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I've done a few neck resets lately, and it seems one of the things that gets me sweating is loosening the fingerboard extension over the body. I've had the unfortunate experience of the pallet knifr getting drawn through be the grain of the wood, chipouts, etc. This has gotten me thinking about how to possibly improve the situation for future repair people.
While I don't intend to do this to anyone elses instruments, I'm thinking of dishing out the back of my overhangs (much like most builders do when they undercut the cheeks of the heel. This way, the overhang will be glued only around the perimeter making future removal a lot safer and easier.
I'm looking for advise as to weather this is a "sound" thing to do as far as tonality and integrity. Has anyone else ever done this?
Thanks,
Art

Steve Kinnaird showed me a trick he learned from a friend of ours. He glues a piece of paper to the top slightly smaller than the fretboard extention then glues the extention onto that. He says it pops off nice and clean. Maybe Steve will weigh in on this as he has actually done this, where I have not.

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Matt Jacobs

"Don't tase me bro"

I have found that the key is to wait until the glue is sufficiently softerned up .. heat lamp, foil and cardboard off the top, wait .. 10-15 minutes .... last one I did was very clean, one of my students, not for a reset but to reshape the neck and then refin it too ... amke it more like his newest one.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You need to let the heat do the work. In most cases , if you try too soon the wood is still stuck. I want the knife to float through. Glue will release easy once it is heated well. I also have a rounded buffed edge , nothing that is sharp or knife like.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Doing one of those was all it took for me to switch to a bolt on fretboard extension.

Good luck with your removal. Like so many things, thinking about it is worse than doing it.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

How do you bolt on a fingerboard extension?