this simple little bass guitar. It's really worth more than I paid for it IMHO. I'll admit though, I've tried to mimic Gary's tone with it, and I can't seem to dial the EQ back enough to quite get there. So, I've come to believe that if I want to get that tone, I need to start with the instrument that made that tone in the first place. My fingers will find the way.
Harley