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Am I sticking my neck out on this neck?

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  • #1

    Am I sticking my neck out on this neck?

    I have an early 90's ASAT that is in dire need of a refret. It has a nitro cellulose neck. I understand that a refret involves a refin of the neck as well. So, here are the questions:

    1) I am not a big fan of nitro or anything glossy because of the stickiness. Should I go with an oiled neck, or satin polyurethane? Or are there other options? The way I see it, I could do an oiled neck myself, but satin poly would be more durable (but I would have to send it off somewhere unless I rattlecan it). Playability is #1, but I don't want it to look blatantly wrong. Comments?

    2) I really don't want to refin the headstock, as I don't want the headache of replacing the vintage G&L decals. So, can the oil or poly from #1 be blended in to the original nitro finish on the headstock and still look right?

    3) I don't think it is possible, but can I refin the neck in a way that preserves some of the relicing on the fingerboard? This is a real relic guitar and looks kind of cool IMHO.

    Photo:

    _________________________________________________
    "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
    - Ken M
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  • #2
    Originally posted by Axewielder View Post
    I understand that a refret involves a refin of the neck as well.
    Why? If you like the relic look of your fretboard then just get the re-fret and leave the finish the way it is. The back of the neck can be sanded and oiled (Tru-Oil) if you prefer that feel. Don't see any reason to mess with the headstock, either.

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    • #3
      How bad are the frets? Does it really need a refret or can it be leveled/crowned/plek'd?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by DonP View Post
        How bad are the frets? Does it really need a refret or can it be leveled/crowned/plek'd?
        They are pretty bad, they were leveled recently but there isn't enough metal there to recrown them. The high frets are starting to rise up and cause buzzing everywhere, and the board pretty much is going to have to be re-planed.
        _________________________________________________
        "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
        - Ken M

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        • #5
          I would suppose if someone knew what they were doing, they could lightly tint the poly to mimic the aged nitro. Or just poly it, and put in a smoking lounge for a year or so...

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          • #6
            No biggie just pull the frets and replace with new.No need to refin the neck at all.
            Just score the lacquer up close to the fret with an exacto knife and work the fret out.
            Why do you think you need to re-plane the fret board?
            Really? well screw Mark Twain.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by straycat View Post
              Why do you think you need to re-plane the fret board?
              The board is kicking up, or has "rising tongue", near the 20 - 22 frets. The frets have been taken down about .001" up there to fix the rattling and buzzing, but it was not enough. Like I said, I'm not a fan of sticky nitro boards/necks, and a refin in smooth satin would actually be very desirable to me.
              _________________________________________________
              "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
              - Ken M

              Comment

              • #8
                Pull the frets out. Strip the old nitro in the areas you want an oil finish with chemical stripper and/or sanding. If you go with satin poly do it before you refret (this Warmoth's method) then Do the refret. If you do the oil finish, you can refret and do the oil later. If you use Birchwood Casey Tru-oil you will get the shade of aging by applying additional coats. If you have used Tru-oil before you'll notice it is amber in color. The more coats, the darker it gets. Then buff, it up with some 0000 synthetic or steel wool after drying!
                Tone is like Art: Your opinion is valid. Listen, learn, have fun, draw your own conclusions.

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                • #9
                  Update! So I'm taking the master setup class with Ari Lehtela at Lehtela Guitar Craft. This class covers refretting, so I thought the ASAT would be a great guitar for me to work on. Today we took the neck off, took the tuners off, and took the frets out. Originally my plan was to keep as much of the relic look to the fingerboard as possible. The board actually has a 7.25" radius. Using a 7.25" sanding block, we leveled the board from the 1st to the 12th fret. We left some of the relicing on, but the board was quite bumpy, and a lot of it was lost to the sanding block. From the 12th fret up, we went with a 10" radius, converting it to a compound radius. This guitar had "rising tongue", so quite a bit of sanding was required at the high frets. There was also a bit of a hump at the 1st and 10th frets.

                  The original G&L tuners were replaced with Grovers, which were falling apart. I tracked down a set of original G&L's. Ari filled in the Grover hole locations with dowels, and sanded the back of the headstock a bit.

                  We taped off the back of the neck and front of the headstock, and put a single coat of tinted nitro clear coat on. I am using rattle-can nitro from ReRanch. There is a bit more orange/yellow than I think is going to work for me. I'll check the color when it dries tomorrow, and will sand it off and go with straight clear coat if necessary.



                  _________________________________________________
                  "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
                  - Ken M

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                  • #10
                    Looking good! Good luck with it bro.

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                    • #11
                      DAMN AXE!
                      I didn't know you were doing that kinda stuff...
                      I have a project for you.
                      Brand new (old stock) maple Westone neck that has never had frets installed.
                      (slots are there, and I would like jumbo's installed please)
                      Let me know!
                      Vendio.com
                      http://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/drgstring/wfret1.jpg?vvid=56432020&allow_track_link=1&track=023a6cabc1-c2832&sp=1&vsid=1&vgp=0&vimgs=wfret1.jpg,wfret2.jpg,wfret3.jpg,wfret4.jpg,wfret5.jpg,wfret6.jpg

                      Might be good practice before you tackle the G&L?
                      "Wow,... that was some of the hardest rockin ever. Hardest to listen too."
                      --floydkramer

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Originally posted by nhspike View Post
                        DAMN AXE!
                        I didn't know you were doing that kinda stuff...
                        I have a project for you.
                        Brand new (old stock) maple Westone neck that has never had frets installed.
                        (slots are there, and I would like jumbo's installed please)
                        Let me know!
                        Vendio.com
                        http://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/drgstring/wfret1.jpg?vvid=56432020&allow_track_link=1&track=023a6cabc1-c2832&sp=1&vsid=1&vgp=0&vimgs=wfret1.jpg,wfret2.jpg,wfret3.jpg,wfret4.jpg,wfret5.jpg,wfret6.jpg

                        Might be good practice before you tackle the G&L?
                        Man I won't even have the basic skills until the end of May! I've got like four guitar projects going on right now, and after those are off my plate I need to work on some non-guitar projects for a while. I appreciate the vote of confidence, though!
                        _________________________________________________
                        "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
                        - Ken M

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          LOL
                          OK
                          I'll just pound 'em in with a hammer!
                          "Wow,... that was some of the hardest rockin ever. Hardest to listen too."
                          --floydkramer

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            I took that nasty yellow/orange tinted clear off. Here it is in it's raw glory again. I realized that I don't have any denatured alcohol needed to clean the board before I start refinishing again, so I'm on hold again until tomorrow. I put the two radiused sanding blocks in the pic so you can sort of see how the compound radius is going to be.


                            _________________________________________________
                            "Artists should be free to spend their days mastering their craft so that working people can toil away in a more beautiful world."
                            - Ken M

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Cooooool
                              Lookin' really nice...
                              Keep the pics flowing, Axe
                              It's great fun to watch.
                              "Wow,... that was some of the hardest rockin ever. Hardest to listen too."
                              --floydkramer

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