People like me need superglue!

[Robert Smallwood]

Though this episode qualifies me as dunce of the week, it's a true story and might help someone in similar circumstances. Hard to see anyone needing more help than me..but..one don't never know...

For the first time I'm trying an ebony fretboard. after all sorts of frustration hammering in the first fret end,I had to gently widen the tops of the fret slots to be able to engage the tang at all but it seemed to work OK .Pain in the arse to have to do it, but ah well..

Then I noticed a slight laceration like line in a fret where it meets the board. I'd obviously nicked it with the tang nippers somehow. Look I should've left it. No one but me would ever have seen it. But I couldn't leave it alone. 'What's the big deal?' I thought just replace the fret. Carefully of course!. well it was moderately difficult to extract since I'd used cross linked shellac as a sort of 'friendly' glue and , just as I'd read there would be, there were some fairly small chips along the edge of the fret slot. They would be covered by the fret.

Relax. Admire it I thought. BUT!! the replacement fret also had the same flaw!!
How could I miss it? Well I should've left it alone . No one but me would ever have seen it. But no, what can be once can be done again. THis time I wasn't so lucky. There were quite a few ugly chips along the tops of the fret slot.

I put the fret in. packed ebony dust/shavings - whatever I'd swept up - into the chips just proud of the surfaced & dropped a drop of super glue on each ugly sore.
Then i went off & had a sandwich.
to cut to the chase - it worked. All hardened up & trimmed back with a hobby knife IT WORKS!!! un-be-bloody-lievable.

But of course I have to confess to the world.

[Chris Richards]

A good trick which I have used is to use sticky tape either side of the fret that you're pulling... Pull the fret out then peel the tape back, any chips stick to the tape... without removing the tape fully and leaving the chips attached to the tape, put drips of super glue on the chips or in the gouges and then press the tape back down. The chips should go back nicely.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Heat the fret with a soldering iron when you are removing it. Significantly reduces chipping.

[Mark Wybierala]

The quantity of superglue that I consume on an annual basis is classified information. I can neither confirm or deny that I need to purchase more than a few bottles of superglue and accelerator every six months or that I have my superglue supplier listed in my explorer favorites tool bar.