|
|
Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 5
Location: Berwyn, PA | Hi - my first post here.
Wondering if anyone knows the official neck radius of the old electric Viper Solid Body ?
I'm planning a refret and I need to buy sanding blocks,
Thanks,
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | 10" fretboard radius, per a Jan 1983 catalog. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 5
Location: Berwyn, PA | Thanks - much appreciated,
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | I believe the frets are glued in, so if you have trouble getting them out heat them up. As far as I know a soldering iron works well. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Martin
Good to hear from a Viper owner like myself, love my Viper. My daughter is storing her Carvin X amp (tube amp made in Escondido, CA) and my Viper works the best with it of any amp I've tried, set up the amp according to the manual I downloaded, and set all Viper controls to number 10 and it is great. Let us know how the refret comes out. I've got a mandolin that needs it badly and I can't find anybody here that I would trust. I haven't looked to hard yet, but if you have success I might try something.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | What do you intend to do with the sanding blocks? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Not only Pauls question... but where do you intend to get the proprietary frets from? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6194
Location: Phoenix AZ | Bailey, check your email re: refretting your mando. Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 5
Location: Berwyn, PA | I love my Viper too - had it since about 1980 from new. Sort of dark mahogany body with a maple neck. Now the frets are worn out so I'm going to install a jumbo fret size from stewmac.com. The radius sanding block is needed to handle any fret levelling that might be neccessary once I've gotten the new frets in. I'm anticipating that I might need to shim the nut up a tiny fraction as the new fret wire is pretty high compared to the original.
I'll post something next week to let you all know how it goes,
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Dave
Thanks for the info, and it is great. This board is full of great information.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Radiused sanding blocks are available from Stewmac. These are used to adjust or reprofile the fingerboard radius if required, but they are not really suitable for fret levelling & dressing. One method is to use a large flat oil-stone (the type used for sharpening knives) for levelling then a set of fret-files for individual fret dressing & crowning. Stew-mac have a good range of fretting tools available, including fret-levellers, though a basic oil-stone will be a lot cheaper from a hardware store.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Fretting_tools:_Fret_dressing,_polish ing.html |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Paul T
That is some good thinking. Is it possible that with some care, I might be able to correct the worn frets on my older mandolin. I have an oilstone sharpening kit, and some other tools, and I used to do preparation for metallographic viewing of samples using various polishing grits down to the finest diamond, where flatness and scratch free finish was paramount. We measured optical crystal alignment on carbon coatings using polarized light on a metallograph with a rotating stage. It had a lot to do with the ability of nuclear rocket fuel to survive high temps and vibration, we had Phd's applying monster equations to our simple mettalographic samples, so the pressure was intense to provide a sample that was flat and had no scratches. It came down to rotating the sample and keeping a light touch. I can recall setting in a room surrounded by pictures of microscopic samples taken over a 48 hour marathon to develop the techniques that we then used to build the rocket fuel, and it worked. They fired one last working version of the NERVA rocket and succumbed to public pressure to not do anything like that. But the fuel worked.
Bailey (filing a fret should be easy) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 5
Location: Berwyn, PA | Thought I'd just post an update on my refret project. Well I seem to have pulled it off and got the guitar back in pretty good playing condition with the new jumbo frets.
Viz-a-viz the various posts above :-
- yes, the Ovation frets are glued in. The soldering iron worked well and they came out pretty easy using stewmac fret nippers.
- there was a lot of old glue left in the slots - I found a .013 nut file was a good tool to get the old glue out without widening the fret slot
- I glued the new frets in with ordinary wodwork white glue, it worked fine. I used an old G string to work the glue down into the slots.
- Totally essential to pre-curve the fret wire to the right radius - thats the key to the whole thing.
- I used 6 feet of stewmac wide/high jumbo fret wire to do the job. I used a gentle hammer to just bop the frets in and I only had some minor spot levelling to do
- I did not use radius blocks, neither needed to.
- as predicted the nut needed to go up a little - I got it off by heating with a light bulb and just glued a little strip of paper underneath with hide glue so I can get it off again if neccesary.
The action is now back at just under 4/64 and it plays great and I'm just going to let it settle down now.
Thanks for all the advice,
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | woodworking glue is designed to glue wood to wood, if you must glue in your frets PVA wont do it. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 5
Location: Berwyn, PA | http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/Fretting.htm
Here's a link to the page I followed when doing my refret - it suggested using white glue as a 'lubricant' so I simply followed orders ! Actually its a really great page for luthier stuff.
Fortunately my frets are held in by the tang so I'm not relying on glue at all. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Martin
That is a great site, I just added it to my favorites. It has a little nostalgic interest to me as I spent close to three years at Ft. Eustis, just outside Newport News in 1953-1956, one of my favorite places.
Bailey |
|
| |
Solid Electric Viper Neck Radius
