Members jumpwin Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 This may be a tad n00b, but I've never actually paid any attention to this, but no I'm replacing a fingerboard; How do I measure the Scale and radius of my guitar(s) without stewmac tools?? is there any other measurements i need to account for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 Your replacing the fretboard or the neck? Is the board a slab or veneer? Like is the botton of the fretboard flat or is the neck a curved radius under the board? What is the guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jumpwin Posted January 5, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 The guitar is tele type. The fingerboard is thick slab of dented and dry rosewood looking wood. It has a flat bottom where it joins the neck. It's a project thats been in the corner for over a year, and now it's time to breath some life back into it. I can get an ebony one with lovely inlays for a good price, but have no idea about the measurements, and how it all works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted January 5, 2011 Moderators Share Posted January 5, 2011 The guitar is tele type. The fingerboard is thick slab of dented and dry rosewood looking wood. It has a flat bottom where it joins the neck. It's a project thats been in the corner for over a year, and now it's time to breath some life back into it. I can get an ebony one with lovely inlays for a good price, but have no idea about the measurements, and how it all works. On the neck, measure from the fretboard edge of the nut to the 12th fret, and then double it....if it's a Tele type I'd be surprised if it wasn't a 25.5" Fender scale, so you'll be looking for 12.75" from nut to 12th fret, the radius of the old board is immaterial if you're replacing it, you can go 7.25" vintage up to 12" LP type or beyond to the flatter radii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Prages Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 To measure the radius, you can just take a string and measure out 7 1/4", then strike an arc on a piece of cardboard, then cut along the arc. Then repeat that process with strings measuring 9 1/2", 12", 14" etc, until you find the one that most closely matches the radius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoneNut Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 Don't change the fingerboard, replace the entire neck. Less of a chance to screw up. On the other hand, if it's only a question of a few little dents, you can sand them out and refinish the current fingerboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 I think DaleH has the right question. Is the neck being replaced or the Fretboard. The fretboard is part of the neck. Removing it is serious luthire work. I've done a few and for the work involved its easier and cheaper to just replace the neck or build a neck from scratch. The first fretboard removal I did was a desaster because I tried to take it off cracking the glue joint after heating. The others I simply put on an industrial belt sander and sanded it down till the old fretboard was gone. Cutting slots properly and refretting with the proper tools, leveling crowning are the other biggies. Having radius blocks is a must too for sanding the neck properly. If you're just replacing the neck which I suspect you are, then you measure from the nut to the 12th fret and double that number for the scale length. I'm guessing its a standard fender 25" scale. Thing with teles is the heel is flat and its short the 22nd fret. Other necks like Strats have rounded heels and wont fit right unless you reroute the neck pocket. This is tough to do because of the neck pup placement and can throuw the bridge intonation off. My best advice is replace the neck with a tele type neck and save yourself alot of work. If you were thinking about replacing the fretboard, my best advive is repair what you got by removing the frets, sanding the fretboard to remove dings and dents, then refret. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jumpwin Posted January 5, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 I was going to have a crack at the fingerboard:confused: It comes pre-slotted. It's merely a way to polish up my skills. The guitar is a mule, my test bed if you will. I learnt most of my repair skills on it, and thought I'd give it a try. Is it really that hard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted January 5, 2011 Moderators Share Posted January 5, 2011 I was going to have a crack at the fingerboard:confused: It comes pre-slotted. It's merely a way to polish up my skills. The guitar is a mule, my test bed if you will. I learnt most of my repair skills on it, and thought I'd give it a try. Is it really that hard? No, not really difficult at all, however you can save yourself some fiddling about if before you remove the fretboard, you drill out the side markers and fill them with wood, as when you remove the fretboard you'll be left with half holes which are a **** to deal with:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 5, 2011 Members Share Posted January 5, 2011 I've never done it and am not interested in trying it though I have thought about converting a fretted board to fretless just for {censored}s and giggles. Anyway, I would assume that as long as one is comfortable doing a fret radius and level and with dressing frets, replacing the fretboard wouldn't be a radically more difficult procedure. I'd expect the biggest stumbling blocks would getting all the little bits of glue that might be left behind after the removal of the old board. If it's a test mule, I'd go for it. What's the worst that can happen? You get really frustrated and set it back in the corner again after putting ~$80 and some time into it? Doesn't sound too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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