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hi,

do you have a preferred place you buy [rosewood] veneer sheets when making a fretless guitar? perhaps, i'm searching the wrong nomenclature.

thanks in advance for any help,
shad

Years ago I bought veneer sample boxes from Constantines and some other wood retailer I can't recall right now. It's served me well as a source for veneering pegheads, filling fret slots, and such.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

well, woodcraft is the closest thing to me and it's about an hour's drive one way depending on traffic, which is always heavy in the city. from what i found from your all's replies is that veneer is pretty affordable, but then there's s/h, so i might as well just go make the drive. lol

what do you think about this ebay item?
Raw plain veneer with no backing = 1/32”-1/42” @ $10usd (w/free shipping)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rosewood-wood-veneer-5-x-8-with-no-backing-raw-veneer-/110969078226?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d645c1d2

overpriced ?? e- by by. shop around, I/ve gotten veneer from certainly wood in buffalo ny. woodcraft, and my local hdwd dealer . Others use B&B and there are other suppliers if you don/t like to drive.

That translates to close to $40 a square foot, plus shipping and that's ridiculously high.

i apologize if my followup reply makes no sense or implies that i completely misread your reply, but i haven't been awake long. lol

with that said, this ebay item is 5" x 8", which i think should be enough to get 22 frets out of it and the shipping is free, so for $10 and no tax, that sounds affordable to me. i was also wondering if this was the correct product i should use for fret slot filling.

keep me posted.

Normal price for ordinary (i.e. not highly figured or sought-after burl) veneer is about $2 per square foot.
Constantines, B&B Rare Woods, Herzog, etc.....

The real question is "why do you want to fill fret slots with anything other than fret wire?"

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

i'm converting a vintage classical guitar into a fretless. you can see the progress documented on this project-specific blog: http://samuraifretless.blogspot.com. but i'll warn you in advance that i've learned some stuff since beginning the project, like ... wood filler wasn't the best option and shortcuts are never short. lol

anyway, i'm now considering cleaning out the slots either with a hand saw or a dremel with a router attachment, but i have other projects on the front burners at the moment, so i'm just doing some research on veneer.

cheers

Ah-ha. So, why don't you just remove the old fretboard and install a nice new shiny unfretted one? Much easier than filling all the fret slots and trying to make it look nice IMO.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

well, that approach is perhaps easier and i don't mean to sound like a wet-behind-ears noobie, but spending $10 on a guitar that was given to me sounds wonderful, but also, i would like to keep this guitar original as possible (yeah, that kinda sounds dumb considering i'm removing the frets.) lol

also, i have already leveled and finished this fingerboard and the natural rosewood is soo gorgeous.

thanks for your suggestion tho and trying to save me unnecessary labor!

so, can i buy that ebay listed veneer in the link i mentioned earlier ... or, i should ask, is that the correct veneer for what i'm wanting to do? (my fret slots are 1mm).

thanks!

I don't know if this will help you but I filled a misplaced fret slot with a rather thick plane shaving from the board off-cut and CA.
Not invisible of course, but when I re-slotted and put in the fret next to the repair I think it turned out well.


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thanks, rusty. i had considered that approach for all of them, but i only have blond woods at the moment and i really would like the fret fills to not be so visible. so, for this guitar, i'll be buying some veneer.

also, dave fifield, after reading your suggestion, i found a video on a guy making his own fingerboard with a sweet jig he made that would even do compound radii. initially, i was thinking only about buying a pre-made fingerboard, but after seeing that video, it got me to thinking how could it would be to create a custom design fingerboard and someday, i may.