Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 Ok, so over the weekend I randomly decided to take my old Jackson Dinky EX and (attempt to) turn it into a fretless. Probably should have done a bit of research before I started, but hey, whatever... The guitar is the 2nd electric I ever owned, many years since it has been used. I kept it around thinking one day I'd do something with it, but never figured out what that was going to be. So for reasons I can't remember, on Saturday I decided to de-fret it. Now that I've read a little, apparently you're supposed to be a bit more careful with removing the frets. Apparently it's also better to use special fret pulling plier thingoes. Well, I just used a soldering iron and some pretty standard pliers, in combination with brute force. They all came out pretty cleanly. Fretboard was sanded smooth, slots cleaned out, and the whole fretboard cleaned up a bit. Epoxy in the slots is currently curing and I imagine I'll get on to sanding it down this weekend. After that I'll be blocking the Floyd, and I imagine I'll have to rewire the whole thing too. What I'm wondering now is about coating the whole fretboard (rosewood). Will I be able to get away with leaving it as it is, or would I really be better off coating it? And if so... WTF do I use? Coz I imagine this epoxy stuff I used to fill the slots would be a bit hard to work with for coating the entire fretboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members schoolie1 Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 You filled the fret slots with epoxy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomCray Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I pulled out frets with a nail clipper before, worked pretty damn well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members harold heckuba Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 You just ruined your guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members schoolie1 Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I pulled out frets with a nail clipper before, worked pretty damn well. Are you converting to fretless guitar? If so, that would make sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CoqBelliqueux Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 Kudos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members savethegibbons Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I have a fretless cheap classical. It is... interesting. The most striking thing is how difficult it is to play. Intonation is a lot more difficult with a high-pitched instrument. I haven't played it in around 3 years, honestly. The most amusing part was when I was sanding it down after removing the frets and filling in the holes. Apparently the Rosewood of the fingerboard was a veneer a fraction of a millimetre thick. Underneath was undescribable wood like material. Frustratingly, this took the stain slightly differently, which you may be to see in the picture above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 You filled the fret slots with epoxy? It's what I had handy. Like I said, I didn't exactly do research before I started. It was pretty much only at the point where I couldn't do any more (i.e. now waiting for the epoxy to cure) before I went, "Hey, maybe I'll read up a bit on it." Still, it was either that, or I go out and find some kind of filler. I figured a clear epoxy would be pretty easy to work with and shouldn't look too ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I have a fretless cheap classical. It is... interesting. The most striking thing is how difficult it is to play. Intonation is a lot more difficult with a high-pitched instrument. I haven't played it in around 3 years, honestly. Aww {censored}. I've seen a few clips of peopel with fretlesseseses before on Youtube that seem to agree with your findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 You just ruined your guitar. The guitar was already ruined. Pretty much anything I do to it can only improve it. The neck is so thin it's uncomfortable for me to play, the Floyd copy is rubbish, the frets were in a terrible state, needs new switch and pots and preferably new pickups, etc. etc. Even if I screw the neck up I'm not really losing anything. If I was going to rework the guitar in another way, to start with I would have just gone and found a different neck to put on the guitar anyway. Sure I could have had the frets replaced, but I wouldn't want to spend that much money on such a cheap guitar and on a neck that I don't even like anyway. All it is really is an experiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomCray Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 Are you converting to fretless guitar? If so, that would make sense Nope, the frets had more peaks and valleys then the Grand Canyon. I was going to refret it then I lost interest and bought a new neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 fretless takes a bit of getting used to but it doesn't take to get the hang of it, about an hour of solid practice and i no longer worry about pitch. pulled the frets on mine with a pocket knife and filled with wood putty (epoxy is fine too). problem is, the harder fret board the better when it comes to sustain on a fretless and i found that rosewood doesn't quite do it for me. i'm installing a sustainer bit i might give the fret board a coat of appliance epoxy paint at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 fretless takes a bit of getting used to but it doesn't take to get the hang of it, about an hour of solid practice and i no longer worry about pitch. pulled the frets on mine with a pocket knife and filled with wood putty (epoxy is fine too). problem is, the harder fret board the better when it comes to sustain on a fretless and i found that rosewood doesn't quite do it for me. i'm installing a sustainer bit i might give the fret board a coat of appliance epoxy paint at some point. And I thought I went about it a bit too ghetto. Yeah, sustain is what I was really wondering about. The epoxy would brighten up the sound a lot though too wouldn't it? Chords are what I'm worried about with this thing. Single note lines I can see as being feasible, but I'm having a hard time imagining playing chords with no frets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RaVenCAD Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I've never done it, but I've seen it done and heard the really cool results that can come from one. If I was doing it, I'd completely coat the fretboard in a liquid black epoxy (I use one at my job that's about as viscous as mustard.. Cures to a perfect pitch black gloss, but it'd be a bitch to level out!) for a glass-like playing surface. That'd be wicked cool.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members normh Posted July 12, 2010 Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 What you can do with the fret board is sand it some to get powder from the sanding, mix the sanded dust with epoxy and coat the entire neck. If done correctly, you can then sand the board down as if you were re-finishing the frets. Other wise, use a radius block on the finger board. Depending on how deep the divots are, you can treat it by drop filling with CA. You Sand enough of the fret board to obtain enough powder to fill the divots and then treat the area with super glue (CA). This is basically the same method used to repair chips when removing frets. You can also buy a rosewood powder from Stew-Mac. The powder you buy from Stew-mac you can go to a local furniture manufacturing firm and by for far less (about $2.00 per bottle compared to $8.00 at stew-mac). The color for rosewood is burnt umber. If you want to re-fret the instrument. You can either buy a tang (fret) saw from stewmac for about $30, or go to Harbor Freight and buy a Japanese Flush cut say that the curf is 24/1000ths. If you go the flush cut route, use a hammer to flatten the kerf and it will measure 21 - 22/1000ths. Most fret tangs are 23/1000ths, so it is a good fit. After you have fret saw, use a miter box to cut the new slots at the proper places. You can get more detailed info in DYI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted July 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2010 I've never done it, but I've seen it done and heard the really cool results that can come from one. If I was doing it, I'd completely coat the fretboard in a liquid black epoxy (I use one at my job that's about as viscous as mustard.. Cures to a perfect pitch black gloss, but it'd be a bitch to level out!) for a glass-like playing surface. That'd be wicked cool.. Yeah, I imagine it'd take a fair bit of work to get it perfectly smooth. I'll be ordering a radiused sanding block at some point in the week to do the sanding this time around. I guess I'll see how the rosewood goes to start with and decide if I want to take it further with coating the whole board. I imagine I will, but I wouldn't want to underestimate my laziness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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