Natural finish for CV 50's tele neck?

[Steve A.]

I'm refretting the Classic Vibes 50's tele in "Gig bag disaster" and sanded off the glossy finish under the frets of the maple neck. I love natural (or natural-ish) finishes on fretboards.What are my options here? Without guidance from the internet I would probably use some sort of oil finish that would protect the maple while still allowing it to breathe.

Any suggestions?

Steve A.

[John_H]

Steve, I use Tru-Oil gunstock finish on most necks. It's a wipe on finish with no nasty fumes. https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Refin...ck-Finish.aspx

[Steve A.]

Steve, I use Tru-Oil gunstock finish on most necks. It's a wipe on finish with no nasty fumes. https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Refin...ck-Finish.aspx

Damn- I just ordered some of that from Amazon before reading your reply. As they say grape mimes think alike...

Steve

[Steve A.]

I won't be getting the Tru-Oil until next week (Amazon lied!) Would there be a problem if I installed and dressed the frets on the CV tele now and then used the Tru-Oil whenever it arrives. On this guitar I was planning to add CA to the entire length of the frets after applying several coats of the Tru-Oil. (I installed new frets on a PRS SE using Titebond Liquid Hide glue. I'm polishing the frets right now with Micro Mesh- once I swap out the pickups I'll string 'er up and see if she flies!)

Steve A.

[Steve A.]

The PRS SE fret job turned out great, despite a few booboos (otherwise known as learning opportunities!) Using the liquid hide glue definitely improved the fret-to-neck transference of energy with my new frets, Jescar EVO Gold's- definitely worth the higher cost. I just ordered 5 more 25 fret packs of the FW47104 EVO frets which brought the price down from $20/pack to $16/pack. (There are a few frets I want to redo on this guitar.)

Steve A.

P.S. Looking at other forums I found a lot of comments that you don't have to glue in the frets if the tang matches the fret slot. I am not just interested in having the fret stay in the slot- I want it to sound as good as it possibly can and I think that liquid hide glue is more resilient than CA (AKA super glue) or no glue at all.

[Paleo Pete]

Frets shouldn't need to be glued normally, as long as the slot isn't worn out from a couple of previous fret jobs.

Super glue should never ever be used on a guitar. Found that out looking up info on nut replacement. Super glue holding a nut in place is a luthier's nightmare, almost impossible to remove without damaging the guitar. Almost everything in a guitar is intended to be repairable. That's the main reason hide glue is used, it's easy to undo. Heat it. Wood glue won't do that. Try to remove anything glued with wood glue and you're most likely going to rip some wood off, or warp it to hell and back trying to get it wet enough to dissolve the glue. (and for a nut, one drop of plain old Elmer's will do the trick, on the NECK, not the headstock. Pops loose with a couple of taps..)

So any time I work on a guitar, I don't even allow super glue in the same room with it. Yeah I'm serious, I used super glue to put together some model cars, I put it in another room when I needed to work on a guitar...Usually hide glue is the thing to use, except in a few cases like replacing a nut, where plain old Elmer's will do fine.

Can't say about the finish, the only neck I've refinished was an old off brand garage sale telecaster copy with a neck about like a baseball bat. Sanded it down to usable size and refinished it with polyurethane, let it cure for a week or three then smoothed it with 0000 steel wool, it works fine. But that's not a nice guitar I'd be all that particular about, it's a project guitar used mainly for slide and I'm still tinkering with it from time to time, about to open it up and swap it to a dual humbucker rig. A couple of other minor changes too, but nothing serious. But no super glue has ever touched it either...

[John_H]

Would there be a problem if I installed and dressed the frets on the CV tele now and then used the Tru-Oil whenever it arrives.

No problem with that. You need to install the frets first. Otherwise you would fill the slots with the finish.

Super glue should never ever be used on a guitar.

With this, I have to respectfully disagree. Certainly there are things that you wouldn't use it for, but it's good for many things. Just don't use the whole tube.

STEWMAC.COM - StewMac Super Glues

[Steve A.]

With this, I have to respectfully disagree. Certainly there are things that you wouldn't use it for, but it's good for many things. Just don't use the whole tube.

STEWMAC.COM - StewMac Super Glues

Agreed! After reading many posts on this I think that the opinion is almost unanimous that you want to use a thin CA (AKA Superglue) on the ends of frets on bound fretboards since there are no tangs on the ends of the frets. You want the fretboard to have a finish that will keep the CA from soaking into the wood and many people recommend using acetone to clean up any CV on the fretboard.

Here is a quick tutorial from Stew-Mac on using CA on frets.

STEWMAC.COM - Super glue your frets for better tone!

Steve A.

[Steve A.]

No problem with that. You need to install the frets first. Otherwise you would fill the slots with the finish.

I was thinking of maybe doing the frets with liquid hide glue which will soak into bare wood. Is there some sort of oil I can use to seal the surface a bit- something that would be compatible with the Tru-Oil that I will use after installing the frets.

(For those people unfamiliar with the liquid hide glue (LHG) it is water soluble both before and after it hardens. While you only use a little bit of CA after hammering in the frets you brush the LHG over the fret slot, hammer the fret in and then wash off the excess glue with a damp rag. So it can be pretty messy. You want to clamp down the frets for 12-24 hours while the glue hardens- I've been using a radiused block as a glue caul for half of the fretboard at a time. At least that is how I was told to do it by a friend...)

Steve A.

[Steve A.]

Would there be a problem if I installed and dressed the frets on the CV tele now and then used the Tru-Oil whenever it arrives.

No problem with that. You need to install the frets first. Otherwise you would fill the slots with the finish.

I'm thinking of using liquid hide glue on this neck instead of CA. Is there a light oil I could put on the bare maple fretboard to keep the water-based hide glue from soaking into it- something what would be compatible with the Tru-Oil used after the frets are installed?

Thanks!

Steve A.

[John_H]

I'm thinking of using liquid hide glue on this neck instead of CA.

I don't think this will improve anything. I don't glue frets unless it's needed for a reason such as a bad slot, short tangs, or something similar. When I use the CA, I put four or five tiny spots divided along the length of the fret

Is there a light oil I could put on the bare maple fretboard to keep the water-based hide glue from soaking into it- something what would be compatible with the Tru-Oil used after the frets are installed.

If you seal the fingerboard, the glue won't hold very well.

[Steve A.]

When I use the CA, I put four or five tiny spots divided along the length of the fret.

So you drip the CA right into the fret slot rather than adding it afterwards as in the StewMac tutorial (which is intended for guitars that were already fretted, usually years before.)

Thanks

Steve A.

P.S. I'm thinking that a little bit of mineral oil (maybe even baby oil) would seal the fretboard enough to keep the liquid hide glue from soaking in. I do need to be careful not to get any in the fret slot because that is where we want the glue.

[Steve A.]

I don't think this will improve anything. I don't glue frets unless it's needed for a reason such as a bad slot, short tangs, or something similar.

Comparing a brand new PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow before and after replacing the factory frets using Jespar EVO's installed with Titebond Hide Glue there was a noticeable improvement in the acoustic coupling from the strings to the frets and to the neck and the body. FWIW when dressing the factory frets there was a very hollow sound; when dressing the new frets the sound was much more solid. Bottom line is that the guitar sounded much better acoustically with the glued in EVO's.

At this point in my learning I can't judge whether the fret slots are too wide for the fret tangs so I'd rather use glue when it wasn't required than not use it when it was.

Thanks!

Steve

[Steve A.]

No wonder I could not find Tru-Oil locally- the bottle said "Not to be sold in California" so I had to drive up to Reno to get it. The stuff is pretty amazing- with oils and lacquers you need to wait quite awhile before using the item. I guess since it is designed for gun stocks you'd want something that you could apply and after no more than an hour or two run out and shoot something. (If you had to wait 3 days that would be as bad as waiting periods for buying guns!)

I may try it on a mid-70's Gibson LP Jr Special (or Special Jr?) which had the rustic finish on the back of the neck of all places. I sanded it down so it feels great now but I never put any kind of finish on it.

Steve A.

[Chuck H]

I used plain 'ol tung oil on a frankenstrat (maple neck and fingerboard) about twenty one years ago. This is still my main guitar. The back has polished up, from use, to a fairly glossy finish, but it doesn't seem to feel sweaty/sticky like higher build, surface finishes. The fingerboard shows a little wear and dirt spots in the most played areas (as any maple fingerboard guitar would after over twenty years) but nothing you wouldn't expect from a "finished" board. Maybe less. The board doesn't exhibit the higher sheen even now. I expect any hard oil will serve you about the same. Great finish. Not abrasion resistant but easy to touch up if you're inclined (I never have). To me, clearly, the tung oil has proven it's validity as a long term finish. The guitar body finish (also tung oil) still looks great. Maybe better with the exception of dings and scratches. It can be noted that with an oil finish, repairing small dings and scratches is as easy as a little sanding and rubbing in more oil. I just never bothered.