Refretting a defretted neck - any point? hard?

[Paul S]

I bought a defretted neck from a VM Squier Jazz and the defret was - trying to put it politely but can't really - total sh*te. Not really useable as a fretless, tbh. Cosmetically it wasn't helped by me heavy-handedly using a heat gun to get rid of the paint finish on the headstock and leaving a nice charred mark on it. Nevertheless the neck seems straight, truss rod works.

Is there any point in somehow removing the filler from the fret lines and getting it refretted? is this an expensive job to get done at a luthier or, indeed, a difficult to do myself?

Or, another option, remove the filler then re-do it so that the neck is actually flat and useable? There is a fair bit of splintering and missing bits of the rosewood, so the lines are not crisp - how well would it stain?

Or is it best to just bin it and save myself a lot of fiddling about?

[Jimryan]

It's a precision neck :-p

[paul_5]

Do it. It's a useful learning exercise if nothing else. Who knows - you might surprise yourself...

[Paul S]

Jim - that's right - I had forgotten.

Paul5, are the bits easy to get, do you know. fret wires and wotnot?

[paul_5]

I just tapped up a luthier mate of mine and he sold me some, failing that you could try somewhere like allparts.co.uk

[Paul S]

Thank you. Well, you've inspired me to at least look into it. as you say, I have nothing to lose and maybe everything to gain!

[Kiwi]

With a small handsaw it might be possible to chase out the original fret slots. Depending on how wide the slots are, you can find some flat plastic sheeting of some kind to superglue in to keep the fingerboard stable. Old credit cards and ice cream containers have been used in the past. Then just plane and then sand with a radiussed block.

[Paul S]

Thanks for that. Sounds do-able!

[Mottlefeeder]

I have a related but slighty different question - I'm thinking of frettting a fretless that was supplied with brass 'fret' markers. Any thoughs on the best way to get the markers out?

I am assuming that the brass would be harder than the rosewood of the fretboard, so a saw would wander. and I do not think I can use a soldering iron to expnd the metal to widen the groove so that it can be got out more easily - it would burn the wood.

The only thing I have come up with so far is to grind down a Stanley knife blade and use that with a hammer to tap out each fret marker. A ground-down single-sided razor blade might be better, but I am not sure if you can still get them.

Any comments welcomed.

David

[paul_5]

[quote name='Mottlefeeder' timestamp='1378053221' post='2195160']

I am assuming that the brass would be harder than the rosewood of the fretboard, so a saw would wander. and I do not think I can use a soldering iron to expnd the metal to widen the groove so that it can be got out more easily - it would burn the wood.
[/quote]

You mit get away with an adjustable temperature iron somthat it wouldn't run quite so hot, could twke a while though.

Edited September 2, 2013 by paul_5

[bartelby]

I refretted the neck on my Warwick (it was very very cheap and already a bit battered) that I defretted a couple of years ago.

The hardest bit is profiling the ends of the frets and not lacerating your fingers becuse you've done a bodged job

I got proper Warwick fret wire from Banzai music.