Hi,

Has anyone experience defretting and/or refretting ebony boards?

I'm seriously considering converting my fretted Carvin AC40 into a fretless, but I'm a bit hesitant because of what I hear about ebony's tendency to chip.

I'd like some feedback to help me decide whether or not to tackle this.

It's a great instrument, but I'm sure it would be even better as a fretless.

Again, if you share your experiences it would be very helpful.

I defretted my "ebonol" fretboard, against everyone who said it would not be easy. Not quite the same as ebony but close. In fact I may be the only person who has ever defretted a newer ebonol fretboard.

See the bass here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhynqXMUGU

Hey mate,

I haven't defretted Ebony boards per se but there shouldn't be any difference to any other boards.

I'm not sure if you've done the procedure before but basically you need to warm up your frets one by one with a soldering iron. Just stroke the fret up and down the lenght of it for a few seconds until you start seeing it lightly smoke then take a pair of fret pullers (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for:_Fretting/1/Fret_Pullers/Pictures.html#details), or ground down your own pair if you don't have one and squeeze your way down the fret at the end of it then queeze your way down the fret until it just lifts off the fretboard. Do it gently. Don't be in a rush, one fret at a time. The soldering iron thing loosens the glue that might be in the fret cavity and also very slightly burns the timber which sort of acts as a lubricant when you pull the fret. In other words, you get less chips if you heat the fret.

Even if you do get chips (you most likely will) you just have to be careful to not lose the chips. As soon as a fret is out and you see a chip, take that chip apply a tiny drop of CA in the gap and put the chip back in it's proper spot, burnish it in place and hold it there for a few seconds to let the glue dry (don't hold it with your fingers! :eek:) You can also spray a bit of accelerator if you don't want to wait. When it's all hard and dry you can sand it, file it, or scrape it.

If you do lose a chip and can't find it anywhere, sand down your fretboard (you wont have a choice to do that once you're finished defretting anyway) and keep some of the wood dust from the sanding. Put a tiny drop of wood glue on a flat surface like a workbench and put as much wood dust in it. You want to burnish the dust into that drop of wood glue. You want a pretty solid texture of it then take that blob of wood dust/glue and squeeze it into the chipped cavity. Put some pressure in it, make sure it's filled completely then let it dry for an hour or so. Sand it flat after that. If you do it correctly, It'll look brand new. You'd never know there was a chip there before.

If you have a particularly brittle FB that chips a lot, then apply scotch tape to both sides of the fret before pulling. This won't help stop the chipping, but it will retain the chips in order so that you can glue them back. Scotch tape is better than masking tape because it is thinner and you can see through it.

Good luck.

Greg N

thanks for the tips, guys...

the tape thing is a very good tip, Greg


and thanks, Phil...that kind of detail is exactly what I was looking for...

After playing a fretless Jazz a couple of weeks ago and noting how much EASIER it was to play than my wishbass, I'm really stoked about having a good fretless to use...

now I only need to find the time...:hmm:

oh yeah...I've got to go veneer shopping, too :)

I had an idea about fret pulling...

my bass to be defretted has a dual-action truss rod. do you suppose that it may be advantageous to actually backbow the neck a bit before beginning the defret.? I was thinking that this may help "open up" the kerf a bit, thus help the fret pulling process. After the frets are pulled, I would then put the neck back to straight in order to properly fit the veneer into the slots (don't want the veneer causing a back bow).

any thoughts?

I had an idea about fret pulling...

my bass to be defretted has a dual-action truss rod. do you suppose that it may be advantageous to actually backbow the neck a bit before beginning the defret.? I was thinking that this may help "open up" the kerf a bit, thus help the fret pulling process. After the frets are pulled, I would then put the neck back to straight in order to properly fit the veneer into the slots (don't want the veneer causing a back bow).

any thoughts?

Yes I would definitely do that.

oh yeah...I've got to go veneer shopping, too :)

Make sure you glue the veneer in so the grain is parallel to the surface of the fingerboard, and not perpendicular. The reason for this is because wood sometimes swells, and you will start to feel the veneer sticking up like wooden frets if the end grain is facing up!

Get a proper fret puller, heat the frets with a soldering iron, and then rock the puller back and forth as you work the fret out.

Be patient and take you time! You will minimize chips that way. Keep some CA glue handy to glue them back in.

Also bare in mind that fret slots are often chamfered, so you might need to level the fingerboard after your veneer is glued in (besides leveling the veneer).

It's a time consuming job, but not all that hard.

Make sure you glue the veneer in so the grain is parallel to the surface of the fingerboard, and not perpendicular. The reason for this is because wood sometimes swells, and you will start to feel the veneer sticking up like wooden frets if the end grain is facing up!

Get a proper fret puller, heat the frets with a soldering iron, and then rock the puller back and forth as you work the fret out.

Be patient and take you time! You will minimize chips that way. Keep some CA glue handy to glue them back in.

Also bare in mind that fret slots are often chamfered, so you might need to level the fingerboard after your veneer is glued in (besides leveling the veneer).

It's a time consuming job, but not all that hard.

good tip about the veneer grain, David. Thanks...

I found some inexpensive iron-on veneer strips at bunnings (22mm x 5m for $10)...I can get a variety of different woods...I'm going for something medium brown in colour...contrast is good to the black ebony, but not as stark as rock maple...the grain of the strip is longitudinal to the strip so it will follow your guideline...

I just have to figure out a good way to remove the glue, since it's iron-on...I'll probably just scrape it off with a razor blade.

I just have to co

You can get wood veneer from most wood working sources. I get a lot of mine from here: Constantines (http://www.constantines.com/)

You can get wood veneer from most wood working sources. I get a lot of mine from here: Constantines (http://www.constantines.com/)

cool site...I may use them in the future...but for simple fret slot veneer, the bunnings' stuff should work just fine...besides it's only 1 mile away :)