hrwmusic
Your mo-o-ovin' so fast..
For all do it yourself enthusiasts, here is my "out of nowhere" fretless guitar project! Note: I'm doing this simply to inspire others, and give people here an inside on how things worked out with this guide.
Hopefully im doin' someone alittle good!
...Oh and check out the site i found first to better understand what im working with here.
Backround Info
After much bordom I decided i needed some sort of project to help pass my time. And after a sort discusion with a friend on fretless guitars I googled for a step by step procedure to remove frets
(yes, i know i am following directions, but its still a big project for most, can't that be agreed on?) .
I found: http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=main
which is a awesome reasource for all things unfretted. I then spontaneously took out my old, cheep, starter electric Ibanez:
My Ibanez Before
a close up on the frets
The Steps
I first did a few stupid things like held a neadle with a hotpad to a lighter and then placed it on a fret (i dont have a soldering iron) to loosen the glue. But i quickly realized i was an idiot and tried a knife. Turns out that my frets werent glued in and they came out pretty easily, untill i cut my hand, and (midway) decided to use a bottle opener for saftey (pointless pictures below)
the knife and cut
The bottle opener (you can see that its edge isn't too thin, so you shouldn't worry too much about thickness when removing the frets)
Here are pictures after i removed all of the frets:
no frets one
no frets two
no frets three
Where I Am Now
Here is a current cross road for me & anyone filling the frets [remember, i am not yet finished]. On the main page for the project im doing
(http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=unfretting) they say epoxy should be used for filling frets, and then sanding and yeah...
But, in the hint section they recomend to use a wax crayon and then to polish the fret board.
WHAT!!! that really doesnt make since. But anyways, im going with the epoxy rout, and for the first time, not being lazy...
(hopefully this way will work best).
Tomorrow im going to go a local hardware store for:
~ 15-30 min epoxy
~ some sort of small mixing containers (i'll probly use somthing small from home though)
~ toothpicks (hmm)
~ Double sided tape (duct), ive got the scrap flat pice of wood
and then "various grits of sand paper" (80, 100, 150, 180, 220, 300)
~ and masking tape to cover the guitar.
wish me luck and I'll keep you all posted on my progress, it says it will take around 2 days for the epoxy to fully dry (but i'll talk to the guy/girl at the store and see what they think, and maybe ill do alittle reasearche too) but i'll post the work ill do periodically over the next 3-4 days.
-Harry
Hopefully im doin' someone alittle good!
...Oh and check out the site i found first to better understand what im working with here. Backround Info
After much bordom I decided i needed some sort of project to help pass my time. And after a sort discusion with a friend on fretless guitars I googled for a step by step procedure to remove frets
(yes, i know i am following directions, but its still a big project for most, can't that be agreed on?) .
I found: http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=main
which is a awesome reasource for all things unfretted. I then spontaneously took out my old, cheep, starter electric Ibanez:
My Ibanez Before
a close up on the frets
The Steps
I first did a few stupid things like held a neadle with a hotpad to a lighter and then placed it on a fret (i dont have a soldering iron) to loosen the glue. But i quickly realized i was an idiot and tried a knife. Turns out that my frets werent glued in and they came out pretty easily, untill i cut my hand, and (midway) decided to use a bottle opener for saftey (pointless pictures below)
the knife and cut
The bottle opener (you can see that its edge isn't too thin, so you shouldn't worry too much about thickness when removing the frets)
Here are pictures after i removed all of the frets:
no frets one
no frets two
no frets three
Where I Am Now
Here is a current cross road for me & anyone filling the frets [remember, i am not yet finished]. On the main page for the project im doing
(http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=unfretting) they say epoxy should be used for filling frets, and then sanding and yeah...
But, in the hint section they recomend to use a wax crayon and then to polish the fret board.
WHAT!!! that really doesnt make since. But anyways, im going with the epoxy rout, and for the first time, not being lazy...
(hopefully this way will work best).
Tomorrow im going to go a local hardware store for:
~ 15-30 min epoxy
~ some sort of small mixing containers (i'll probly use somthing small from home though)
~ toothpicks (hmm)
~ Double sided tape (duct), ive got the scrap flat pice of wood
and then "various grits of sand paper" (80, 100, 150, 180, 220, 300)
~ and masking tape to cover the guitar.
wish me luck and I'll keep you all posted on my progress, it says it will take around 2 days for the epoxy to fully dry (but i'll talk to the guy/girl at the store and see what they think, and maybe ill do alittle reasearche too) but i'll post the work ill do periodically over the next 3-4 days.
-Harry
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