The Steel Guitar Forum

Have any of you folks changed your fretboards for the vinyl ones offered by Tom Bradshaw? If so, what do you think about the change?

I ordered two for my MSA but have been holding off on installing them because I'm not sure how well they will work. My old ones are the original metal ones and are pretty beat up.

If you are waiting to change them because of the old
glue coming off, Permatex makes a Gasket remover
No. 80646 that will take the old glue off easy.
Be sure and get this cleaned off good so the
new fretboard adhesive will stick.

Hey Paul,

The reason I haven't changed them yet is because there is some slight difference in spacing from the twelfth fret on, and I am not sure if I will like the vinyl. Thanks

If the new fretboards are for the proper scale-length, just make sure the 12th. fret is half-way between the centers of the nut and bridge! The rest of the frets will take care of themselves! If the scale-lengths are different, return them for the correct scale-length.

John,

The boards are for the proper 24" scale. I guess I'm concerned about nothing, and I'm going to put them on. The fact of them being vinyl puts me off a little. However, Tom Bradshaw sold them to me so they must be good!

Bill,
Why don't you put them on temporarily and see how they work. A small piece of masking tape to hold them in place should work.

Bill

I guess I just don't understand the concern¡¡¡

John,
I guess maybe he doesn't like vinyl.

I cut some off my fretboard twice and it's still too short.

Vinyl will probably stick to the neck better than aluminum, so; make sure the fretboard is placed properly before pressing it down!

Bill Duncan wrote:...there is some slight difference in spacing from the twelfth fret on...

If the spacing is accurate to the twelfth fret, then the bridge and nut are in the correct position, and it should be in tune as high as you can go. If not, then either there's an error in the fretboard, which is unlikely, or it's in the wrong place and the error only becomes apparent higher up the fretboard, where accuracy is more important.

I put the new fretboards on and they seem to be ok. They stand out a little more because the fret lines are thicker than the old ones. There is a small amount of difference in spacing of the frets compared to the original, that has nothing to do with board placement. They are very easy to install. Tom sends good instructions with them.

I hope the vinyl doesn't hurt the tone! (That's a joak)

I have installed a 12 string board from Tom and it was spot on. Good product and good man. Enjoy.

Dwight

Bill,
Bring it over to my house and we will play some.
It is only 315 miles. Ha.

If you put Tom Bradshaw's replacement board 12th fret exactly halfway between the nut and bridge; than all his fret markings are perfect. Most likely the fretboard you took off was calculated WRONG...yes even the original shobud flat fretboards were off(some); the only shobud fretboard that was exact was the plastic raised fretboard and that is what Tom used to pattern and calcualte exact markings.
Ricky

It doesn't really matter the sizes, where you place them (The guitar player has a suggestion ) on your PSG or if you even have fret markers on your fret board.

From what I gather here on the forum a steel player uses his perfect pitch ears and never plays out of pitch and only uses the fret markers occasionally to get within the ballpark if he is playing in an indoor football stadium with no lights in New Orleans after a hurricane.

So why not just do away with fretboards all together.
Maybe just a clear one with family pictures in it or a song list etc.

Hey Paul,

I'm in Dallas, Tx at the moment on buisness. Maybe some day we could get together, I could sure use some pointers!

MCI/EMCI fretboard are dead on acurate. I have about 10 left. easy to install Just peel and stick to a clean surface.

Stuart, maybe not a bad idea...I can't sing and play the steel too well at the same time, but maybe if I put the words to the song where I'm looking (under the strings), I might be able to do both at once?

[quote="Stuart Legg"
From what I gather here on the forum a steel player uses his perfect pitch ears and never plays out of pitch and only uses the fret markers occasionally to get within the ballpark if he is playing in an indoor football stadium with no lights in New Orleans after a hurricane.

Yeah, that's me. I don't even have to look.

Stuart Legg wrote:...a steel player uses his perfect pitch ears and never plays out of pitch and only uses the fret markers occasionally to get within the ballpark if he is playing...So why not just do away with fretboards all together...

That's what I thought, since violins, double basses, etc., don't have fret markings. That was until I built two lap steels and a resonator guitar without fret markings. They turned out to be very difficult to play, so I ended up putting fret markers on them.

It seems that, although we judge absolute pitch by ear, we usually look at the frets and get a ballpark idea of where the bar has to be moved to before we move it.

Just as important are the markers at the 3rd, 5th, fret, etc. I once built a lap steel with the markers where I thought they would be best for the keys I play in the most. But then, going from one lap steel to another caused a lot of confusion, so I gave up that idea, too.

I'm about to build a lap steel with fanned frets, as an experiment, to see if the position is more comfortable. I'm afraid that what I'm going to find out is that, once you're used to a particular playing position, you might as well stay with it. It's a bit like typewriter keyboards; the QWERTYUIOP layout was designed to slow down typing so that the manual keys on the earliest typewriters didn't jam; so someone came up with the Dvorak keyboard, but the problem is that it's difficult to be proficient in both, and there's the added difficulty that the most common letters in each language differ. Try typing ú æ ¶ Ç â ô on an English keyboard...

I wonder could a Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder type play a steel?

Well, there's young Jonathan Candler:

http://www.jonathancandler.com/index.html

I guess he doesn't need a fretboard. He probably plays "Dont Fret it Mama"

I bought two white fretboards from Tom for my Pro 111 ShoBud. All I can say is - excellent product. Tom does not sell anything that he would not replace if the customer is unhappy. He is 100% straight down the line.

Just mark your 12th fret position on the neck with dry marker pen or white correction fluid and once the fret board is in place you can remove the marking guide.