The owner of this Made in Japan '62 Tele Custom came to me with a very special request. He would like me to de-fret the neck and convert the perfectly fretted neck to a fretless neck. After consulting with him and informing him of the consequences and that there's no turning back, I agreed to undertake the task of converting the neck into a fretless neck.

The frets are carefully removed. Thank God for the very minimal chipping.

The fret slots are cleaned and Maple spacers specially cut and fitted into each individual fret slot. The fret slots are curved as per the radius of the fingerboard and that explains the curved bottom of the Maple spacers.

The Maple spacers are glued in.

After the Maple spacers aka fret lines are sanded flush to the fingerboard; the fingerboard is then carefully and perfectly sanded. Any uneven spots along the fingerboard will affect the tone and playability of the instrument.

The neck is attached and guitar strung up.

The original nut is replaced with a Tusq nut which is slotted deeper than usual for the fretless fingerboard.

Check out the well shaped nut and uber smooth fretless fingerboard.

The guitar is set up and ready to go.