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Permalink Reply by Manic8-Ball on September 22, 2010 at 12:33pm

I also found some beautiful pre-fretted boards on ebay but those are out of my price range and I just want a simple one. Anywhere else i can get one??

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on September 22, 2010 at 1:40pm

First, what are you building and are these suitable for it? Those are the questions I would ask yourself first. I have removed a few fretboard for use on lap steel projects. These were only to have as markers so I didn't care about what kind of shape the frets were so I used some beat necks.

The first one I ever did, I heated the necks in the oven first at relatively low temperatures. This softened the glue as well as anything else I've tried. I read something once about how leaving guitars in hot cars sometimes heat them up enough that the glue will soften and things will move and separate. I used this as the idea for removing the fretboards and it work well. Needed gloves and worked rather quickly while the neck was still hot but the fret board pried off using a long slim mill knife that I honed down.

As to your worries about warping I wouldn't. Fret boards are slim and glueing/clamping it to a thicker neck piece will take care of any minor twists. If you are really worried, clamp the fret board to a heavy flat piece and leave it while it acclimates to its environment after removal.

As to where, I can't help you. Unless the allparts one is unsuitable, I don't see why you don't order that one. Given the amount of work I put into mine, I certainly wouldn't sell one any cheaper. Getting the fret job right is probably the single most labor intensive part of building guitars for me.

If you are going to do this for more than one build, invest in the time, materials and tools to do it yourself. Even the pre-fretted ones are still going to need work such as leveling and dressing.

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Permalink Reply by Manic8-Ball on September 23, 2010 at 3:57am

Thanks, I am going to build a six string electric. I am planning on only doing this once so removing a fingerboard sounds the best, I dont want to do any leveling or dressing. I just want to glue that bad boy on. I guess I'll buy a cheap electric and put it in the oven.What do you mean by you used it as a marker? Thanks again 8)

Don Goguen said:

First, what are you building and are these suitable for it? Those are the questions I would ask yourself first. I have removed a few fretboard for use on lap steel projects. These were only to have as markers so I didn't care about what kind of shape the frets were so I used some beat necks.

The first one I ever did, I heated the necks in the oven first at relatively low temperatures. This softened the glue as well as anything else I've tried. I read something once about how leaving guitars in hot cars sometimes heat them up enough that the glue will soften and things will move and separate. I used this as the idea for removing the fretboards and it work well. Needed gloves and worked rather quickly while the neck was still hot but the fret board pried off using a long slim mill knife that I honed down.

As to your worries about warping I wouldn't. Fret boards are slim and glueing/clamping it to a thicker neck piece will take care of any minor twists. If you are really worried, clamp the fret board to a heavy flat piece and leave it while it acclimates to its environment after removal.

As to where, I can't help you. Unless the allparts one is unsuitable, I don't see why you don't order that one. Given the amount of work I put into mine, I certainly wouldn't sell one any cheaper. Getting the fret job right is probably the single most labor intensive part of building guitars for me.

If you are going to do this for more than one build, invest in the time, materials and tools to do it yourself. Even the pre-fretted ones are still going to need work such as leveling and dressing.

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on September 23, 2010 at 12:53pm

By Marker, I mean it is a lap steel guitar. You do not use frets except in my case, to mark the note positions. So I could get away with using a beater fret board, which is the only thing I would pull apart (except maybe a neck with a broken headstock).

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