IB-5 FrankenLab Style

[McCreed]

Is that the heartwood?

It's a radical grain pattern and great colour. That is it's natural colour, yes?

[FrankenWashie]

Is that the heartwood?

It's a radical grain pattern and great colour. That is it's natural colour, yes?

That is straight from my thicknesser, wiped down with gum turps. Not sure if it was heart, but from the end grain it looked near quarter sawn


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[McCreed]

Shhweeeet!

[Fretworn]

Going fretless?

[FrankenWashie]

Going fretless?

Perhaps in a future iteration Fretty, this one is going to be fretted.

[FrankenWashie]

Perhaps in a future iteration Fretty, this one is going to be fretted.

can anyone tell me how to play bass? 🤪

[Bakersdozen]

You'll be fine. No one is going to be listening cause they will be too busy drooling at how nice the bass looks

[FrankenWashie]

And the lunacy begins....

I thought folk might appreciate seeing my process, it’s worked well for me, others may have different methods.



My little set up for dealing with neck surgery


This fixture is a work in progress, the biggest issue with the stripping process is being able to clamp it adequately to work on it.



As you can see from the end view, there is a little breakage under the nut shelf, this is just the remnant material from the TR drilling.



I score around the nut just in case there is enough glue there to take chunks of neck with it when I tap it off.



I then lay a block of merbau along the top of the frets to tap the nut off, and give it a sharp knock with a hammer. The tape is an insurance against the nut, the block or anything else marking the board or headstock.


Et Voila! One unseated nut!



You can see the breakaway across the TR channel.



I started at the head, as the is a shelf there to guide the the blade into the board join. Starting at the head is preferable on a scarf jointed neck, as you can run the risk of catching the edge of the scarf going heel to head.



I try to use minimal steam at this end of the board, no more than 20-30 seconds at a time until I get past the scarf. The reason for this is that if you linger too long, you may also affect the joint strength not just the board bond.

As you work it is important to check both sides, to insure that you a only going through the joint, and not taking chunks out of the board, or worse, out of the neck!


Once you have established that you are going straight and true, you simply continue to work your way down the board.



You will need to readjust clamps etc to get to the end but once you’ve got to the final quarter of the board it tends to speed up.

This whole board strip took approximately 45 minutes from set up to finish.

So we end up with:

A spare maple board, in one piece.
A naked neck blank, ready for a new fret board.




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[DarkMark]

Very interesting, FW. How do you apply the stream? And what is sliding between the neck and fretboard? Should I be thinking something like a bread and butter knife blade?

[FrankenWashie]

Very interesting, FW. How do you apply the stream? And what is sliding between the neck and fretboard? Should I be thinking something like a bread and butter knife blade?

Ye good old fashioned steam iron!

The knife is one of these:

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...on_Knife.html?

But the first time I did a board this way I used a putty knife with a thin blade that I had put an edge on like this:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/monarch-...raper_p0076392



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