How to Remove a Fretboard.

[gfxbss]

How to Remove a Fretboard.[/u]

This is the method that I personally used to remove the fretboard off of my Silvertone bass in prep for a fretless conversion. I would like to caution anyone to be careful as you will be using a clothes iron, and you will have issues if you do not know how to replace the fretboard. Be aware that this is an in depth procedure and if you are not completely confident, then take your axe to a shop.

BE WARNED THAT IF YOU WANT TO REUSE THIS FINGERBOARD, THEN THIS METHOD COULD STEAM OUT THE FRETS AND THEY CAN BECOME LOOSE!

I, Tyler Ambriole and the entire guitarnutz2 community along with proboards assume no responsibility if anything happens to your guitar.

That being said, I have successfully removed fretboards and put them back on.


Bass before anything has been touched.




Supplies needed:
Widest putty knife that you can find (if you can find one with a metal butt, get that).
Razorblades
#3 screwdriver (I have a #2 in the pic, but #3 would be better).
A hammer
A clothes Iron filled with water.



First, remove the strings and then use the #3 screwdriver to remove the neck from the guitar.
Next, set everything but the neck to the side.

Remove any tension from the truss rod.

Let your iron heat, and then place it on the fretboard, on the side away from the headstock.
Leave it for about 2-3 minutes. This melts and steams the glue so it loosens up.
Don’t be afraid to hit the steam button a few times...





Take your razorblade and line it up between the fingerboard and neck.
Gently tap the razorblade w/ your hammer.
It is very important that you line it up well, you don’t want to remove wood from the neck with it....





Now take your putty knife, and tap it in between the razorblade and the fretboard.





Remove the razorblade, but leave the putty knife in place.
Move the iron up 2-3 frets and steam it again.
Tap the putty knife in further….
SLOWLY continue this process all of the way up the fretboard.
Again, steam is your friend.







After the fretboard was removed, I pulled the truss rod. This is what it looked like.



Fretboard fully removed.



Back of fretboard after removal. Notice that there are no errand pieces of neck on it, this is the goal.



The dot inlays on the side of the fretboard got a bit hot and melted out a little.
If you are going to reuse the fretboard, you can sand them down flush again.



Old fretboard, the neck, and new blank fingerboard all lined up next to each other.

[cynical1]

g-

Very well done. +1 for putting together a very clear process and the pictures to save the 1000 odd words...

And you warned all those out there faint of heart, or tool-deficient, that this is not a difficult job, but an easy one to screw up if you don't TAKE YOUR TIME!

Read this post a few times, let the tools do the work, and you too can remove a fretboard.

Good job.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[gfxbss]

Cyn,

Thanks for the kind words. A tutorial on how I put the fingerboard on, shaped it ect. will follow whenever I find some spare time....

It is definitely not a job for the faint of heart, but not an extremely hard one by any means.

Tyler

[sumgai]

Ty,

Yes indeed, a big +1 from me too! ;D

Seems like you may have accidentally found a way to remove frets with less chance of damage to the surrounding wood. I might have to try this for myself.....


sumgai

[gfxbss]

I have a chisel soldering iron tip that I filed a groove into. I heat up my iron and take it to a fret to loosen all of that glue. Take my ground off end nippers and pop those frets out.....

Tyler