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Topic: Repairing missing fretbard inlay |
Darryl Hattenhauer
From:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
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Posted 5 Jan 2008 4:41 pm |
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To repair the fretboard holes left when inlay falls out and gets lost, could you fill in the holes with something like putty? With all of the new synthetics and composites for filling-in slots on nuts etc, I'm wondering if you could use some sort of paste or other colloidal stuff for filling-in fretboard holes.
_________________
Steel crazy after all these years.
$100 reward for info leading to the purchase of a fender D8 white, yellow, or butterscotch. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 5 Jan 2008 5:53 pm
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Are you talking about wooden fretboards....rosewood or ebony.
Why not just replace the inlay? |
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John Floyd
From:
R.I.P.
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Darryl Hattenhauer
From:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
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Posted 5 Jan 2008 6:53 pm
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Bill and John,
My objective is economy. I'm thinking that on a low end to mid-range old guitar, banjo, mando, etc, replacing mother-of-toiletseat plastic inlay with a paste would be cheaper. The materials would be cheaper, and you could do it yourself. (In those cases where you can't find a solid plastic replacement that is already cut to fit, you'd have to pay somebody to cut it exactly.)
I'm talking about a cheap repair for cheap instruments. I have an old beat Guild archtop with bent tuners, crumbling binding, replaced parts, etc. But the neck is straight, and the fretboard is level, and the frets are decent (maybe because nobody played it after the inlay fell out). Any guesstimates as to what it would cost to have 8 or 10 square pieces of inlay replaced with plastic? Maybe I'm over-estimating the labor cost. |
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John Floyd
From:
R.I.P.
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Darryl Hattenhauer
From:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
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Posted 5 Jan 2008 8:40 pm
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John,
Wow! I had no idea that Les Paul Custom inlays were square. If those will drop in there, I'll use them. Thanks, my friend. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 6 Jan 2008 6:12 am
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One question would nag at me: If you can't cut and shape a piece of "something" to go into a fretboard, what in the world are you doing "working" on an instrument? 
That said, of course you could use body putty, epoxy, or even plastic wood, but why would you use something that looks cheap, wrong, and (probably) sloppy? If you're trying to save money, thin pieces of abalone, shell, or plastic, can be easily shaped with a file, sandpaper, or Dremel tool, and inserted to replace missing inlays. |
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Darryl Hattenhauer
From:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
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Posted 6 Jan 2008 9:49 am
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Donny,
I think a paste is something anybody could do, but cutting inlay isn't.
And I would use it only if guitar techs and luthiers would use it--if it's a quality product like the stuff they use to fill in nuts and re-cut them. Before all of the new synthetics in a tube, you couldn't fill-in and re-cut the grooves on a nut. You had to make a new one. So I'm wondering if we have progressed to a similar new stage with using composites in a tube to fix missing inlay. |
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