The DIY Fretless Guitar!

  • Thread starter Thread starter hrwmusic
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pikingrin said:
Okay, I have started taking the frets out and I have a word of advice... Be effing careful! I have removed three of the frets, and my right hand looks like I got in a fist fight with a rabbid cat...:D 3 frets, about 12 cuts across my fingers... :eek:

At least I will be able to tell where the frets should be when the epoxy sets over that nice red tinted maple... ;)
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well if you saw my first post, you could see my hand being cut too. So yeah...As reccomended above, you could do an oil finish. and i just might end up lacquering it up, though i am terrible with laucquer (spl?), and havent used it since middle school shop class.
Im glad that this has atleast given you somthing to do.
when im i going to get those new strings.
also....if you dont have any finish on your fretboard then you'll especially need flat wound strings like on a bass. or you'll chew threw your fretboard!
 
hrwmusic said:
well if you saw my first post, you could see my hand being cut too. So yeah...As reccomended above, you could do an oil finish. and i just might end up lacquering it up, though i am terrible with laucquer (spl?), and havent used it since middle school shop class.
Im glad that this has atleast given you somthing to do.
when im i going to get those new strings.
also....if you dont have any finish on your fretboard then you'll especially need flat wound strings like on a bass. or you'll chew threw your fretboard!
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I believe maple has to have a lacquer finish, I forget why, I don't have any instruments with maple, and Light is probably avoiding this thread like the plague ;)

It's really much easier to remove frets with this tool:

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=SERVE&sku=0619&item=catalog/sku.html
 
That is a fancy tool, but why spend 28 bucks plus shipping for a glorified pair of pliers that I would only use once? Maybe I am just too cheap or frugal, I dunno. Just doesn't seem practical in a way. Besides, it's only minor flesh wounds... they'll heal eventually. :D

As far as maple goes, aren't some necks left 'unfinished', with just a coat of tung oil or something? I am going to look into that, the all-powerful google should lead to some sort of insight.

According to the folks at Warmoth:
Hard Maple (Acer saccharum):
This is the traditional Fender neck wood. Dense, hard and strong, offering great sustain and stability. The tone is bright. Maple must be finished to protect from warping.
 
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well hold on, and i'll record today...


the only issue is that my neighbors are having an addition added to their house so its pretty loud over here.....sigh....
 
My audio clips...

Audio Clips!!!

Okay first let me say what i am using:
-a loud ibanez starter amp that i removed (and left the built-in-speaker) and hooked up to some beautiful speakers that are around 40 years old (50 even)
-a mxl v67g to my fast track pro to reaper.
-everything is dry!

*heres just a simple strumming part that i do alot... but now it's... ON THE FRETLESS!: http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=3203

*Heres just a bass line i like, im using it to show the different pick-up settings on my guitar and how it effectst the sound. (not too much point but w/e...): http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=3204

*And for all the people who are into heavyer things (unlike myself), here are some (pretty poorly played) examples of distortion on a fretless...

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=3205

(the second part is mainly there just to show the half steps that can be reached now....i know i kinda screwed up on them....im really not that bad on guitar lol...)
note:ive still got the really crappy acoustic strings on....:laughs:


....so, what do you all think?
 
pikingrin said:
That is a fancy tool, but why spend 28 bucks plus shipping for a glorified pair of pliers that I would only use once? Maybe I am just too cheap or frugal, I dunno. Just doesn't seem practical in a way. Besides, it's only minor flesh wounds... they'll heal eventually. :D
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It's up to you to decide where you fall on the time vs. money (vs. flesh wound) scale. Obviously if you're done already, you don't need the tool. However, there will be a lot of other people who read this thread, and now they know their options.
 
mshilarious said:
It's up to you to decide where you fall on the time vs. money (vs. flesh wound) scale. Obviously if you're done already, you don't need the tool. However, there will be a lot of other people who read this thread, and now they know their options.
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good point.. But my guitars frets were very brittle....i was trying to use pliers that are on a swiss army knife, and the pliers were the right size, but crushed the frets, and even when they were crushed i couldnt get enough of a hold on them (oh and becareful with just any pliers, because you could damage the fret board!). So the small bottle opener (not the knife!, ouch) worked out best for me...but also my frets werent glued in either. I dont know if my frets were just lower quality metal, or anything like that. But i succeded with percision and a bottle opener.
 
hey you guys are useing a soldering iron to heat up the glue, right.. i have built hundreds of necks that are maple with oil finishes and you don't have to worry about warping...you have to worry about them getting them dirty. maple doesn't come cleam easily. they eventually turn green and gray and brown. just look close at a picture of evh's necks on his old candy stripe guitars. also if you want to copy stew macs fret pullers, just get a small pair of end nips from home despot and grind the end flush with the point so you can get up under the fret wire.
 
normalizer said:
hey you guys are useing a soldering iron to heat up the glue, right.. i have built hundreds of necks that are maple with oil finishes and you don't have to worry about warping...you have to worry about them getting them dirty. maple doesn't come cleam easily. they eventually turn green and gray and brown. just look close at a picture of evh's necks on his old candy stripe guitars. also if you want to copy stew macs fret pullers, just get a small pair of end nips from home despot and grind the end flush with the point so you can get up under the fret wire.
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no, there actually wasnt any glue there at all for me. And yeah, i should at least put a finish on it to keep it from getting dirty.
 
Pikingrin, How has your project gone so far?

Id love to hear your thoughts on this/other suggestions.. :rolleyes:
 
hrwmusic said:
Pikingrin, How has your project gone so far?

Id love to hear your thoughts on this/other suggestions.. :rolleyes:
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So far so good, I put the epoxy in on friday, and I am going to get down to sanding and all of that tomorrow evening when I get home from the office. I am kind of concerned though... When I got the last 16 frets out I took a little bit of the meat off of the top part of the fretboard, so I am going to have to do some patching. :eek: But other than that all I need to do is get a new bridge, pickguard, nut and a couple of other things while I have it completely taken apart and she'll be good as new. Hopefully she'll sound as good as she looks! :D

It's a pretty sweet little DIY project if you have a crap guitar for a guinea pig though!

And seriously... if you've got a crap guitar to do this to, why bother with worrying about the finish on the neck... That's my motto for the time being in regards to the maple... Hopefully it will still work when I get done! :rolleyes:
 
i've been playing this baby for a while now, fretless from the fifth fret up. lets me combine strumming chords and playing fretless. the only 'problem' is that because of the frets the action on the fretless part of the neck is relatively high.
 

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faderbug said:
i've been playing this baby for a while now, fretless from the fifth fret up. lets me combine strumming chords and playing fretless. the only 'problem' is that because of the frets the action on the fretless part of the neck is relatively high.
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awesome man, yeah the action thing is too bad. But after awhile, you just get accustomed. Thanks for posting a pic man.
 
If you use the flush ground end nippers as previously suggested, you can "walk" the fretwire up by sqeezing the handles, getting another bite, sqeezing, etc. You can let the action of the jaws do the pulling while keeping the face of the pliers against the fretboard- this will help prevent those chips.

It also helps to heat the fret regardless of whether it's glued or not. The heat helps to release natural oils from the wood and makes the fret come out cleaner.
 
0018G said:
If you use the flush ground end nippers as previously suggested, you can "walk" the fretwire up by sqeezing the handles, getting another bite, sqeezing, etc. You can let the action of the jaws do the pulling while keeping the face of the pliers against the fretboard- this will help prevent those chips.

It also helps to heat the fret regardless of whether it's glued or not. The heat helps to release natural oils from the wood and makes the fret come out cleaner.
Click to expand...

good tips, i was kind of lazy with that field. And what was funny was that the farther down my fretboard, the cleaner the gap was. The most important thing is to be slow + steady, and use every precaution you can (like what 0018G said).
 
just one thing : you don't pull out the frets, you slide them out sideways. that's the only way not to damage the fretboard.
 
"just one thing : you don't pull out the frets, you slide them out sideways. that's the only way not to damage the fretboard.

If done in this manner, I would think the barb of the fret will widen the slot and cause problems with the new frets staying down(not a concern in this case). I'm also not sure how you would get the fret shoved sideways enough to grab it and drag it out of the slot without damaging the fingerboard. Bar frets could be an exception, but I remove them from the top as well (If I'm lucky, I'll never have to do another bar fret job again anyway)

I only work on acoustic instruments, so I can't speak for maple fingerboards as I have never done one, but I have never seen anyone slide frets sideways to remove them. Sometimes you will chip a fretboard(especially ebony)-even the most careful repairman can't avoid it entirely if the fretboard is old and dry. The trick is to minimize the damage and repair it flawlessly before driving in the new frets.
 
light, could you shed some light on the subject of removing frets?
 
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