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A Hack Defret Tutorial

#22
Nateo, do you think you could give a fair estimate of the quantity of epoxy used in three coats on the board? I'm thinking about doing this myself, but can only get the 2-ton epoxy in syringes around here, otherwise it's white. They come in 1.0 fl oz syringes with agents A and B appropriately sized.
 
#23
I could do you one better by getting the exact amount I mixed, but that would require going out to the shop and it's 2 AM after getting home from a rock concert. I'll find the exact number sometime tomorrow, but I wouldn't think it'd be more than a few ounces. It doesn't take much to do a coat, only 3 or 4 dips of the brush, and I was putting it on pretty thick. I suppose the big thing would depend on how thick your epoxy is when mixed and how well it coats. Mine was fairly thin and easy to paint on. The standard 5 minute stuff is quite a lot thicker and would probably need to be spread with something more significant like a credit card.

-Nate
 
#24
Don't attempt this with 5 minute epoxy.

There are lots of types of epoxies out there and the way they formulate this stuff for civilian use, they have to make compromises in it's performance for our impatient minds. In this case the 5 minute stuff doesn't harden like the slow cure stuff. It's sticky and will certainly do the things epoxy is supposed to do but it will be destroyed by string wear pretty quickly compared to a high quality epoxy like the System 3 or West Systems.
 
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#26
Sorry... life's been pretty busy with moving to college. I've got everything planned out but most of my free time I've got to spend on a bass for TB's fattom. If anyone wants to do the tutorial instead of me feel free. I can always make another or add on when I get some time. sorry about that. School really sucks 'cause there's no time for The Bass.
 
#31
Great tutorial! I am going to defret my bass this weekend I think. It's a handbuilt bass and apparantly the builder made a slight error in calculating the fret positions because a couple of them are not quite right on, so I am just gonna go fretless and compensate with my fingers. I feel more confident now having seen AND read a way to do it as opposed to simply reading it.

Thanks!
 
#33
nateo said:
When all of the slots were cleaned out and the masking was removed it was time to fill the slots. My customer wanted some clear fretlines that would match the existing dots, so I looked around for something black and thin. As luck would have it, I found a crazy carpet in the garbage that would work fine (if you don't know what a crazy carpet is, ask a Canadian). I cut off a 3" wide strip of the plastic and set about fitting it to the slots. I had to thin it out quite a bit by using two sided tape to stick it to a block and running it on the belt sander. Once it was approximately the right thickness I would sand it with a block as needed for fine tuning.

nateo said:
This is an awesome thread I am inspired! I have an Ibanez gsr 190 justing lying around that I do not play anymore but it has a nice 22 fret neck-It is now going to defretted. I have a question: what other materials can be used to fill the slots? Someone mentioned wood glue-Is this a good alternative? My fretboard is a very dark rosewood so crazy carpet is out (also due to not having any access to the stuff. Can the slot simply be filled with wood glue and then sanded down?

OK im taking the strings off, applying the masking tape and de-fretting starting now. Lets see how this goes.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
#35
Resurface, ye old thread!
2qx5iq9.jpg

I tried defretting two basses, but as the one in the photos, when frets came out they pulled away a good amount of wood thus hacking pretty badly the fingerboard.
Yes, I had used tape.
Any idea anyone ?
 
#36
ialma said:
Resurface, ye old thread! I tried defretting two basses, but as the one in the photos, when frets came out they pulled away a good amount of wood thus hacking pretty badly the fingerboard.
Yes, I had used tape.
Any idea anyone ?
Click to expand...

A couple of things can minimize the chipping when the the frets are pulled:

1) Since rosewood is softer than maple and more prone to chipping, oil the fretboard first with a generous amount of pure lemon oil. It serves as a lubricant.

2) It helps to heat the fret first, usually with a soldering iron.

3) Use proper and good quality fret pullers.

Another thing is to have some glue (like Titebond) handy for when you slowly pull the tape off, a chip will stick to it. You can then glue the chip back in it's exact spot right then and there before moving on.

As far as cleaning up and/or repairing (as in your photo), I would clean out the slots and sand the board down first. Save the rosewood dust and add Titebond glue to it as a patching material. Let it dry and sand. Here's an example of a fretboard I repaired on one of my old guitars using this method:

Before:

IMG_0005.png


After:

IMG_0007.png
 
#37
ialma said:
Resurface, ye old thread!
... when frets came out they pulled away a good amount of wood...
Click to expand...

Though I have not used the technique myself, you can use epoxy to fill the "holes". This will make the bass playable, but perhaps not as aesthetic as you might have wanted. This filling with epoxy is similar to a technique used for simple inlays (filling groove with black-dyed epoxy) then sanding it flat.

An alternative is to replace the entire fingerboard. Bonus to this is that you get to choose the wood/pattern, and there are no markers on the face. You can still add edge-markers for your own benefit, but to the casual viewer you'll have an unmarked fretboard. The downside to this is you need to start doing some real woodwork...
 
#39
Hijacking a thread for a similar topic anyway.
I decide it's time to repair my old bass fingerboard - it was an experiment bass, so at one point I pulled out frets for the sake of it, and not gently while at it.

Fingerboard is about 6mm thick ebony. I want to slide some dark wood veneer in fretslots (I want to use darkred veneer), put some sort of filler in chipholes and sand it down.
frets.jpg

What would be best way to do this?
a) I clean up the slots
b) I put some wood glue in slot, then put in red veneer that sticks out couple of mm (as in, not yet flush with the board), I let glue dry (reason for this follows)
c) I mix what with woodglue to fix chip holes? It has to be dark, but I will not have any ebony dust (even if I sand fingerboard a bit, that's not enough) and i don't have any ebony. It can be black or very dark something - but what?
d) While veneer is still sticking out, I put on filler for chips in and let it fully dry.
e) I trim veneer as close to board as possible, then send whole fingerboard

I that ok? Any ideas what to mix into woodglue for covering up those nasty chips? I don't want to use that woodpastething - from my experience, in time small craters form or it starts to break down.

Thanks!
 

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