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Well I am planning on fretting a drednought fingerboard tomorrow and had a thought. The fingerboard is finished and ready to go but is not bound. My plans were to fret and then fill the ends of the fret slots. What do you think of my idea of using ebony dust and black super glue and seal the ends first. Then I can treat it like a bound board and fret accordingly.

Thanks,

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Philip-
I think it will be hard to control the 'penetration depth' of your CA/dust mix.
If I were you, I would trim back the tangs a bit- like you would do with a bound board- and go ahead with the fretting. Then you can fill the ends of the slots with CA/dust after the frets are in.

Let us know how it works out!

Cheers
John

On my last 4 guitars I have done the CA and dust treatment and it sure makes the side of the fret board look real great. The interesting thing is most of the people who have played these guitars did not notice until it was pointed out to them. They all like the idea once they did take note of it. It takes a little longer to fret due to the trimming but the CA dust is quite quick to do. I tried epoxy and ebony dust but it did not do a good fill and I had to still do the CA and dust to complete the fill. I wonder if anyone has tried the black epoxy.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

On my last guitar I used some ebony veneer strips to fill the fret slot ends. Should eliminate the problem of a dimple showing up later due to glue shrinkage.

I tried black epoxy on this one. This is the best shot I can come up with as I ended up having to replace the fretboard due to a truss rod problem. I bound the next one. You could see the fills if you knew they were there but only by looking very close.

After the epoxy dried and the sides and top of the fret board were sanded even I used a small router bit in a dremel to clean the slots. A bit of a pain but doable. I think its easier to bind the fretboard but I might do it again on a refret.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

try black shellac filler stick on a hot knife .....

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

I tried the shellac stick thing to fill the slot below the fret tang and I guess I might not have done it totally right but it showed a little after the guitar was lacquered and rubbed out. I love the thin CA and ebony dust but have to be very careful as I have become quite sensitive to CA. I think I will just bind with ebony or a contrasting wood in the future.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

One of the inherent problems of filling fret ends besides what Barry mentioned is not only shrinkage.... but what happens when the guitar's owner at some point fails to properly humidify the guitar.... The guitar dries out and the wood shrinks but the metal frets don't shrink.... So the fret ends filled with your favorite filler and/or method lose the filler as the non-shrinking frets push it out of the dried out neck. This can crack and chip the finish too.

The two things that we can do to minimize or eliminate the filled fret ends coming out later when and if the guitar dries out are fret our necks at a very low RH - 40% or below or just bind the board. Binding a board is very easy and completely eliminates the problem of filling the fret ends and having it stay in place. Some of my boards have been bound in ebony for an ebony board and you can't even tell that they are bound but they are.

Hesh, that's why I cleaned out the slots after filling with epoxy (all before fretting). Essentially creates the same clearances as binding the board.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have been filling with dust and CA for 10 years , never saw a problem with shrinkage. I think it makes for a more "finished" look.

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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

Thanks for the information. I think next time I will just bind it.

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.