Fretboard divots

walrus

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A few random questions. My D64 has pretty deep divots at this point, one really big one.

Do divots affect playability? I'm not sure I'm noticing it, but maybe the divots are making me press down even harder than I usually do. I know, I know, I don't have to press down so hard, but it is a habit of decades of playing. I also do some string bending and wonder if that has become "harder" to do.

What is the fix for this, if one wanted to do such a thing?

Can't seem to get a small thumbnail in imgur, so here's the link if you want to see it:

https://imgur.com/hpZnlf2

walrus
 

adorshki

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WOW, that's deep.
That looks like somebody just set one of those Teredo worms down on your fretboard for a few days or sumthin'.
fouling-and-boring-12-638.jpg

I remember you teasing me about needing two refrets on my D25 over 20 years but I don't have divots.
Wassup wit dat?
Did they flipflop from soft fretboards and hard frets to hard fretboards and soft frets?


The fix?
I've seen reports here of making a paste of sawdust made of the fretboard wood, and an appropriate adhesive, and filling the divots.
I assume that'd be something to be done during a refret because I think the fretboard'd need to be planed again afterward.
I guess golf jokes about replacing your divots would be a little too much right now?
Especially after the shipworm pics?
:eek-new:
 

walrus

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Please, no golf jokes! :grief:


BTW, that is an ebony fretboard!

35 years of being my only acoustic, lots of playing...


walrus
 

gjmalcyon

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My Yamaha guitar - my first and only guitar for about 35 years - has divots and I don't notice them when I play nor do I feel any difference between it and any of the Guilds, none of which have divots.

r3R5evdl.jpg
[/IMG]
 

walrus

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Are you one of those guys with iron (finger)nails?
Mine're soft as h-ll, might explain the difference in wear patterns between us.

Not really, I have always kept them very short. As I said above my only explanation is my fretting hand is pretty aggressive - I wish I had developed a lighter touch.

Only one refret in 35 years, but divots instead...

walrus
 

walrus

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My Yamaha guitar - my first and only guitar for about 35 years - has divots and I don't notice them when I play nor do I feel any difference between it and any of the Guilds, none of which have divots.

r3R5evdl.jpg
[/IMG]

Right, I don't really notice it either, but I just wonder if I'm working harder than I have to, and whether it's worth doing anything about it...

walrus
 

chazmo

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That is one MAJOR divot between strings 2 and 3 on the first fret. Wow. Is that from playing, walrus, or did you bang the guitar against something. I've never seen anything quite like that. The divots in the second fret are pretty big too.

Could it affect playability? I guess so. I'm not quite sure what you'd do about something that big. You don't want to sand the fretboard down that much, and can you fill ebony with ebony dust or something? I think you *can* fill the divot with some sort of resin and then sand it down to make it feel like it isn't there. But, you'll definitely see it.
 

stormin1155

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If the deep divots are causing you to press on the string even harder (until you hit wood), you're probably pulling the string out of tune and causing undue wear on your strings and frets.
 

GardMan

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Wonder if the divots are caused by the strings, combined with your aggressive fretting and bending, rather than your nails?

My understanding is that they CAN be filled with wood (ebony, in this case) dust and super glue... and with an ebony board it might not look that bad. But, I would guess it would have to be combined with at least a partial refet... because the board would have to be leveled. Ask our own Mr. Fixit...
 

wileypickett

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Some years ago I bought a used guitar (with an ebony fingerboard) that had super deep divots in the all the cowboy-chord positions. (One was so deep, you could see the bottom tang of the fret!)

My guitar repair guy (the late, legendary Jim Mouradian of Boston) removed all the worn frets, filled the gouges and the worst of the open fret slots with epoxy tinted with ebony dust. After he'd sanded the wood level and buffed the fingerboard, he cut new fret slots and installed new frets.

When it was done, you couldn't tell that any repair to the fingerboard had ever been made.
 

beecee

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"That is one MAJOR divot between strings 2 and 3 on the first fret. Wow. Is that from playing, walrus"

Ya may wanna lay off the C, F and A minor for a bit.

Lucky for you there are some good songs out there with D, G & E.....


GOLF JOKE: They said Ben Hogan was so consistent that he would hit a drive into the divot of his second shot from the last time he played the hole.


Said the wise*ss: Well if he was so good why didn't he try to avoid it???
 

walrus

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That is one MAJOR divot between strings 2 and 3 on the first fret. Wow. Is that from playing, walrus, or did you bang the guitar against something. I've never seen anything quite like that. The divots in the second fret are pretty big too.

Just from playing, no "banging"!

If the deep divots are causing you to press on the string even harder (until you hit wood), you're probably pulling the string out of tune and causing undue wear on your strings and frets.

Right, I wonder about this. It's not obvious if this is happening, at least not to me, but I clearly do not have perfect pitch. The guitar still sounds great!

Wonder if the divots are caused by the strings, combined with your aggressive fretting and bending, rather than your nails?

I certainly think so - a few people over the years have actually said to me, "why are your nails so short?" And I know I play pretty hard.


BTW, I found a thread with a similar discussion - including several of my own posts - but additionally it has some really interesting posts from Christopher Cozad that you may find informative:

http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...touch-the-fretboard&highlight=fretboard+divot

walrus
 

dreadnut

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BTW, if you bring up your image on imgur, there should be a list of options on the right, click on the one that says "BBC Code" and then you can just go to your LTG post, right click, and paste the photo.
 

fronobulax

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Seems to me I've heard of some shredders who deliberately 'scoop out' the area between the frets. They then develop a playing technique that pushes the string as little as possible so that it makes contact with the fret but their finger never reaches the fretboard. The net effect is they can play faster than on an unmodified freboard. So, in theory, divots may have some impact on playability but if you are not shredding, you might not notice.
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I have had the divots on 2 guitars filled.
Both were done while the frets were either replaced or dressed.
In each case, you can see the repair.
 

swiveltung

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Shouldn't matter. You shouldn't be touching the fretboard except lightly anyway. I had a 59 Gibson ES225 that had terrible deep divots. Obviously someone loved that guitar and played it hard. Not sure why it happens. Must be aggressive hard playing. In a perfect world you wouldn't touch the fretboard, just the frets.
 

walrus

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BTW, if you bring up your image on imgur, there should be a list of options on the right, click on the one that says "BBC Code" and then you can just go to your LTG post, right click, and paste the photo.

Right, but it gave me a HUGE photo. There used to be an option for BBC code to make the photo different sizes, but I couldn't find it.

walrus
 
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