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Wondering if it's possible to refret a neck that was defretted and the lines filled in with wood putty. It's a rosewood board.

It's from my 1987 Fender mij jazz - years ago, after getting a 5 string bass I foolishly ripped the frets out of this neck thinking I didn't need them anymore. i've been regretting this for a good 12 years or so. It's such a thin, fast neck, but I just never became a fretless player so it's essentially useless to me.

Is it possible? Where would I be able to get something like this done? Or would I just be laughed at?

Also if possible would it be cost effective, or would it make more sense to just get a replacement neck?

I don't know about cost effectiveness but it's definitely possible to refret. I'm sure Rod will be able to better address this.

it's possible depending on just how rough you were with the fret removal, the filler material you used, and the fretboard wood

is it cost effective? well there are some who will do this as a repair, but I don't because it's really a PITA to do it right and return a neck to fretted without looking like it's been reworked. I definitely applaude those who offer this service and pull it off well. if you find a shop that does this on a 'regular' basis, it might cost you a couple hundred to get the work done

to do it right you need a set-up to precisely re-cut all of the fret slots by hand, recognizing that the slot is not perpendicular to the neck edge. if you used something like an epoxy to fill a Maple fretboard, saw drift will be a concern as the Maple will cut significantly easier than the epoxy will. any drift will result in that fret being inaccurate in its location.

since you note this is a Rosewood board with wood putty filler, your chances of this getting done successfully are significantly greater IMO

all the best,

R

great thanks for the info. It's good to know that this is possible..

any ideas on someone good who WOULD do something like this? I wouldn't be opposed at all to shipping the neck out. Also I'm not terribly concerned with how it would look. As long as it played well again!

Haha, interesting that this thread was brought up, because today at work I defretted my acoustic guitar...a little bit. I took out about 5 or 6 frets near the body (basically the place that I do NOT play on that neck, being that it is a standard dreadnought body withOUT a cutaway)...it gave me the idea to maybe pull out all the frets on my POS Ibanez 4 stringer (I play my Traben 5 almost exclusively now).

Now, my question. The fretboard on my Ibanez is rosewood...can you put epoxy on it to fill in the lines where the frets used to be, or is that only an option for maple necks? IIRC, Jaco's Jazz Bass had a rosewood fretboard that he used epoxy on...I am REALLY stoked to possibly defret my 4 stringer like that...plus, it just gives me more reason to buy ANOTHER 4 string if it doesn't turn out how I like it...