by Carl Kaufmann » Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:18 pm
Suggestions welcome on removing a bound, ebony fingerboard from a mahogany neck on a six-string acoustic guitar, without destroying the fingerboard. This is a blue guitar I built for a friend, and it needs a change in neck angle. Cannot correct with the adjustable truss rod. Neck is mortice-and-tenon, bolted and glued, so removing it for a standard neck reset would be a big headache. Before tackling that, I thought I would try to correct the angle by inserting a shim -- i.e., remove the fretboard, glue a shim the full length of the neck, taper and flatten that, and reglue the fretboard. A narrow shim -- ⅛" or so -- would give me the correct string clearance and saddle height. No, I cannot thin down the mahogany neck: It has a pair of fixed graphite rod braces epoxied into it, on either side of the adjustable rod, and the neck is already thinned to the at minimum at the nut, like a Gibson neck.. Yes, the edge of a shim would show from the heel to the sound hole, but I can live with that. Probably that seam would be covered with a new white plastic binding.
But the question: How to get that fingerboard off without destroying it? It is glued down with LMI guitar glue. And yes, it is important to save the fingerboard, as it is inlaid with Paua shell in a custom design. I can easily refret if necessary, but it would take many hours to redo the inlay, assuming I had the Paua.