Removing Frets

[envenomedcky]

I was wondering how I would go about removing the frets off of a fender neck. I mainly work on guitars so I have never taken frets out. I'm building this bass for a friend out of his old parts, so I wonder how to take the frets out without damaging the wood, after removed I'll be replacing them with acrilic fret markers, just where the lines are, and instead of the dot markers I'm doing X's, I saw them on a jackson and thought it looked cool, so I'm doing it to this. I'll post pics when I finish.

[Scott Rosenberger]

Depends on the age of the Fender Neck. i believe before 1976 the frets were installed by sliding them into the slots from the side. After '76 they were installed the traditional way by pressing them in. If it's a Modern neck use fret pulling pliers and heat. Lay a clothes iron on the frets for a few minutes to heat them up and soften whatever glue they're held in with. Then carefully start rocking the frets out little by little. It's not a race, take your time

[krazyderek]

i thought the change over year was 82 ??

[The Tube Doctor]

Later on tonight, I'll post some images for you, with the Doctor's tried and true method of removing frets from either hard-finished (maple etc..) or oiled fingerboards. With all due respect to the other members posting on this topic, I'd hesitate to use a clothes iron. The heat from one of these appliances covers a fairly large area, which could cause the glue holding the fingerboard to the neck to soften. This could be considered a Bad Thing. If there's any water left in the iron, the steam could also affect the lacquer, if the neck has a lacquer finish.

Keeping the heat concentrated into a very small, controllable area has always worked supremely well for me. But, a picture's worth a thousand of my typo's.

Later, I promise.

[Southpa]

If you want to loosen the glue holding frets down (if there is any), a soldering iron directly applied to the fret works well. You could also tape the wood along either side of the fret to help hold the wood down when pulling. I use a pair of end nippers with the face ground flat to pull frets. If you end up with fret tangs pulling wood out then save the chips and reglue them back into the fretboard asap.

A good fret job shouldn't need any glue. Usually, the reason for the glue in the first place was because the fret slot was cut too wide. Glue is a pain in the butt and messy, especially for the poor sod who has to replace the frets next time. Fret slots can be cleaned out with a hook knife. If the slots are too wide you can buy "fret tang pliers" from StewMac or make a tool that will expand the tangs for a wider slot.

[GuitarMaestro]

Does Fender use glue for their frets at all?

As far as I know they never used glue on their made in USA models, but I am not too sure. Can someone confirm this?

[Scott Rosenberger]

With all due respect to the other members posting on this topic, I'd hesitate to use a clothes iron. The heat from one of these appliances covers a fairly large area, which could cause the glue holding the fingerboard to the neck to soften. This could be considered a Bad Thing. If there's any water left in the iron, the steam could also affect the lacquer, if the neck has a lacquer finish.

Yeah I guess I should have clarified that a bit more. The clothes iron works just as well as a soldering iron, if you dont leave it on there too long. I was using the iron as an example for simplicity. I'm sure there are alot of guys that dont have a soldering iron large enough to heat frets quickly

[envenomedcky]

Thanks for the tips, it's going to help me out a lot, it's a new neck, only about 3 years old. I can't wait to see what the finished product will look like.

[The Tube Doctor]

I had intended to post some images showing fret removal, but discovered late last night that my ISP doesn't allow me any room for such activities. My apologies for not being to provide the promised images. I'm going to try again in the next couple of days, perhaps through one of the free hosting sites.

[envenomedcky]

It's alright, the description was enough for me.

[JohnJohn]

Some people liked to back bow the neck too.I've done it flat and backbowed and it really seems to boil down to taking your time.Also a drop of water on an unfinished neck can soften the wood with no ill effects.And ya the soldering iron on the fret makes a world of diff.-good tip.