Aluminum Fretboard? Anyone done one?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Clock The Wolf on July 1, 2012 at 1:31am

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Clock The Wolf on July 1, 2012 at 1:32am

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Roosterman on July 1, 2012 at 9:18am

Yup, I tried a few - this is the Roswell I built a while back. Neck is 6mm ali T section with hardwood quadrants let in.

Ali necks sound really amazing fretless, but dont even consider fretting them. Giant pain in the ass, unless you have the right tools....

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on July 1, 2012 at 9:44am

Man, that turned out very nice!

I don't have any of that "t" bar material but never even thought of running the running it all the way through the head like you did there. Very cool. I've been finding bits and pieces of info. on using Al. for fretboards using the search feature here but couldn't find anything definitive. 

Trying to actually fret it would be a little beyond my pay scale and tooling but it would be nice to mark the frets somehow.  I'm in the process of checking with a local company that does Hard Anodizing for color but have no idea what cost would be or even if they would do just one or two prepped fretboards for me.

I was thinking of going with black anodizing and just figure out a way to mark fret locations then apply some kind of sealer to it.  I sure like what you did with the polished mill finish though. Man that looks nice!

You wouldn't consider making me a tail piece like you did there, but for a three string would you ;)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by GARAGE HERMIT on July 4, 2012 at 4:41am

just leave it natural, and scribe the fret's into the alloy, then go over them with a black sharpie, 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on July 3, 2012 at 6:28pm

Man, I just got a quote back from a commercial specialty anodizer here in town. They are telling me $145 for a single fretboard and $185 for two.  That's not going to happen. 

 I could go with a Powder Coat but not really sure how that would hold up.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 4, 2012 at 2:38am

Leave it raw and etch the fret markers

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Roosterman on July 4, 2012 at 4:49am

Anodising will wear off eventually anyway so best leaving it as is. I went over mine with some fine wire wool, and didnt seal it. I had no problems with staining or anything - and you can always clean it up with another bit of wool.

Incidentally if I was doing this again, Id use a standard timber neck with an ali fretboard only. Having the fretboard and headstock level like I did is a pain with tuners and break angles, and you need a retainer and zero fret....

Araldite or similair bonds it well.

Re the bridge, its not as good as it looks! Its just a bit of T bar cut down, and again, I wouldnt do it this way again!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on July 4, 2012 at 10:25am

  After getting the quote back I figured forget that. I'm just going to hit it with some rattle can it with something for metal then "v" notch for my frets leaving the fret locations a mill finish. Then, just clear coat the whole works with something.

I think you guys are right here though. The buffed out (polished a bit) Al. itself would look very cool.  I can still "V" notch for the the frets, Sharpie (or similar) and let polished Al become a feature like you did with yours, Roosterman.

I was trying to add some color but liking this idea the more I think about it.  I can follow through the rest using Chrome or polished Al. parts. I have a chrome Fender style jack plate along with some other stuff ready to go for this one.

Thanks for the input guys.

Ron 

 

• ▶ Reply