Fret markers

[Geocoucou79]

Hi,

I screwed up again, with the side fret markers this time. I wasn’t glad with the colour of the markers I put in so I drilled them off but they were harder than the surrounding wood and it kept slipping around. Result is quite messy…

I think I need to route the binding off and start from scratch. But it’s a delicate operation and I would like to do it without removing the frets.

Any idea?

[peter havriluk]

I think that ship has sailed. Time to back up. Remove the frets, replace the binding, install the markers, refret. Sometimes work needs to be rolled back and remedied before resuming. On a good day the fretboard won't object to r&r the frets.

[Geocoucou79]

Frets removed… Look at that mess… What would you do with that?

[Carl Dickinson]

Put Teflon strips into the slots, press the chips back down, then wick CA to hold it all together. If there are some areas that the chips are gone, fill with ebony dust before the CA.
Hey! You're going to be a guitar repairman and builder.

[Geocoucou79]

That sounds like a project but a good plan. Thanks for your support! I know mistakes are how we learn but I find this one very discouraging.

[peter havriluk]

WOW! So how did the frets manage to pull up fingerboard chips just about everywhere?

And repairing skills are good learning. I think, without having done such a mass of chip repairs, that replacing the fretboard would be less trouble than trying to do the literally hundreds of repairs to the fret slots and replacing at least half of the fingerboard binding.

If getting hold of another fretboard is a problem, I can provide a rosewood one gratis, PM me with the address it needs to go to.

[Geocoucou79]

Peter, this very kind of you, thanks for the offer. But for now I'll just do my best to try and fix it.

The reason for all these chips I think is that I didn't file the fret slots with a triangular shape file to give the fret tangs enough clearance in case of removal. Again, this is just one more mistake I will not be doing on my next build!