Welcome to SCGC Players Forum › Forums › Ask Santa Cruz Guitar Company › Looking for recommendation: fretless neck help
- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by Matt Hayden.
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July 23, 2018 at 5:43 am #1087
My much-beloved mid-eighties fretless neck needs to either be really well-milled flat or else have a new fb (ebony).
Any recommendations regarding who might be able to do it?
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July 23, 2018 at 11:24 am #1088
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August 3, 2018 at 12:01 am #1160
Hi Matt,
I can direct you to the proper luthier if I understood the challenge a bit better. Worn and lumpy or something else? You’re savvy enough to know if there is enough material to mill the existing board without compromising the integrity of the neck, though if there are other factors that make this a challenge, call me up and we can have some fun finding a solution.
All the best, Richard
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August 11, 2018 at 12:01 am #1174
Hello Richard – sorry for the late reply!
The board is ebony, of very nice quality, but I’ve used round wounds on it since I got the neck in the early eighties, and it’s been surfaced a couple of times since. It’s got the usual round wound divots, which can be sanded out, but the neck is at the point where it’s getting perilously thin front-to-back. And as much as I like it, the 5th-string A dead spot has gotten worse with use, so it could use some stiffening.
There’s still a fair amount of fingerboard, and it’s slab rather than veneer (e.g., flat bottomed). The process I have in mind – and I’m absolutely open to other options – is to do the following:
- Find someone with a Bridgeport to mill the face flat
- maybe mill in a couple of slots for carbon fiber reinforcement and epoxy ’em in nice and tight
- re-mill the face flat
- glue on a new ebony fingerboard blank with appropriate glue – not sure what to use
- re-radius fingerboard and (probably) put a finish on it (so it doesn’t wear out quite so fast).
I’ve thought about doing it myself, and honestly if I had more time on my hands I probably would. But I just don’t have the time, right now…..
- This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Matt Hayden.
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