#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Cable tie frets

I was looking for a way to mark out the frets on a lap steel I'm building and thought this might be of some use to others building any type of fretless guitar.

After marking out and cutting the slots like I would do if using fret wire, I used a hacksaw to widen the slots out to hold a 4" plastic cable tie. The hacksaw blade was the perfect size.I cut the slot deep enough to allow 3/4 of the cable tie to set in the slot. I then drilled out the fret markers and used white glue to install the ties and markers. Simply run a bead of glue over the slot and push the tie down and across with your finger. This will spread the glue evenly in the slot. A damp paper towel was all that was needed to clean the glue off the board.After allowing the glue to dry, I cut off the ends of the cable ties and sanded everything flush going up to 320 grit. A palm sander could be used to knock the plastic ties down even with the board, but I simply used a sanding block. The plastic works down pretty fast. A few coats of Danish oil to seal the board and this is the results.These cable ties come in many different colors and are pretty cheap to buy. As the picture above showed, I cut the large markers out of a medium black pick with a 1/4" paper punch.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out. You could put a thin strip of wood on each side of the board to give it a binding look and cover the ends of the ties, but I'm leaving this one as is. I hope this has been helpful and someone gets some use from it.

18 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comment by Graham Wedepohl on November 23, 2015 at 8:01am: I'm curious as to how this sounds and works?

Comment by Rooster on November 21, 2015 at 6:04am: Thanks for the comments y'all...................call them whatever sounds good to you, no rules right ;-)

Michael, That is a interesting idea for frets............great looking 12 string btw, very interesting how the frets are tied on.

Comment by Paul Craig on November 20, 2015 at 8:49pm: Fret lines sound good. Don't know the technical term.

Comment by Peter Otto on November 20, 2015 at 2:22pm: LOL

Comment by Peter Otto on November 20, 2015 at 1:13pm: btw "faux frets" would be a nice term :)

Comment by Peter Otto on November 20, 2015 at 1:12pm: Hey Rooster, good idea.

I do almost the same but I use iron-on plastic ribbon for finishing the sides of furniture panels. It fits in a regular fret slot and is easy to sand. But the tie wraps are a little wider and more visible. I'll try that next time, I think... Thank you.

Comment by Paul Craig on November 20, 2015 at 12:38pm: Yes and no, the term "fret markers" refers to the dots or other material used to show certain places on the board and not the frets. But yes it marks the place where the frets are supposed to be.

Comment by Paul Craig on November 20, 2015 at 9:32am: I have seen someone use stranded wire for frets too. Looked nice, but I'm sure it was difficult to to file and keep together.

Comment by Michael Fred Johnson on November 20, 2015 at 4:51am: You've just invented a modern version of lute frets,don't cut the ties or slot the neck,just fasten them around in position.They can slid up and down the neck for different scales