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Post subject: Finish coming off my Maple neck fingerboard
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:53 pm
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I am new here ...I have a 50th anniversary standard strat, 1996 model. The finish is coming off the fingerboard, it's pretty thick. Does anyone know about this issue?


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:04 pm
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WELCOME TO THE FORUM =)

This is very normal especially for nitro cell lacquer. it shouldn't effect your playing at all and it will give that worn look(which I personally like).


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:05 pm
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I think it happens all the time. That's why you see a lot of maple necks on TV, used by professional musicians who use them alot, with dirty worn spots (from your fingers playing) on the fingerboard. One of the reasons that I personally prefer rosewood.

I have one guitar with a maple fingerboard, but I haven't worn through the finish yet. Maybe I just have girly hands, and fingers.

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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:18 pm
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THANKS FOR WELCOME!

I think I'm doing this right...new to forums. My concern is that the laquer stuff is pretty thick...like lamination or something coming off....Should I have it repaired or something???


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:27 pm
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it's fine if you don't repair it. you can if you like especially if it does affect your playing. It can be easy and cheap or hard and expensive. Depending on the wear you want to repair they may be able to touch it up if it is small, but if there is alot to fix then they may have to strip the whole neck and remove the frets and then refinish. I can't give you a quote because I have never had any finish repair done on my stratocaster.

Personally I wouldn't get it repaired but its your decision.


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:27 pm
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No it should be okay. After you've been playing a guitar with a high gloss fingerboard, the gloss gets scratched and worn where you bend and hit the strings. After a while, you're Stratocaster's neck will look like Blackie's. 8)

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Last edited by FenderTelecaster14 on Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:29 pm
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FenderTelecaster14 wrote:
No it should be okay. After you've been playing a guitar with a high gloss fingerboard, the gloss gets scratched and worn where you bend and hit the strings. After a while, you're Stratocaster's neck will look lick Blackie's. 8)[/i]


I really like the look of worn necks. You can really see how a guitarist plays by just looking at the wear.


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:37 pm
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THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT!

It's just that I've never had that happen before. It is pretty thick though..looks like a layer of wood came off...If I new how to put a picture here I could show you how it looks. It is in the 9th and 10th fret on the bottom part of fretboard.

Maybe I could file it smooth so it wouldn't feel like a pot hole...ha


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:09 pm
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uarobert wrote:
Maybe I could file it smooth so it wouldn't feel like a pot hole...ha


Actually, that pothole is not good - sounds like that would interfere with the playing feel, and we don't want that.

Few things: if you want to have at it yourself then don’t use a file, use wire wool, grade 0000, available for small change from any hardware store. Take care to rub at the finish, not the fret, because that wire wool will smooth off the crown of your fretwire in a way you won’t like. Also, mask your pickups: tiny bits come off the wire wool and are attracted to the magnets like moths to a candle. Once there, very hard to get rid of.

Wire wool the finish only just enough to smooth out the edges of your “pothole”: don’t go through the finish.

Do you happen to know what the finish is; nitro or polyurethane? Either way, it is disturbing to hear that it seems very thick: that ain’t good. It will inevitably wear, but flaking is wrong. Or did it start pulling away right around the fret end? If so, get it repaired: not hard.

Bear in mind that once the naked wood of your fingerboard is exposed it will quickly dirty up in a way that cannot be reversed. Many people like this look, and that’s fine. But if you’d rather keep it clean, then get it refinished before the raw timber becomes exposed. There is absolutely no need to remove the frets before respraying. A luthier may insist that he wants to do it that way, and it is your choice if you decide to go with that. But it is possible, though somewhat laborious, to sand / wire wool away the finish between the frets sufficiently, and then refinish, if that’s what you prefer. The lacquer goes on right over the frets and is then scraped off them - that’s the way Fender make maple necks and most (but not all) other luthiers too.

You don’t want to refret necks more often than the frets themselves demand. There is an upper limit to the number of times it can be carried out. We are told that the difficulty of having Blackie’s neck refretted yet again was the only reason Clapton retired that guitar.

You have options on this one. Don’t just live with it if you don’t want to.

Cheers - C


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:09 pm
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aznedvin wrote:
it's fine if you don't repair it. you can if you like especially if it does affect your playing. It can be easy and cheap or hard and expensive. Depending on the wear you want to repair they may be able to touch it up if it is small, but if there is alot to fix then they may have to strip the whole neck and remove the frets and then refinish. I can't give you a quote because I have never had any finish repair done on my stratocaster.

Personally I wouldn't get it repaired but its your decision.


Just to give you an idea on the cost.....

A few months ago, I took my maple neck guitar to a Fender Authorized guitar tech for a complete setup. While there....I asked the tech (just out of curiosity) what it would cost to have the frets replaced on that guitar. He told me, that because of the finish on the maple neck, it would have to be stripped, re-finished, and new frets put on. He estimated that it would be from $400-$500.

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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:26 pm
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Ceri wrote:
uarobert wrote:
Maybe I could file it smooth so it wouldn't feel like a pot hole...ha


Actually, that pothole is not good - sounds like that would interfere with the playing feel, and we don't want that.

Few things: if you want to have at it yourself then don’t use a file, use wire wool, grade 0000, available for small change from any hardware store. Take care to rub at the finish, not the fret, because that wire wool will smooth off the crown of your fretwire in a way you won’t like. Also, mask your pickups: tiny bits come off the wire wool and are attracted to the magnets like moths to a candle. Once there, very hard to get rid of.

Wire wool the finish only just enough to smooth out the edges of your “pothole”: don’t go through the finish.

Do you happen to know what the finish is; nitro or polyurethane? Either way, it is disturbing to hear that it seems very thick: that ain’t good. It will inevitably wear, but flaking is wrong. Or did it start pulling away right around the fret end? If so, get it repaired: not hard.

Bear in mind that once the naked wood of your fingerboard is exposed it will quickly dirty up in a way that cannot be reversed. Many people like this look, and that’s fine. But if you’d rather keep it clean, then get it refinished before the raw timber becomes exposed. There is absolutely no need to remove the frets before respraying. A luthier may insist that he wants to do it that way, and it is your choice if you decide to go with that. But it is possible, though somewhat laborious, to sand / wire wool away the finish between the frets sufficiently, and then refinish, if that’s what you prefer. The lacquer goes on right over the frets and is then scraped off them - that’s the way Fender make maple necks and most (but not all) other luthiers too.

You don’t want to refret necks more often than the frets themselves demand. There is an upper limit to the number of times it can be carried out. We are told that the difficulty of having Blackie’s neck refretted yet again was the only reason Clapton retired that guitar.

You have options on this one. Don’t just live with it if you don’t want to.

Cheers - C


Do you know what the number is, that a guitar neck can be re-fretted, before it's time to dump the guitar? I keep seeing in this forum that people are still playing their guitars for 20 or 30 years (the old vintage Strats). When I read that, I was thinking that either they're not playing the guitars all the time (keeping them in the closet), or they were able to go through numers re-fret jobs.

In four years, I put in a lot of fret wear on my MIM, and had to take it in for a fret dressing, just recently. The next time, it will have to be re-fretted (frets will be too low for another dressing). Maybe I'm just rough on frets, but I'm thinking that maybe I'll have to trash my guitars in no time at all, at that rate. I've often wondered how so many have been able to play the same guitar for 30 years. Just how many fret jobs will I need in that time?????

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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:55 pm
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Syeklops wrote:
Do you know what the number is, that a guitar neck can be re-fretted, before it's time to dump the guitar? I keep seeing in this forum that people are still playing their guitars for 20 or 30 years (the old vintage Strats). When I read that, I was thinking that either they're not playing the guitars all the time (keeping them in the closet), or they were able to go through numers re-fret jobs.

In four years, I put in a lot of fret wear on my MIM, and had to take it in for a fret dressing, just recently. The next time, it will have to be re-fretted (frets will be too low for another dressing). Maybe I'm just rough on frets, but I'm thinking that maybe I'll have to trash my guitars in no time at all, at that rate. I've often wondered how so many have been able to play the same guitar for 30 years. Just how many fret jobs will I need in that time?????


An excellent question and not one to which there is an exact answer. For sure your first suspicion is correct: a guitar played for decades is not a sole instrument. A very good reason for us all to have as many guitars as possible!

Also, many famous players with noted instruments have had several necks on those guitars - the endlessly discussed Dave Gilmour Black Strat is an obvious example.

So far as the possible number or refrets goes: that has a lot to do with the skill of the luthier. If he can get the old frets off without damaging the fingerboard then it’s a good start. That’s where the partly fictitious extra difficulty of lacquered maple comes in. Because Fender and most others apply the finish over the frets there is a bond between the two. Obviously, it is necessary to sever the lacquer before pulling out the fret, but people don’t (or can’t) always do that well, and as a fret comes out it pulls away the lacquer with it necessitating refinishing. Some techs take this so much for granted that it becomes their standard procedure - like the one you quoted in your previous post.

A small number of makers lacquer the fingerboard before fretting the neck. This is a great advantage, though even so the barbs on the tang can still crack the lacquer as they come out. And some people feel that without that lacquer-fret seal moisture from fingers can get in under the fret and cause damage to the wood, so a mixed blessing.

And despite the best efforts of the most skilled luthier sometimes the wood just splinters as the fret comes out anyway. It can be repaired, but the more times it happens the less easy it is to insert the new frets. Not to mention the wear of the barbs in the fret slot.

Though there’s ways to ease that problem, such as the now well established practice of gluing frets in, rather than holding them in with the barbs.

Ultimately, look to Clapton for a partial answer to the question. Blackie was a main (though not exclusive) guitar of his for around a quarter of a century. By that stage it was effectively worn out and so he retired it. The less you play each of your guitars, the longer they will last…

This has been another verbose post from the dumping ground of useless information - C


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:01 pm
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Ceri wrote:
Syeklops wrote:
Do you know what the number is, that a guitar neck can be re-fretted, before it's time to dump the guitar? I keep seeing in this forum that people are still playing their guitars for 20 or 30 years (the old vintage Strats). When I read that, I was thinking that either they're not playing the guitars all the time (keeping them in the closet), or they were able to go through numers re-fret jobs.

In four years, I put in a lot of fret wear on my MIM, and had to take it in for a fret dressing, just recently. The next time, it will have to be re-fretted (frets will be too low for another dressing). Maybe I'm just rough on frets, but I'm thinking that maybe I'll have to trash my guitars in no time at all, at that rate. I've often wondered how so many have been able to play the same guitar for 30 years. Just how many fret jobs will I need in that time?????


An excellent question and not one to which there is an exact answer. For sure your first suspicion is correct: a guitar played for decades is not a sole instrument. A very good reason for us all to have as many guitars as possible!

Also, many famous players with noted instruments have had several necks on those guitars - the endlessly discussed Dave Gilmour Black Strat is an obvious example.

So far as the possible number or refrets goes: that has a lot to do with the skill of the luthier. If he can get the old frets off without damaging the fingerboard then it’s a good start. That’s where the partly fictitious extra difficulty of lacquered maple comes in. Because Fender and most others apply the finish over the frets there is a bond between the two. Obviously, it is necessary to sever the lacquer before pulling out the fret, but people don’t (or can’t) always do that well, and as a fret comes out it pulls away the lacquer with it necessitating refinishing. Some techs take this so much for granted that it becomes their standard procedure - like the one you quoted in your previous post.

A small number of makers lacquer the fingerboard before fretting the neck. This is a great advantage, though even so the barbs on the tang can still crack the lacquer as they come out. And some people feel that without that lacquer-fret seal moisture from fingers can get in under the fret and cause damage to the wood, so a mixed blessing.

And despite the best efforts of the most skilled luthier sometimes the wood just splinters as the fret comes out anyway. It can be repaired, but the more times it happens the less easy it is to insert the new frets. Not to mention the wear of the barbs in the fret slot.

Though there’s ways to ease that problem, such as the now well established practice of gluing frets in, rather than holding them in with the barbs.

Ultimately, look to Clapton for a partial answer to the question. Blackie was a main (though not exclusive) guitar of his for around a quarter of a century. By that stage it was effectively worn out and so he retired it. The less you play each of your guitars, the longer they will last…

This has been another verbose post from the dumping ground of useless information - C


That you very much......you've answered a lot of questions, I've had in my head, all in one shot.

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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:52 pm
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Thanks for all the advice. I know a professional guitarman (Luthier) I am trying to get in touch with him. I am sure the information you guys gave me will help.

I bought this strat new in '96, it's a 50th anniversary ('46-'96) model with same color headstock as body, it's white and a beauty. I hope to restore it properly

I would like some hotter pickups though....anything come to mind?


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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:17 pm
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uarobert wrote:
I would like some hotter pickups though....anything come to mind?


Well if it's an HSS Model, I'd say to put a Gibson Dirty Fingers Humbucker in the bridge position. But it's a 50th Ann. so I'm guessing its not HSS.

I'd recommend these:

http://www.fender.com/products//search. ... 0992113000

They're Custom Shop "Fat 50's" pickups. You should get nice, fat, vintage tone with those in your Stratocaster. :wink:

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