Looking for recommendation: fretless neck help

Welcome to SCGC Players Forum Forums Ask Santa Cruz Guitar Company Looking for recommendation: fretless neck help

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    • #1087
      Matt Hayden
      Participant

        My much-beloved mid-eighties fretless neck needs to either be really well-milled flat or else have a new fb (ebony).

        Any recommendations regarding who might be able to do it?

      • #1088
        haasome
        Participant

          Where do you live? If you live within striking distance of MA, I have a recommendation. EDIT — sorry, I forget this is Ask SCGC.


          – Paul –

          • This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by haasome.
        • #1160
          Richard Hoover
          Senior Moderator

            Hi Matt,

            I can direct you to the proper luthier if I understood the challenge a bit better. Worn and lumpy or something else? You’re savvy enough to know if there is enough material to mill the existing board without compromising the integrity of the neck, though if there are other factors that make this a challenge, call me up and we can have some fun finding a solution.

            All the best,                                                                                                                                                                                              Richard

            • #1174
              Matt Hayden
              Participant

                Hello Richard – sorry for the late reply!

                The board is ebony, of very nice quality, but I’ve used round wounds on it since I got the neck in the early eighties, and it’s been surfaced a couple of times since.  It’s got the usual round wound divots, which can be sanded out, but the neck is at the point where it’s getting perilously thin front-to-back.  And as much as I like it, the 5th-string A dead spot has gotten  worse with use, so it could use some stiffening.

                There’s still a fair amount of fingerboard, and it’s slab rather than veneer (e.g., flat bottomed).   The process I have in mind – and I’m absolutely open to other options – is to do the following:

                • Find someone with a Bridgeport to mill the face flat
                • maybe mill in a couple of slots for carbon fiber reinforcement and epoxy ’em in nice and tight
                • re-mill the face flat
                • glue on a new ebony fingerboard blank with appropriate glue – not sure what to use
                • re-radius fingerboard and (probably) put a finish on it (so it doesn’t wear out quite so fast).

                I’ve thought about doing it myself, and honestly if I had more time on my hands I probably would.  But I just don’t have the time, right now…..

                • This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Matt Hayden.
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