Fretboard question

[gibson0822]

Well I might as well introduce myself first so here goes. My name is Jason and I used to be on guitarnuts but didn't know the forum got shut down until recently since I've been really busy lately. Anyways onto my question, I was wondering how one would go about taking the fretboard off a neck and putting on a new one. Is it possible or should I just buy/build a new neck to put the fretboard on? Reason I'm asking is I have a neck that is perfectly straight but the fretboard has a small crack in it, plus it's rosewood and I would prefer ebony for the look I have in mind. Thanks in advance.

[R]

to remove the fretboard is very hard work you need a fingerboard iron and a seam seperation knife which you could buy at stewmac.com
if you have a gibson which i take from your name i would suggest you take it to a pro cause you'll also have to remove the binding around the fingerboard and work with the laquer and paint and then do it all in reverse its much easier if you have a strat cause you could replace the whole neck

[gibson0822]

Well I should have mentioned what kind of guitar it is. What I'm doing to this guitar I would never do to a gibson. I don't have that kind of money to risk losing that much. Anyways, it's an epiphone sg. The base level model because it was used, cheap, and I only needed the neck and hardware. I want a dark/gothic kind of feel and look to it, that's why I'm thinking an ebony fretboard would be perfect. Right now it has a rosewood one with those ugly inlay dots on it. Anyways it doesn't seem to have any kind of binding on it, unless I'm looking in the wrong spot. So I would assume just heat up the fretboard and pry it off, then glue the new one on and re-adjust the truss rod?

[R]

that would be the basics of it yes you could even use an ordinary iron for it to save money( though i would recommend an old iron)
you would still need take the new fret board to be fretted
stewmac.com sells the fretboards ready to be glued and fretted if want to try that yourself also remember to sand the fretboard down to match the old one

[gibson0822]

Awesome. Thanks for the help. By old iron I'm guessing you mean the non-steam ones?

[R]

actually i meant an iron that you don't use anymore ;D but an old non steam one works too

[eljib]

If you haven't already, you should check out www.projectguitar.com/. Go to the tutorials and click on "building necks." They have instructions for removal of old, and application of new fretboards.