Old guitar necks

francdore

Hey. Does anyone know where I can get old guitar necks to practice re-fretting on?

Thank you in advance.

Ray

why do you need old guitar necks? you can set something up yourself.

Manfred-Klose

build a guitar neck, its alot more fun ?

makepeace

Or you could get some fretboard blanks (any piece of hardwood), and work up a fret-saw jig. Radius them (with a radius block), cut your fret slots and you're a-for-away. You could use the same blank numerous times (this will give you practice for re-refretting ?). At the end of it all you could end up with a couple of great fretboards that you could sell off or use yourself to build some necks. With regards to fret wire in the other thread, I wouldn't waste time with Terry D's fretwire. It comes pre-bent and cut and that's no fun ?. Also, I doubt its of great quality. Get from Stew-Mac.

francdore

Thank you for all the replies.

I think I'll first practice with the cheap fretwire from Terry D.

And then buy proper fretwire from Stew Mac. How long does delivery take normally?

I also want to know, which fretwire ON THIS PAGE is best for electric guitar and which is best for acoustic guitar. I suppose the standard is Medium/High for electric guitars.

Thank you for all the help.

Clint-Green

Last time I ordered from Stew-Mac the parcel took 9 days to get here which is pretty goof timing, however Customs and SAPO can be a bit fickle so be prepared to wait a week or two longer than that in some cases.

Personally, I would suggest getting a proper fret bender, they are pricey but worth it IMO. You can also try making your own as per this page: http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/fretbender/fret_bender.htm
For my first refret I made my own jig out of two pieces of masonite cut into a half circle of the correct radius, glued together with a piece of laminate sandwiched in between to create a gap for the fret tang to fit in and prevent the tang from twisting. This did NOT work well as the fretwire was very springy so you'd bend it to the radius as you went along but it would keep springing back to a much larger radius. Took me an entire morning to sit and bend it all properly by hand and it still wasn't 100% as the very ends just wouldn't seat as well as I wanted them to. I'm thinking I should make one of those crank-operated ones sometime, so that I have one for the next time I do a refret as they definitely are a must.

I wish I'd thought of making my own fretboard to practice on beforehand as well, that would've helped a crapload! :-[