has anyone ever had a new fingerboard on an existing neck ?

darcym

I've been trying to get some necks built for a while and all the UK luthiers I know are (thankfully) too busy with their own projects or work to build some necks.

One of the necks I wanted building was for a tele project and I managed to find an old Warmoth tele neck that I'd not used for a while that is lovely birdseye maple with a rosewood board, for it to work on the project I'd need the rosewood board taking off and new one making with new frets and nuts (most likely).

Have any of you ever had this done ? is it real world possible or just too expensive and too much hassle to be viable, I've had my rosewood board shaved a little during a refret too many on a very used neck, but that feels a lot less work than a full fingerboard change.

Love to hear your experiences please.

Also love to hear from any of the luthiers if this is 'less' work than making a full neck which would make it something they would be interested in doing 

ThePrettyDamned

Interesting question! Why does the board need to come off, out of interest?

Unless you're looking for a completely different wood, or it's damaged beyond repair, I would imagine it could be planed to a new radius. 

Following with interest though. @FelineGuitars @WezV may be good candidates to answer! 

darcym

ThePrettyDamned said:

Interesting question! Why does the board need to come off, out of interest?

Unless you're looking for a completely different wood, or it's damaged beyond repair, I would imagine it could be planed to a new radius. 

Following with interest though. @FelineGuitars @WezV may be good candidates to answer! 

two reasons 

a.) I want to use some of the nice brazillian rosewood boards I've got that are dark and look visually quite nice, I'd also like to have no fret markers on the front (so that's the visual aspect)
b.) different radius desired - and from what I've read the flatter warmoth radius is too flat for the more traditional 9.5 (or even better 7.25 as that's my preferred option, but it may not work for this guitar) I think I could go 'flatter' but not more rounded, and as this is flatter, than I wanted I imagined from my research it needed a new board.

poopot

A mates warwick had a snapped truss rod.

I removed the board, made a new rod, fitted a new board, radius’d the board and refretted...

warwick wanted £900 to do this, no one else would touch it. It was a pain in the arse!...

it’ll be about the same price to get a new neck made imo...

have a word with @Danielsguitars ;

darcym

poopot said:

A mates warwick had a snapped truss rod.

I removed the board, made a new rod, fitted a new board, radius’d the board and refretted...

warwick wanted £900 to do this, no one else would touch it. It was a pain in the arse!...

it’ll be about the same price to get a new neck made imo...

have a word with @Danielsguitars ;;

so that was my fear that the hassle of removing and replacing was the same effort as a new neck, it 'sounds' easier and less hassle, but you've got to be the guys who can do it to know for sure.

Danielsguitars been great and responded to emails, he's not making necks on their own (so I'd imagine he's not doing a fret board on it's own) as to focus on his own complete builds, or I'd have been all over him as I'd like to sample his work along with a few other local guys here.

guitarmangler

It’s definitely possible, it’s also definitely very expensive. In theory you can ‘steam’ off a fingerboard from the neck while the frets are on using an iron and a knife/scraper to gently prize the two apart. As you can imagine, most luthiers wouldn’t like to do this on your nice neck or guitar as the potential of ruining it is very high. On a vintage guitar you could probably justify it. On a warmoth guitar neck it would be cheaper to sell it, and buy another that you want.
Here’s a video from stew Mac doing it
https://youtu.be/Uozzynq9hPg

WezV

Fretboard replacement really isn't that difficult a job, as long as it's changing a slab board for slab board....and it is definitely less work than making a whole new neck.

I wouldn't normally suggest doing it without good reason though.    Expect it to cost at least double the price of a refret 

Danielsguitars

Hi I'll be doing a workshop makeover in January/February so nothing is getting done before this and I'm not planning on building single necks for the foreseeable future with my current planned workload, it's already piling up 

rocktron

Check this at Feline Guitars:-

https://felineguitars.com/pages/Judas-Priest-Les-Paul-Rebuild

imalrightjack

I’ve had the opposite! Preserved the fretboard from a 70s SG and had a new neck built:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/183769/the-ongoing-salvation-of-a-70s-gibson-sg#latest

Haych

Yes.  On my old Dan Smith era Strat I had the FB replaced as it needed a refret and the old board was a veneer walnut board that was too thin to reshoot without the fret slots having to be cut into the shaft wood, which I didn't want.

I found a wonderful luthier in Dublin, John Moriarty, who used a CNC prototyping machine to mill the old board off the neck and mill a new board to the correct radius to match.  He did an absolute stellar job.

You can see his process on his website over at archtop.ie

WezV

For what its worth, an iron does work really well for the removal.... 

axisus

I've removed 3 fretboards and replaced them in the past, (well, one is removed, not yet replaced, it's a long term project that is underway). I'm just a bloke in the garage, I reckon most people with a bit of handwork sense could do it. It takes some time and patience.

rossi

i have a Harmony sovereign flat top I got new in 64  .Its worn out and I got a NOS  board from Ebay years ago  amazingly enough .Its a perfect match but I have never plucked up courage to take the knackered one off and put it on along with a new truss rod.

Dominic

leave it out in the rain in the garden for the rest of the winter.......when summer comes along and the wood contracts the job will be done for you..................2 separate pieces ready to pick up
I like a laissez faire type approach

FelineGuitars

Always a slight risk of the neck losing width in the process and it will cost as much as having a fresh neck made most likely.

maybe have a new neck made using the warmoth as a shape template if you like that neck
then it will cost about the same and you could always later sell the Warmoth neck.

simonhpieman

Simon at SMB Guitars does some excellent woodwork and I know he's been in building mode of late. I'd highly recommend giving him a shout, I imagine this would be right up his street.

darcym

FelineGuitars said:

Always a slight risk of the neck losing width in the process and it will cost as much as having a fresh neck made most likely.

maybe have a new neck made using the warmoth as a shape template if you like that neck
then it will cost about the same and you could always later sell the Warmoth neck.

this is the problem - I wanted to have necks made, needed a couple of strats, and a tele, got these lovely Brazillian rosewood slabs for the fingerboard, but no-one will make a neck (beyond the original prototype I had done by Steve Robinson, who despite amazing efforts can't remember doing it / who he had do it (it's a great job), I managed to find the thead https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1038555/#Comment_1038555 where he'd just finished making the my the first neck.

So as no luthiers would make the necks for me, I'd thought I'd fall back to the to see if using the old Warmoth neck would make things easier (it's a nice neck, but it's far from my first choice, that's why it was in on a mule guitar).

positive side is, I'm genuinely happy to see all the UK luthiers I tried up to their ears in work, I was trying to support the UK guys as I thought covid may have made things tough, but they all seem really well backed up with work to the point they can't take more on.

FelineGuitars

Any chance of restoring the pics to the old thread ?

darcym

FelineGuitars said:

Any chance of restoring the pics to the old thread ?

yup, I'm moving the pictures around now, just need to find the rest from the backup.