The only method I know to get the board off while making sure to salvage the neck, is routing the board off.
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WBO 23 - Drop it like it's hot
- Thread starter Hout
- Start date
Thanks y'all for your sympathy.
It seems quite a local adhesion thing. It opened up out of itself before I put any tension on the trussrod. After I noticed the split I tried opening it up further with some prying and turning of the tr, but the rest of the seam stays together strong.
I tried to squeeze it back together but that's not possible either, so I got a feeling something else is going on under there.
Any tips on how to get the board off without damage to the neck? I'm pretty sure the board is shot, but it'll be an even bigger bummer if I can't salvage the rest of the neck
You said you used Titebond a couple of posts up? If it was Titebond original it should come off with some heat and working something like a pallet knife through the seam.
Ugh, sorry this happened!
I had to remove one of my fretboards a long time ago. I think I used a clothes iron on a damp towel over the fretboard, along with prying with a putty knife.
I had to remove one of my fretboards a long time ago. I think I used a clothes iron on a damp towel over the fretboard, along with prying with a putty knife.
I tend to just use a router sled and angrily shred every last splinter of hatred off the thing. But I have some issues. 
I think his bigger issue is going to be the various adhesives that are soaked into the fretboard (and potentially the neck) to varying degrees.
Thanks for the tips. I'll go and try using heat in some way to try and pry it off with a putty knife and see where to go from there.
Well, todays fretboard-ectomy went better than expected.
I used an clothes iron for the heat source, with a welding glove for a bit more even heat transfer to the radiused board.
I read somewhere that Titebond goes soft at around 65 degr Celsius (150 F, for those of you with silly thermometers) and since I had a channel running in the board for the capo wire, I could stick a thermocouple more or less right underneath the board to monitor the heat.
That was a good thing, because it took close to 40 minutes without moving the iron to get to this picture.
I know wood is a good insulator, but I wasn't expecting it to be one this good. I would probably have given up and resorted to brute force way earlier if it wasn't for the thermocouple.
Once the first patch started to give way, I pried some stuf underneath to keep it under tension while I heated the rest. It went quite quickly from there.
This was the hot steaming mess that was left at the end.
Fretboard is a goner, but fortunately the neck seems to be ok and cleaned up pretty well, so I guess it's good enough for another attempt.
The original fretboard came from a wide piece of purperheart and I had enough left to measure up and rough cut another one.
I used an clothes iron for the heat source, with a welding glove for a bit more even heat transfer to the radiused board.
I read somewhere that Titebond goes soft at around 65 degr Celsius (150 F, for those of you with silly thermometers) and since I had a channel running in the board for the capo wire, I could stick a thermocouple more or less right underneath the board to monitor the heat.
That was a good thing, because it took close to 40 minutes without moving the iron to get to this picture.
I know wood is a good insulator, but I wasn't expecting it to be one this good. I would probably have given up and resorted to brute force way earlier if it wasn't for the thermocouple.
Once the first patch started to give way, I pried some stuf underneath to keep it under tension while I heated the rest. It went quite quickly from there.
This was the hot steaming mess that was left at the end.
Fretboard is a goner, but fortunately the neck seems to be ok and cleaned up pretty well, so I guess it's good enough for another attempt.
The original fretboard came from a wide piece of purperheart and I had enough left to measure up and rough cut another one.
Kudos for persevering, hopefully the next one will go flawlessly! 
2 bonus nerd points for use of thermocouple.
ALSO, now your thread title has some extra relevance.
ALSO, now your thread title has some extra relevance.
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Yep, if you hadn’t been nerdy enough to have the thermocouple it may have been a total loss.
Behold, the power of the nerd.
Or something like that.
Behold, the power of the nerd.
Or something like that.
Maybe use epoxy instead of Titebond next time? Some people complain that epoxy takes 24 hours to cure. The way I see it is that water-based glues seem cured enough in an hour that you can take off the clamps, but I give them 24 hours minimum mpst of the time anyway.
These are the things that scare me off of using water-based glues for bass work:
-- all that water has to get out of the wood gradually for the glue to fully cure. how long will that take? a week? a month?
-- WB glues don't seem to glue well with oily and/or extra dense woods. One guy on TB a decade ago (@Thump'nP?) had his cocobolo fret board completely pop off a week after he glued it with Titebond.
-- some people have had this problem (including a few basses I have bought used): you glue the body with edge-jointed pieces of wood, remove the clamps, plane the body flat, sand it flat, apply finish, and a month or more later each glue joint looks like a tiny valley, kind of puckered or sunken at the glue line. Even 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch will show on a gloss finish.
I use TB#2 for almost everything I do with wood (e.g. kitchen cabinets, jigs). One exception is that I use T88 epoxy when something (think cutting board or a table with lots of mortise and tenon joints) needs more assembly time. But for a bass I think epoxy is the Magic Stuff. IMHO anyway.
These are the things that scare me off of using water-based glues for bass work:
-- all that water has to get out of the wood gradually for the glue to fully cure. how long will that take? a week? a month?
-- WB glues don't seem to glue well with oily and/or extra dense woods. One guy on TB a decade ago (@Thump'nP?) had his cocobolo fret board completely pop off a week after he glued it with Titebond.
-- some people have had this problem (including a few basses I have bought used): you glue the body with edge-jointed pieces of wood, remove the clamps, plane the body flat, sand it flat, apply finish, and a month or more later each glue joint looks like a tiny valley, kind of puckered or sunken at the glue line. Even 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch will show on a gloss finish.
I use TB#2 for almost everything I do with wood (e.g. kitchen cabinets, jigs). One exception is that I use T88 epoxy when something (think cutting board or a table with lots of mortise and tenon joints) needs more assembly time. But for a bass I think epoxy is the Magic Stuff. IMHO anyway.
Glued on the new fretboard today. I installed the fiber optics similar to the earlier one, but because I used the thin fibers from the get go, I could keep the channels smaller so the routing was a bit easier and cleaner.
Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the fibers installed, but I stuck them down with coppertape. No other chemicals this time around
Instead of titebond, I used epoxy and a couple of hail Mary's to bond the fretboard to the neck. I figured that if it's planning to let go again, I'll just give up on the entire neck and start over, so no need to use any "forgiving" type of glue like titebond.
Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the fibers installed, but I stuck them down with coppertape. No other chemicals this time around
Instead of titebond, I used epoxy and a couple of hail Mary's to bond the fretboard to the neck. I figured that if it's planning to let go again, I'll just give up on the entire neck and start over, so no need to use any "forgiving" type of glue like titebond.
Meanwhile, I made a bit of progress on the body as well:
This is a jig for the curved top, with one of the two halves of the top clamped down for prebending. I used a hot iron and a wet towel for softening it a bit.
Then I used the same jig for laminating the top in a few steps:
First a layer of maple veneer, then a layer of black veneer and after that the top:
You can see some index holes that I copied with each later, to be able to position the routing template for the pickup holes.
Pretty snug fit
Then I rough cut the body shape
This is a jig for the curved top, with one of the two halves of the top clamped down for prebending. I used a hot iron and a wet towel for softening it a bit.
Then I used the same jig for laminating the top in a few steps:
First a layer of maple veneer, then a layer of black veneer and after that the top:
You can see some index holes that I copied with each later, to be able to position the routing template for the pickup holes.
Pretty snug fit
Then I rough cut the body shape
Oh and here's a pic of the upper horn.
..Erm ....that isn't a horn because it's a single cut.. what's that called?
That oval is cut out of the black veneer. My plan is to do some kind of logo or inlay there, and then cast it in water clear epoxy. Think I'll need to do that before carving the top.
And here's a pic of the sandwich, ánd the window for the tuner you can just make out on the right hand side
..Erm ....that isn't a horn because it's a single cut.. what's that called?
That oval is cut out of the black veneer. My plan is to do some kind of logo or inlay there, and then cast it in water clear epoxy. Think I'll need to do that before carving the top.
And here's a pic of the sandwich, ánd the window for the tuner you can just make out on the right hand side
Glue up appears to have gone well
glue line seems okay and all the fret markers still work!Though it might too early to be sure as I haven't dared to touch the trussrod yet
Neck seems to be doing alright, so I started shaping the headstock.
This was a rough cut and then I did some carving with a Shinto, an Iwasaki, a drill mounted rasp, and some sandpaper to shape the volute:
There's definitely a lot going on there.
Didn't really plan this out, just went along with what I saw emerging. Still needs finetuning but I wiped on some mineral spirits for the pic.
This was a rough cut and then I did some carving with a Shinto, an Iwasaki, a drill mounted rasp, and some sandpaper to shape the volute:
There's definitely a lot going on there.
Didn't really plan this out, just went along with what I saw emerging. Still needs finetuning but I wiped on some mineral spirits for the pic.
On to the neck joint..
This is a simple jig from plywood and a few 3d printed "fences".
First I drew the neck outline on the body, then I attached the plywood to the body. Was a bit of a hassle because of the curved top, but once it was fixed I lined up the fenced to the pencil lines and screwed them in place.
The neck wasn't originally intended for a single cut, so the profile starts somewhere halfway in the neck pocket.. To get this to work, I tried to match the profile in the last part of the neck pocket.
It'll hopefully make for an interesting heel transition..
Carefully drilled holes for the fiber optics and the active capo switch thing.
Here's the two parts joined for the first time
This is a simple jig from plywood and a few 3d printed "fences".
First I drew the neck outline on the body, then I attached the plywood to the body. Was a bit of a hassle because of the curved top, but once it was fixed I lined up the fenced to the pencil lines and screwed them in place.
The neck wasn't originally intended for a single cut, so the profile starts somewhere halfway in the neck pocket.. To get this to work, I tried to match the profile in the last part of the neck pocket.
It'll hopefully make for an interesting heel transition..
Carefully drilled holes for the fiber optics and the active capo switch thing.
Here's the two parts joined for the first time
Oh and then I did like a proper Dutchie and made some dykes for pouring epoxy in the holes in the body
The top horn will be a two phase pour as I'm going to dunk an inlay in there somewhere, but the cracks in the bottom horn are fully filled.
In preparation, I stained the wood in the cracks black. Since I'm planning on doing some kind of coloring on the body, I wanted to be sure not to have natural colored wood blinking at me from under a clear layer of epoxy.
The top horn will be a two phase pour as I'm going to dunk an inlay in there somewhere, but the cracks in the bottom horn are fully filled.
In preparation, I stained the wood in the cracks black. Since I'm planning on doing some kind of coloring on the body, I wanted to be sure not to have natural colored wood blinking at me from under a clear layer of epoxy.
