The saga of the bad fret boards

[Bent]

It happened, and I'm not sure how. But my painstaking work on making a jig to do the frets with my dremel went sadly askew on my newly built steel # 2 and 3.
I think that the reason was the fact that the guide fence for my dremel could only be placed one way to be accurate and in my absentmindedness, I must have turned it and used it on the wrong side. Anyway, the result was sour notes on some frets and only one thing could be done: Make 2 new fret boards.
First time I chose Cocobolo - a South American wood. It turns out that this wood wasn't for me..unyielding to sanding and planing. Too highly figured for my taste as well.
This time I chose walnut a much easier workable wood; straight grained, more subtle grain pattern, lighter in color and also easier to cut a 1/16" slice off of.

I had the cocobolo glued on the neck with wood glue. Bad mistake for me.
The one I sent to replace Dave Seddon's was not much of a problem according to Dave..He told me he just slipped a ruler under an edge and pried it up and that was it.
Not so for me. That unyielding glue had me prying with a wood chisel and mallet, getting small pieces off at a time. The largest one is pictured here...

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The new fretboard was installed using some very thin double-sided tape that I bought at Lee Valley Tools. Much easier and just as strong for the purpose.

Red~ftbd-001.jpg (47.83 KiB) Viewed 1353 times

Lessons learned:
-Make sure you know your jig, and if guides can be used only one way, make sure you mark them properly.
-NEVER use wood glue for such a light application. It is permanent!

[azureskys]

Bent, Ive noticed the pickup on this guitar , it has the blade style , What kind is it ?I kinda like the blade style over the poles .Have you thought of using small stainless screws to hold the fret board on ?that way if it ever needs replaced its a snap to take it off and replace or whatever.I think george boards does theirs like that and it looks fine , just a thought you might consider , let me know about the pickup if you will . Russ

[Bent]

Russ, that is a Fulawka pickup. It is a humbucker. Wound to 19000 ohm resistance.
As for holding the fretboard...I am now using something less permanent than wood glue! I got hold of some double sided tape, made in UK. When you peel off the backing, all that's left is a very thin band of adhesive. Works great for such an application.

[azureskys]

Bent couldnt that be done as a single coil , what i mean is with the blade type? Russ

[Bent]

Russ, yes, I can't see why not.

Tell me, why would you prefer blade over pole magnets?

[azureskys]

I just like the looks of that type of pup Bent thats all and seems easier to build i would think , you wouldnt have to worry about string spacing being right on as long as the blade is long enough would you.i wonder what GB s pickups are inside .I think im going to have to get into making them . I did see another post on here they guy made one that was a blade type and he mentioned that it came out at 3 k and i seem to remember that you said they should be around 17 to 19 k something like that , what gives here ???Im totally lost here anyway lol i think i just need to dive in and see what happens . Russ

[Bent]

Russ, the 3 k one mentioned here, I believe was one that mac told us about, something experimental? Not sure.
I pulled a gaffe on one of mine as well...I thought I would try and wind half the coil one way and the top half the opposite way.(Just like the humbuckers are done in order to cancel hum) NOT!! It turned out that instead of me getting 17k as an end result I got a mere 8.5K. That's what happened because I reversed the winding direction. Gotta try...and learn!