Rocket Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 I have this late 70's Strat maple neck. It's one piece(except for that dark stripe on the back). I messed up the fretboard trying to re-radius it. I just wonder if I could shave it down and put a new fretboard on it. How hard would this be or should I leave it to a pro? Or maybe it isn't even possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b5111987 Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 I have this late 70's Strat maple neck. It's one piece(except for that dark stripe on the back). I messed up the fretboard trying to re-radius it. I just wonder if I could shave it down and put a new fretboard on it. How hard would this be or should I leave it to a pro? Or maybe it isn't even possible. ← it it may bee hard depending on wat tools you use what u need to do is sand down the neck after removing frets (if any are in) and make sure it completly streigh all allong the boared vertically and horizontally then you can glue another fretboard on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Posted July 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 How do you make sure it's completely flat and straight though? That's how i screwed it up re-radiusing it. It wasn't even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemleggat Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 you need to plane it down and plane it flat using a straight edge to make sure it is perfect. Its not easy. You could use a jointer to make it flat but it is only 18" long. A good plane is the tool to use. Show us a pic if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadhouse Blues Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 you need to plane it down and plane it flat using a straight edge to make sure it is perfect. Its not easy. You could use a jointer to make it flat but it is only 18" long. A good plane is the tool to use. Show us a pic if you can. ← Exactly what I was thinking... Plane it down, and then glue a new fretboard on. You may have trouble, I don't know how far in the truss rod may be so make sure you don't go too far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 Definitely use a good jointer to get the surface flat and straight, it is really the only way. Take off small amounts at a time, and turn the piece every time you run it over. The hard bit will be trying to make sure the new surface is parallel to the flat part of the neck heel and the back of the headstock. Then carefully choose the right thickness for your fretboard, given your previous experience you'll want to radius it before glueing it on, so you can toss it if you screw up. Depending on how much you take off the neck, you may need to rout a small channel in the back (the glue side) of the fretboard. For a strat neck, the finished wood thickness should be around 0.87 inches (give or take a few 0.01s....). Then fret. Edit: It occurs to me another way to do it...attach the back of the neck (heel & headstock) to a perfectly flat and straight plank of wood, use the existing tuner holes and screw holes to do this (somehow). Brace the back of the neck where it doesn't touch the plank, then run the whole works through a thickness planer, shaving off small amounts at a time. More complicated, but this would assure that you have a fretboard glueing surface parallel to the backplane of the neck. By all means, remove the truss rod before doing either one of these things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 now this is just my humble suggestion but before i went to the trouble of planning the fretboard off i'd remove the frets and then apply heat with a household iron over a damp rag or even a paint stripping gun if you have one and see if you can get the glue holding it onto the neck to loosen up enough to slide a thin putty knife under it and slowly work the fretboard off. you already know that the surface that it is glued to is flat so if you can get it off..and i have several times before..a light sanding with a sanding block will remove any remaining glue and you're good to go with your new fretboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b5111987 Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 now this is just my humble suggestion but before i went to the trouble of planning the fretboard off i'd remove the frets and then apply heat with a household iron over a damp rag or even a paint stripping gun if you have one and see if you can get the glue holding it onto the neck to loosen up enough to slide a thin putty knife under it and slowly work the fretboard off. you already know that the surface that it is glued to is flat so if you can get it off..and i have several times before..a light sanding with a sanding block will remove any remaining glue and you're good to go with your new fretboard. ← no he said it was made from one piece of maple didnt he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 i guess i assumed that he was talking about a one piece neck with a glued on fretboard as opposed to a laminate neck with a fretboard..i'm trying to remember if i've ever seen a neck that was made totally from one piece of wood..but then i'm getting old so memory is an issue..and i live way the hell out in the country and i sure haven't seen everything. edited to say: don't pay any attention to me at all..i'm a dummy..i just looked at a solid maple strat neck and i was wrong..it is actually a solid, no fretboard glued one kinda neck..that's one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Posted July 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 Don't worry unclej, I can see how you would've misunderstood. Yes, the neck is all one piece of wood, no fretboard. The truss rod route is very close to the fretboard on the nut end. When I was re-radiusing it I noticed that there was very little wood left at the nut end until I would've sanded into the truss route. Maybe 1/16" or less. I assume it curves back from there away from the fretboard. (I am thinking of that cross-section picture of a Strat neck in Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide") I like these Ideas. I'm afraid my woodworking knowledge is extremely limited. "Jointer" ...I don't know what this is. My dad would. I think my biggest obstacle is taking out the truss rod. So then I could plane. Otherwise the rod would get chomped (dangerous). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted July 16, 2005 Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 Maybe once you get far enough down to remove the truss rod, you could do a little bit of routing, basically rerout the truss rod channel, maybe so it's parallel to the fretboard surface. I must say I don't know why the truss rod is angled, there is probably a very good reason for this, but I don't know why they would do that, or what benefits is creates, I would like it explained to me as I have never heard of this. For the most part I have only seen them parallel, so maybe it would be easier for you to rout it flat and parallel, that way it would be much easier to attach the fretboard. Although you might have to add some thin wood at one end and rout it deeper at the other, to get it flat. I would assume there is no headstock angle? If there is none it might be a problem rerouting because it might make the truss rod channel too deep, and make it impossible to make adjustments at the nut, unless thats not where the adjustment is, but again I don't know about the angle or adjustment spot. Well I hope you can figure a way to do this, and take pictures when you do, that way people that run into the same problem can have some ideas of how to go about it. To me it sounds kinda cool, if you can do it with any sort of efficiency, to be able to put on a fretboard for a one piece neck, thats vintage. Instead of it being ruined or just having to stop playing and putting up for show, you can give it new life and a new look. There are so many different fretboards colors and species it would be nice for a person in your shoes to have options! Hopefully you or someone can figure this out, it would be very cool if figured out to make a tutorial and have it posted on the main PG page and pinned in the forum tutorial page! Between all the brains here I'm sure we can figure out a good way to do it! Good luck with that and keep us posted! Later, Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted July 16, 2005 Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 (edited) Personally, I would pull the frets and bolt it to a flat piece of lumber and run it through a thickness planer. The hard part is going to be coming up to the truss rod.(might want to cut it out with a router first) I would fix both ends to the wood strip and make a jack for the center of the neck. Dial the length of the fretboard so it dials zero then plane. This way it will be flat and square relative to the neck. Edited July 16, 2005 by GuitarGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tirapop Posted July 16, 2005 Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 Jason, this is a vintage style rod. It's a single rod that's installed into a curved slot. When you tighten the rod, it wants to straighten out, providing the back bend. It doesn't sound like Rocket has access to a jointer or thickness planer. It would probably be safer to do this operation by hand. DISCLAIMER: I've never tried this and I'm just talking out of an orifice. Get a roll of adhesive-backed sand paper. Find a long flat surface and stick down a piece longer than the fretboard. Mask of the headstock so it doesn't get scuffed. Scribble on the fretboard with pencil to show what's getting sanded. Carefully hold the neck, making sure it doesn't rock, side to side, while sanding. Take long smooth strokes, pushing the neck in the long direction. After each pass, look at the fretboard to check that it's being sanded evenly, front-to-back and side-to-side. Adjust how the neck is held to even things out. Check out the sanded surface with a straight edge. Make sure it's flat nut to heel, side to side (along its length), and check for twist along the length. Put a small straight edge across the neck near the nut and then another near the heel. Sight along the top edges of the straight edges to see that they're parallel to each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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