Quote:
Originally Posted by santucci218  how do i go about peeling off the old and tossing on the new fretboard? |
This is in no way complete, and may be completely wrong as I've never attempted such a thing before. First off we'll presume that the fretboard isn't a single piece with the neck, as is the case on some necks. I'll also assume that it's the bolt on neck P bass you have rather than the green one with the fancy inlays.
You'll first have to figure out a way to soften the glue, if possible, either by steaming it or heating it. Some glues won't respond to this so you may have to figure out a way to cut it off. You'll probably want to remove the frets first if you go that route. You'll also want to look out for pins that some builders set in the fretboards so that they don't slide around during the gluing process and of course find a way to avoid cutting into the truss rod, any of the above which will do damage to sawblades and put your health in danger. You then need to be able to separate the wood somehow without doing too much damage to the neck, perhaps with chisels or putty knives. You'll then have to remove the truss rod and plane the neck back down flat and level, being careful not to take too much wood. If it has an angled headstock any planing will change the nut location, so you'll need to take that into account and adjust it back when putting the new fingerboard on. If necessary, you'll then have to deepen your channel to compensate for any material removed. You can then toss on the new fingerboard, install the nut, slot it, glue it, clamp it, radius it, mask it off, refinish the back of the neck and the headstock, let it dry, sand it down, string it up, readjust the truss rod and bridge, disassembling and shimming the neck as necessary and you are good to go.
You probably want to have a full set of woodworking tools, a bunch of clamps, some tinfoil and a heatgun, a pair of fret pullers, a good set of files, a jack plane or finishing plane, a router with the appropriate bits, radius sanding blocks, sandpaper, wood glue, a ton of clamps and anything else I may have forgotten.
That's the long story. I still recommend the short version above. Basically if you use the term "tossing on" the new fingerboard, you may not have a concept of the amount of work it will require to do it, or the time and expense it will require to do so.
I have no doubt you are more than capable of doing it if you take your time and get all your information together, but it's probably not worth your time to do it. If you insist on doing the work yourself I'd recommend you build a new neck from scratch with the fretboard you want before doing what you want to do.
Otherwise you might become a supporting member and see if someone wants to trade you for something you'd prefer.
Hope this helps.
1969 Pbass 
