The Steel Guitar Forum

What's the easiest/cheapest way to replace the standard fretboard. My necks have beautiful wood and I want to see it not the metal fretboard. I'm not picky as to if it's replaced with silkscreen or paint.Gordon

Don't the Fulawka guitars already do this?

I had been thinking of going to the digital print shop, and having the fretboard printed on clear, one-sided adhesive vinyl. That might work.

Most 'clear' adhesive vinyl I've encountered looks a little cloudy, (because of the adhesive?)

I don't know,,,, I see lots of clear plastic stickers and signs on windows that are crystal clear.

Well good luck John. Actually, it sounded like an excellent idea, provided you could get truly "clear" adhesive plastic.

Barry, you can get completely transparent adhesive vinyl and acrylic sheets and tapes. Many steel guitar logos are not decals but are one sided adhesive plastic. The company I work for uses acrylic logos for the body and the pedal rack. Stew-Mac carries these plastics, and have a "how to" install instruction page on their website. "Wet" method is best. Some acoustic guitar companies use these products for clear pickguards.

You're correct, Barry. The Fulawka frets and markers get silk screened on the wood

A lot of print shops have vinyl cutters. All you need to do is take a fret board in and have it scanned and they can cut the fret board for you. It's really not hard to put on and will appear to be painted on. Only the lines and fret markers will be on your fret board leaving your wood showing and not having to worry about clear vinyl turning yellow. This should be very inexpensive to have done. I used to be a graphic artist in a printshop and those cutters can do some amazing graphics. And just about any color you can imagine.

Eggs Ackley Danny. And it would be a lot more durable than a screen print. I'd think that with a silk screen, you'd want to clear coat over it. I think I'll call the print shop and see if they have a vinyl cutter. That would be ideal.

Pinstripe tape, maybe?

The advantages of the vinyl cutter is that it all the markings are set and with a little instruction can be put on in one peice and not have to worry about spacing or whether it's straight. The printshop should be able to put the fret markings on as well and in any color or shape that you like. It would be very easy to install with minimal instruction.

We just took a full-scale, colored drawing to the printer. We did not use clear vinyl though, as our necks are aluminum.

John, The way Fulawka does it is silk screen the frets on the bare wood and then puts the lacquer on top of that. It never comes off. It looks and feels very neat because you can hardly feel the paint when you rub your finger over it as opposed to regular paint or vinyl

Yeah, Bent. That's what I expected. I think MSA may have done that too. I remember a pic in another thread that looked terrific. I think that for a one-time replacement though, getting a silk screen and the required inks, squeegees, etc., wouldn't be worth it. It does take some practice to do it well. And if you're gonna have different colors, a separate screen is required for each color. Although I guess you could use one screen and selectively tape off areas. That I've never done.

Wow. A guy could learn a lot from this thread. Thanks to all.

Thanks for the responses, I learned alot.

Get some of the clear plastic sheets that they make for laser printers. Then either use a computer program to print the frets in whatever color you like (except white !), or draw them on youself with ink, paint or permanent marker. Cut out the plastic fingerboard and lay it in place. You won't need glue as static electicity will hold it in place.

Alternatively get some stencil material for laser printers and print the frets, then apply it with water. I made the following Builder's Label for the back of a lap steel I made for Basil Henriques that way...



But you can make fingerboards that don't obscure the wood finishing. On this particular instrument I used real fretting material and slotted the wood to take them...

Like Alan said...get some clear plastic printable sheets at any office depot store and print them with a inkjet printer or laser, you'll have to print it in two peices than you cut them and put them together then you apply a couple coats of lacquer and it'll be just like silkscreen, the trick is you have to put first coat and wait till it's almost dry just a little wet then you apply the fretboard in place and let it dry then follow with a couple of more coats.

I rout out and inlay the frets. There are a few pictures on my website--I need to post some more, but you can get the gist.
www.moyopedalsteelguitars.com