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bloody gut bowels of hades!!!! If this guitar wasn't my Grandmother's that was handed down to my Uncle and now is to go to his son (my cousin), I wouldn't do all this... This is a 1963 Silvertone in almost mint condition... Only catch is, the frets are done for and there is a crack through the fingerboard extension. The crack does not extend through the top (I've inspected VERY carefully to find any evidence of a crack). So, my plan is to pull the frets, fill the crack with rosewood dust and CA, carefully go over the fingerboard, and refret the guitar. I'm a historian, so all the wear marks are a must to retain, and, on top of all that, the fretboard markers are *painted* on...

So, I started pulling the frets with lots of heat and going VERY slowly... my friends, "fruitwood," as my Dad identified this to be, chips if you *breathe* on it. I took 15 minutes per fret to get these out, working ever so slowly and having to repair all the minute chips. It *definitely* does not work like rosewood or ebony.

There are lots more pictures of this guitar and I'll be glad to take any more or take measurements/tracings if anyone would like them.

All of THAT said, does anyone have any thoughts or advice on dealing with a brittle fingerboard such as this-- with the caveats that replacement is *not* an option and the wear marks *must* remain? Also, would anyone be willing to tell me if I'm doing a bad job, or is this what I should expect from such a brittle board? As always, any and all feedback is welcome, solicited, and graciously accepted.

Thank you ALL in advance!

John Creech
Aspiring Luthier-to-be, novice repairman in self-training

Wow, you have your hands full!

It sounds to me like you are progressing slowly and trying to minimize damage which appears hard to do. If this were my renovation, I would remove the finish, sand down, glue and clamp the crack over the soundboard, might have to remove the neck to get closure on this crack and I would use LMI FCA glue to close. I would sand, drill and add MOP as fret markers just keep them the same shape and size.

I see or think I see what you are talking about with the chips, some look like finish/build up chips and I think once you sand it down it should be fine. The fingerboard looks meaty enough to yield a little surface for the process. The frets are cooked as i am sure you know, so I would clean out the fret channels really good and press in new ones and stay away from a hammer.

Best of Luck

Mike

you didn't mention what technique you used to remove the frets.

did you apply a very thin bead of water on each side of the fret and then heat it with a soldering iron prior to removing each one? did you press down on your fret puller to support the wood whilst letting the wedge shape of the puller lift the fret? did you overlap each squeeze of the puller by 50% or so of the previous squeeze? all of these will help reduce the chipout.

that being said, i've seen far worse on old ebony. it looks as though you will end up having to superglue or epoxy in the replacement.

before you decide how you are going to glue the fb evaluate the neck set to see if it is ok. if the neck has to come off anyway gluing the crack will be very easy.

if the neck set is ok, then try to squeeze it shut in situ. if it will close then glue it in place.

what shape is the neck; that is does it have excessive relief or a backbow? does the guitar have an adjustable truss rod? hard to give further advice about the fretwork with out the info.crazymanmichael39013.3735185185

Thank you all for your replies... as far as my technique pulling the frets, I have been using dry heat, starting at the treble edge of the fret and letting the curvature of the pullers "wedge" the fret up slightly and very slowly going the length of the fret back and forth using this method so as not to wedge one side of the fret higher than the other to try and minimize chip-out. I'm going to try the bead of water with it too-- never heard of doing that, but with this brittle board, it can't hurt!

The neck is actually in quite good shape-- the neck set is actually quite good, and there doesn't seem to be any bow to the neck with the strings off. I don't belive there is a truss rod in this neck, so my thought is that with light gauge strings, this neck should pull into relief under tension. (I'd never try to put mediums on it.)

What do you all think of this approach? The divots in the fingerboard are deep enough that I think I have some sanding room and still be able to have the divots... so, I thought I could pull the frets, level the board and radius it slightly-- it's dead flat now, I thought about a 20" radius just to give it a little playability. Then, replace the painted on markers by using the method I think they did-- simply make a stencil and paint them on. The edges of the markers seem to have that faded look that looks like a stencil was used. I am going to look at the hobby shop to see if I can find a small airbrush type kit-- I don't want to take a can of spray paint to this thing at all!

Thanks yet again for all the help!!!!

John