I'm making some fretless cbg's but I want to mark the frets. What do most of you use to do that? Seems like drawing them on would be the easiest but I don't know what you would use. (paint pen, sharpie, etc) I do have a woodburner, but haven't had great luck burning into oak, (course i haven't tried straight lines with it, just some swirly design my wife wanted on something). Thanks for any and all help
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Sorry...posted this twice by mistake so I erased one. I also have made many other jigs and have found a few tricks in all of my builds. If you're having a problem maybe we can discover a solution together. I love building these guitars and I don't mind helping anyone that asks.
Hey guys, most of the cigar box guitars I built were fretted (I'm a guitar player...been using frets for many years) but then I saw some of Shane's builds and it turns out that he burns most of his frets in. I recently saw a video of him using an upper end wood burning system from Colwood and it worked really well. I looked into them and found them to be pricey so...after doing some research, I found out how to build a SAFE wood burning unit from a 10 amp battery charger (though I use it on the 2 amp setting and that's more than enough). I have made 2 different burning handles, one for fine detail work, and the other to burn a fret...yes it does the entire fret (line) in about a half second. The total build for the burner and handles was under $60 and it does the job perfectly and you don't have to worry about burning your shop down. If you have any interest in seeing this unit, I will post some pics or even a video. Just let me know. David www.poboyguitars.com
My first build was a fretless. I used a square to draw the lines across the neck, and then used my wood burning set to burn the fret lines in. I also used it to make the inlay marks.
I found a great method by accident. For my lapsteels I used a thin sawblade to cut fret slots and then filled those with thin strips of maple (takes hours to sand them down to thickness). For my first CBG, I wanted a less time consuming method, so I used iron-on plastic ribbon that is normally used for finishing the sides of door pannels of kitchen furniture :) I slotted the fretboard like I did with the lapsteels and glued strips of the ribbon into the slots. Easy to plane and sand down and the result is really nice. Hope this helps!
The very first CBG I built was fretless but I scored the lines with a saw and pounded solder into the grooves. Looked great but the neck started to break so I loosened the strings and it's been a wall hanger. So, I can't speak to how well it would have stood up to playing.
On my first build I drew lines with a square and carpenter pencil . After that I did a couple with a nail pliers and a torch, point for lines head for dots on fingerboard . Now I have progressed to a wood burner.
TN Twang > Brown Water Jerry (Rice)June 29, 2015 at 10:37am
The heated nail idea sounds great for authenticity, but a few bucks for a woodburner from Hobby Lobby is well worth it. It might be worth the effort to heat nails and other metal objects to burn in crude "primitive" decoration.
Replies
Sorry...posted this twice by mistake so I erased one. I also have made many other jigs and have found a few tricks in all of my builds. If you're having a problem maybe we can discover a solution together. I love building these guitars and I don't mind helping anyone that asks.
That sounds interesting, David, I wouldn't mind seeing pics if you have the chance!
Another option is to saw fretlines in, then fill them with contrasting coloured wood putty.
Thanks. Hadn't thought of putty. (Doh!!)
Hey guys, most of the cigar box guitars I built were fretted (I'm a guitar player...been using frets for many years) but then I saw some of Shane's builds and it turns out that he burns most of his frets in. I recently saw a video of him using an upper end wood burning system from Colwood and it worked really well. I looked into them and found them to be pricey so...after doing some research, I found out how to build a SAFE wood burning unit from a 10 amp battery charger (though I use it on the 2 amp setting and that's more than enough). I have made 2 different burning handles, one for fine detail work, and the other to burn a fret...yes it does the entire fret (line) in about a half second. The total build for the burner and handles was under $60 and it does the job perfectly and you don't have to worry about burning your shop down. If you have any interest in seeing this unit, I will post some pics or even a video. Just let me know. David www.poboyguitars.com
My first build was a fretless. I used a square to draw the lines across the neck, and then used my wood burning set to burn the fret lines in. I also used it to make the inlay marks.
I found a great method by accident. For my lapsteels I used a thin sawblade to cut fret slots and then filled those with thin strips of maple (takes hours to sand them down to thickness). For my first CBG, I wanted a less time consuming method, so I used iron-on plastic ribbon that is normally used for finishing the sides of door pannels of kitchen furniture :) I slotted the fretboard like I did with the lapsteels and glued strips of the ribbon into the slots. Easy to plane and sand down and the result is really nice. Hope this helps!
I bought this thin marker pen.
you will need to put a light coat of lacquer on the wood to stop the runs through the grain.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321783507347?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649...
The very first CBG I built was fretless but I scored the lines with a saw and pounded solder into the grooves. Looked great but the neck started to break so I loosened the strings and it's been a wall hanger. So, I can't speak to how well it would have stood up to playing.
On my first build I drew lines with a square and carpenter pencil . After that I did a couple with a nail pliers and a torch, point for lines head for dots on fingerboard . Now I have progressed to a wood burner.
The heated nail idea sounds great for authenticity, but a few bucks for a woodburner from Hobby Lobby is well worth it. It might be worth the effort to heat nails and other metal objects to burn in crude "primitive" decoration.
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