Official Luthiers Forum!

so basically i decided to glue the fb in the wrong position on the neck.i thought it should of been installed so that the nut would be on the angled headstock but it should of been so the nut would be on the neck face if that make sense. so now the fb is about a 1/4'' up the neck. so now the bridge would have to move closer and some of the gap would be seen on the rosette. since the fb is a quarter inch higher. is there any way to remove the fb from the neck. i really dont want to buy a new neck since the preshaped ones are kinda expensive.i can deal with a new fb,fretwire, shell for inlaysince i wasnt to happy with it anyways.

thanks for the help

jeremy

What's the scale length, or where does your 14th fret lie? How close to final
shape is the neck and heel? What type of glue did you use? Fret boards are
easy to remove with most glues, but some more details would be nice to
make sure you're being pointed in the right direction.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

ya it is fretted. i wonder if i could use my heating blanket. that would be sweet to save the fb and reuse it.

I have one of those as well, though of course I installed a heater
cartridge in it years ago . I don't think I've used it in years. I use
heater cartridges and make custom aluminum cauls for a lot of internal
work like bridge plates. For fret boards and bridges however, I still always
go back to the 250w heat lamp.

The beauty of the heat lamp over solid heaters is how easy and accurately
you can control where heat is applied. Solid heaters like that one will
transfer heat through direct contact or through the air in close proximity.
When dealing with dark woods like ebony and rosewood however, the
light from the heat lamp will turn to heat only in the material itself where
it hits. I keep a drawer of cardboard and aluminum foil cauls for most
bridge and fingerboard shapes, and my trusty roll of metal tape from the
HVAC aisle. I can tape off the seam between the caul and bridge to
protect finish, or around bindings and inlays on fingerboards where I
don't want heat. Simple, cheap, easy, and in my experience more accurate
and controllable than other methods I've tried.

Anyway, if you want to move it I would just heat it with a heat lamp or two
to soften the glue. On a .200" ebony board Titebond will typically soften
in under 2 minutes with the bulb around 1" from the surface. Work in a
thin smooth knife, such as a dulled fillet knife or a palette knife like the
one in the picture above. It should come apart like butter (Titebond is
good for that at least ). If it feels like it's not separating smoothly, put
the heat back on for another minute and go again. When the resins start
bubbling it's usually ready to go. Scrape or plane the surfaces clean,
relocate and reglue.

I assume the neck is not finished yet. Always remember that Nitro is
basically a clear shiny version of gun cotton. Also, if the inlays you have
contain celluloids they can flare up, where other plastics will more likely
brown or melt. I find taping off to around 1/4" of these is usually enough
protection. Shell won't be affected, though the CA glues or epoxies used
to glue it in usually will.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

well my side bending blanket worked like a champ. placed the neck fret side down frets actually on the blanket. bout 5-10 minutes i slowly heated it up. got i scraper i had started under the neck jiont tenon and the fb and in about 1 minute it was off.

thanks you guys. you saved me prob close to 200 bucks worth of new neck,fb,fretwire, etc. since im so green in this hobby this forum is almost absolutely necessary for me . i would of never started building w/out it. i feel like a ton of bricks just was lifted off my shoulders. actually a ton of pipe since im a plumber not a bricklayer, haha. you guys got any plumbing problems ask me. that way i can start helping people here.

thanks

jeremy