First thing was defretting. I'd practised this on a junk acoustic that the school was throwing away and I did a fairly neat job. One thing I did find challenging was that after I started, I realised that the fretboard on these isn't rosewood but baked maple, so it was a little flaky and delicate and prone to pulling away more than I expected it to. After the first fret or two I was able to change my technique a bit to compensate.
I wanted to have fret lines, and decided to use maple veneer for this. I got a sample from a shop that sells parquet floors.
Started supergluing these in place:
Then I trimmed them back. Other people use a razor for this to get it tight, but I played safe and used nippers and then sanded.
Lots of sanding and a little oiling later:
I think there are still a few high spots that I'll need to get rid of. I'm hoping to get away without having to buy a radius block to radius the board to keep it perfectly straight, but I won't know until I string it up.
