Defretting an acoustic

Slyder · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 8:38 pm Post subject: Defretting an acoustic

I got a Dean Acoustic Performer which I love dearly. But with the band I'm in now I don't ever play it live and will probably not use it in the studio on the next albulm. Anyways....

I've been really wanting a fretless and I was wondering how much trouble it would be to turn my Dean into a fretless? Would it be a good idea to take the frets out? If so, how easy it to do without messing up the fingerboard? OR Sad

Would I be better off trading it in for factory fretless? Sad

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Neil Gray · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 8:04 pm Post subject: Fretless.

I tried to do this once, and I'll never try to do it again! Apart from never being able to get the edges of the fret groves smooth enough (I think I had about 218 splinters by the end of the saga), you are constantly faced with the problem of whether to fill the fret groves in, or sand back the fret board to smooth wood. Sanding back is no good, because you lose a lot of the thickness, and it just don't sit properly. But filling them in is just as traumatic, because you have the issue of smoothness; there is still a blip, no matter how much you work on it! Aside from splinters and never getting it right, there is the very real issue of never having a good guitar to play again. If you are wanting to try it, I would do it on a cheap guitar I don't use for anything to see if it can be done. My experiences, though, have been dismal!
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