De-Lacquering your fretboard

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:53 am

Todd, didn't I see you with The Dude, eatin' a b'ar?

holland · Post by **holland** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:21 pm

Now, now, girls lets not get carried away, It was only a general question & nobody is suggesting they should do anything to their Ricks that they do not feel comfortable with.

Dale thank you for the advice ref doing the mod, i had no idea it was that simple, i was under the impression it was a "honey where's my petrol driven belt sander"
I assume that one would need to mask of the rest of the neck very thoroughly before using the acetone?

I saw your restoration pictures on the other website where you made & installed a new neck on a Rick, absolutely incredible job. I suspect Dale that what you don't know about guitar building/restoration could be written on the back of a postage stamp.

Anyway cheer yourselves up with a couple of pics of my semi-Lennonised 350 it's a lovely guitar to play, proper size too, i don't know how Lennon or anybody for that matter managed to play the short scale 325 (i suspect most of them are wall hangers anyway) I'd certainly never buy one again.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u218 ... 03005r.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u218 ... 03004r.jpg

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:36 pm

Eh, nevermind.

holland · Post by **holland** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:50 pm

It's called Humour john, didn't realise you would be so offended by it. you should try it sometime it may help you to keep life your in some sort of perspective.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:50 pm

John, it's not "girlish bickering" for two professionals to differ politely on a technical topic.

Zubair, it is by no means "easy" to strip fretboard varnish by ANY method. The scraping method is, as Dale has indicated, tedious. The acetone method is, as I've taken the time to elucidate, both tedious and tricky for beginners, though a pro might attempt it and Dale obviously has on more than one occasion.

One of the finer points that I neglected to mention, but inferred in passing, was the seam between finished and unfinished areas, and how to get it nice and straight.

Guess what? Acetone dissolves the adhesive backing on masking tape, so if the seam is to be masked, finesse is called for to avoid acetone creeping under the tape, and attacking both the tape adhesive and the varnish underneath, which must be protected.

This is the difference, Zubair, between words and deed. It sounds easy (and, indeed, it is easy to simply write, "mask off the area") but, in practice, is very difficult, if not impossible to accomplish.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:52 pm

K, thanks Zubair.

holland · Post by **holland** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:59 pm

Thank You Paul,

I was not being flippant when i said "it's that simple" what i probably should have said is that i did not realise it could be done with a liquid solution. It's also not something i would really consider doing myself as i'm not a guitar builder. I was more interested in knowing how it's done.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:05 pm

I have to agree with Todd in that I don't think there would be a big difference in playability.

I do hear people complain about the varnish RIC fretboards "slowing them down" from time to time, but I don't hear the same complaint about Fender guitars from the 60's and 70's that were also lacquered. I assume the difference lies in the fretwire - RIC's being small, Fender's being taller.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:55 pm

This has never made a whole lot of sense to me, even before I began working on Ricks...

If your finger is actually touching the fretboard, your technique is a bit odd, to say the least, and you're going to be playing a lot out of tune, to boot.

Oddly, too, I find that Ricks feel a whole lot better (wow...good song title) and speedier than Fenders in the neck department; my first impression playing a Rick way back when after my Tele was, "Holy cow, is this thing slick and smooth!"

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:18 pm

So many necks..so little time (Dracula may have said that) I find the "glossy" Ric necks to be very fast indeed. I do find that necks with a light coat promote better "digging in" for blues..a fat neck and tall frets aid that as well. Has anyone here has ever played a Peavey T-60 ? Very flat neck..very fast...

teb · Post by **teb** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:21 pm

One more thing Paul....Do you have to use so many cus words?

Actually, the look kind of runs in the family. This is my great grandfather. He was kind of a riverboat gambler and general *******. He got tired of his wife and had her committed. Little things like that, but he did have good taste...

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:52 pm

I never tape the guitar off when doing this method, I just use caution. We're not talking soaking a cotton rag with Acetone, just dampen it and start rubbing across the fretboard. It will take you quite a while but it gets the job done. This is why I start with a box cutter blade from fret to fret to remove much of the CV finish, then follow up with the Acetone. When those steps are done use a 320 grit yellow sanding pad(like the girls at the factory use) to smooth the surface out and polish up the frets with 600 and 800 grit wet/dry paper. You'll find this is actually a pretty easy method if you take your time and use common sense. Todd, you Gfather has good taste in guitars, just like you....

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:02 pm

Dale, makes perfect sense, and is what I would expect to be the way to do it, since I too work with acetone daily, tho not to strip Rick fretboards. It's that sort of detail--that the rag is not soaked, but merely dampened--that if beginners don't get right up front, they overdo and disaster results.

(Well, disaster to anyone but a pro. Disaster is relative; to an old hand disaster would be the guitar getting run over by an 18-wheeler just it was ready to ship back to its owner...)

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:15 pm

FWIW I have a 79 4001 that was refretted at one time before I bought it and the fretboard is unfinished. It also had a few other mods done to it, the little holes under the tailpiece were drilled out and longer allen screws were put in the bridge which go right into the wood and also solve the tipping problem, it also has a wooden nut on it. This bass is very bright and articulate as most Ric basses are but has a warmer sound than any of my others.

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:33 pm

Exactly Paul....just don't breath to much Acetone fumes, they will make you ill and cause health problems.