Fret markers

[peter havriluk]

Good luck with the repairs, and if you decide that a new fretboard is what you need, my offer stands.

[Geocoucou79]

I gave this a little bit of thinking and and came up with the idea of removing the fretboard, shimming it and sand it clean to remove any mark of chipping. I think that would either be easier and do a better job than fixing every single piece of chipping, some of which might be gone anyways.

So my step-by-step fixing procedure would be:
-Remove the fretboard (I glued it with PVA glue in case).
-Clean the neck shaft and the bottom of the fretboard.
-Route off the bindings.
-Make a shim for the fretboard a little it thicker than the deepest chip and glue it underneath. I would make it out of mahogany.
-Sand the fretboard with the radius sanding block.
-Deepen the fret slots their original depth.
-File the fret slots this time...
-Glue new binding on. They will hide the shim.
-Glue the fretboard back on the neckshaft.

How does that sound?

[Herman]

Well, that is a lot of sanding work. I would go for replacement, but this repair is doable and will give you a good learning. Chipping btw can be reduced by good heating the frets with an iron or soldering iron.
(For your comfort: Pulling frets out of an ebony board, without any chipping, is hardly impossible)
Herman

[Geocoucou79]

IMG_2080.jpeg (586.98 KiB) Viewed 2998 times

Hi,

I think I did a pretty good job fixing this problem, with a couple hiccups of course. The only thing is that I was so much focused on avoiding the fretboard to shift aside that I didn’t pay enough attention to longitudinal shifting. Result is that the fretboard is now a little bit more than 1/16 inch further towards the bridge than the wanted location. I think it’s no big deal but any thoughts about it are welcome.

I also needed to add an ebony strip below the fingerboard binding cause the neckshaft edges were damaged by removing the fingerboard. I think it doesn’t look bad but it might be too much decorations.

[Herman]

Well Geo,
1/16" is something you notice when building, but to a player it is not something that gets attention.
Keep the bridge and saddle on the right distance and you will be alright.
And about the fingerboard filling: Look at it as Will Reyer calls it: "Wabi Sabi". Cover a flaw with a nice solution. First guitars are the hardest on you on avoiding flaws. After that we make much more stupid mistakes

[Geocoucou79]

Thanks for these encouraging words Herman!

[Carl Dickinson]

That looks great! I think the ebony piece is a "Geo" feature that you might want to carry forward to your next guitars.