fixing fretboard wear

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

If you have a fretboard that has depressions worn because of fingernails, is there a way to fill the depressions and level them off with some kind of synthetic/composite/compound? I know this sounds loonie, but if you can fill in the string grooves in a nut without the filler breaking down or even showing, maybe some day there will be fretboard filler like bond dough on a car.

 

[dklsplace]

Ancient Chinese secret...Rosewood fretboard, use rosewood dust & Cyanoacrylate (super) Glue. Works like a charm.

Notch that bone nut a bit too deeply? Corn starch &...you guessed it.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Amazing. What's a good way to get rosewood dust?

 

[dklsplace]

Amazing. What's a good way to get rosewood dust?

Sand your fretboard :lol:

Seriously...check your area to see if you have someplace that carries exotic woods. There's a few around here & I've had some nice blocks of mahogany from them. If not, see if you have someone making, or repairing orchestral instruments & beg for scraps. I've scored some nice old chunks of spruce & even walnut that were destined for the furnace that way.

 

[john_kidder]

Darryl:

Talk to your best luthier - if you can wait a while, he/she can collect rosewood dust and make up the filler mix when there's lots. It will take a surprising amount.

I mentioned in the D-60 thread that my luthier Paul Iverson did the same trick with spruce sawdust, glue, and my late lamented D-66. It truly did work, like a charm.

Cheers,

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I'm glad I asked. I was thinking that maybe the only thing to do would be to replace the fretboard.

But if the frets are grooved from the strings, can they do anything other than replace the frets? What does it mean to level and dress the frets?

 

[dklsplace]

Darryl, look at having your frets leveled & dressed kinda like having your rotors turned when you have a break job on your car. There's a certain amount of "usable" life in your frets & once they've become grooved or worn from use, you can have them leveled out, down to the lowest point of the worst groove. The process of leveling & crowning leaves scratches in the frets, & "dressing" is basically sanding/polishing the roughness back out of the fret.