Replace Fingerboard

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:15 am

Hello everyone this is my first post here. I have a Fender Stratocaster neck (Artist series SRV) the previous owner had started taking the fingerboard off. I am looking for someone either in Adelaide or NZ (as I travel back and forth) to fix it for me. Any takers?? Or else I'll have to give it a go myself!

Chopper · Post by **Chopper** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:03 am

G'day Stimpy,
If the finger board is beyond repair, remove the frets and nut and take off the old board on a belt sander, a stationary one affords good control and you should end up with the original surface to affix a new one to.
Cheers Chopper

DarwinStrings · Post by **DarwinStrings** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:34 pm

Hi and welcome Stimpy

Is it Stimpy Ray Vaughn?

I would be happy to do it for you but Darwin is a long way from Adelaide. Try the local music shops and ask to speak to the person who does the repairs to see if you can gauge if you would be happy leaving your Strat in their hands.

Alternatively if you decide to DIY then I would be happy to instruct you via this Forum as I'm am sure many others here would be too.

Jim

Life is good when you're amongst the wood.

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:41 pm

Fretco in Adelaide. Tim Wright is out at Mount Barker.

In NZ..try Paddy Burgin in Wellington. PM me for contact details.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:06 pm

Hi Stimpy, welcome to the ANZLF.

You could use heat and palette knives to work the fretboard off and that is what a pro would do. However you would then still need to replace and fret the new board, and this would be one of the more difficult task to get right if you want to maintain playability.

If you have a go yourself, you would need a few specialised tools to get the job done and quite frankly, unless you intend take this up and building a few guitars, it would be cheaper in the long run to hand it over to someone with the chops to get it right.

If you find the right person, I am confident they will have your git set up and playing FAR better than anything coming straight out of the factory. Never met a fender, gibo or gretsch, especially gretsch, straight out of the factory that could not benefit with a proper set up regardless of how much was paid for it....on the other hand, talking lecies, go and pick up a mid to top end Ibanez and see what you think.

Cheers

Kim

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:08 pm

Toejam wrote:

Is it Stimpy Ray Vaughn?

Life is good when you're amongst the wood.

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:33 pm

Thank you all for making me feel welcome.

I was going to take the nut off and carefully bandsaw the fret board off (lenghtwise) then plane/sand and put a new compound board on. I have already bought the ebony board from StewMac. I have done refrets to varying degrees of success before so I am quietly confident of doing it myself but was wondering how much it would cost to get it done professionally.

Once again thanks everyone.

StimpyRay V-"that's has a ring to it" cheers!!

DarwinStrings · Post by **DarwinStrings** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:55 pm

Is there something wrong with the original fret board other than the fact that someone has started to remove the fret board. Band Saw sounds like a narly method to me. The way I would remove the fret board is....

1. remove the neck from the body

2. use two blocks of wood to support the neck ( fret board side down ) about 50mm - 70mm over the largest ring on a electric stove then set the stove to low.

3. keep a eye on the neck, you want it hot to touch but don't do a Hendrix. 15 mins or so. you may need to move it around a bit or do one end at a time.

4. use a old fashion butter knife (a great repair tool) or similar thin bluntish blade to slide between the neck and the board. It should come off easily with a little force if you got it hot enough and no one has glued it down with some non original glue.

If you want to re-glue the same board then you need to "Pin" it first. Take a small panel pin and a micro drill bit just a bit thinner than the panel pin. drill two holes one in between fret 1 and 2 but off center so you don't hit the truss rod. then another in the 16th or 18th on the opposite side of the truss rod 10mm off centre should be fine. Only drill the fret board not into the neck itself then tap the pins in about 6mm into the neckstock should do and cut the heads off the pins leaving a little sticking out for removal later. When you remove the fret board the pins will remain in the neck allowing you to re-locate the board in the same position when you re-glue it.

Or use the narly method.

Good luck which ever way you go.

Jim

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:10 pm

I think a pic. of how it is now would be a great thing to gauge
whether it's truly a goner or a resto.

It'd be a shame to pull that board off if there's half a chance of rectifying it in situ.
It's great to see everyone giving quality advice as opposed to some other forums where you get more guessing than experience.
That in itself is a great resource.

cheers, Stu

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:47 am

Excellent advice for so many kind contributors--Thanks heaps! I will post photos when I get back home, before starting any work on the neck. Presently I am in the Australian Outback and the neck is at home in NZ.

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:43 pm

Here are some pictures of the mess I inherited. The person started from the 22nd fret end and it's pretty clean until the 8th fret where he's forced it and there a slight crack. Then he proceeded to hack saw (I presume) from the nut end. What do you all think? Re-glue or replace?

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:02 pm

Ouch, that's a heck of a mess. I've not had any experience trying to repair something like that, so I'm going to watch and see what the experts have to say.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:14 pm

I would replace the board. If the PO has used a saw of some kind the kerf it took is wood lost and for all the futzing around you would face trying to save that mess, a new board would be easier by far. Follow Jim's procedure above and you should be right but don't go damaging the actual neck wood if you can avoid it at all.

Once the old FB is off you can clean up the neck surface ready for gluing the new board with a large sanding board but you will need to go steady and be sure to keep things flat. It is hard to tell from the pictures but depending on the neck itself, it may require some kind of jig be made up to hold things level while you clean up, it all looks kind of nasty.

Cheers

Kim

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:23 pm

The previous owner is an idiot....why do people do things like this???

I've lifted a few fretboards off classicals and steel strings and the procedure I use is to run an iron over the fretboard (after pulling frets) and then start carefully prising the board off from each end using a very thin pallet knife heated up with a painters heat gun. If I want to save the fretboard then I dispense with the iron and just go in with the hot pallet knife.

DarwinStrings · Post by **DarwinStrings** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 9:59 pm

Wow, the mind boggles, what was that person thinking. Hacksaw a Pao Ferro fret board off SRV Strat, I would like to know why they attempted it, is ther some other problem that can't be seen now like a twist or bad bend. I would do my best to salvage that but it doesn't look good, as Kim said the kerf they took out is a bugger. It is hard to tell from the pics but personally I would still try to salvage it. A couple of points, how much did you pay, if you got it cheap enough then one option is to get on to fender and they will replace it with a neck that is the same, those necks are a oval profile with a 12 inch radius fret board so you cant use any old fender neck of ebay. It won't be cheap though. Again if you got it cheap enough then it will be worth spending a few hundred bucks on to get it repaired. Kim is probably right about the fact that it may be easier to just replace but these models like to remain original if possible, for values sake anyway.

I would like to hear how you feel as it is your guitar, do you want it kept original? and if so what sort of budget would you be willing to go to to fix it?

Jim

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:35 pm

Thanks for everyone's comments. The previous owner said the neck was twisted or warped but I really don't think it was. I will take the fingerboard off, don't think I can save it. I have a compound ebony board from Stew Mac ready to go on. I'll keep everyone posted. It's real shame but it doesn't look like an easy fix.
How much would a professional charge to replace and fret a board? just out of interest.

StimpyRV · Post by **StimpyRV** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:04 pm

Took the old fingerboard off, couldn't save it.

Sanded it down with a big long sanding block. Now it's ready for the new fingerboard.

Fingers crossed.

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