How Do You Deepen Fret Slots On A Bound Fingerboard?

[Donut Man]

If it matters, it's an Ebony board with white plastic binding. I think there are a few slots that got a little to shallow after sanding.

[erikbojerik]

Without buying a specialty saw, I'd take a proper-size feeler gauge and notch some teeth into it. But try to measure the depth of the slot first, you don't want to saw through the board.

This will not deepen the slot right next to the binding, so make sure you nip off enough tang to account for that.

[Rick500]

I couldn't resist dropping in and saying, "Very carefully!"

So...I'm glad Erik jumped in first with a serious answer.

Good luck.

[soapbarstrat]

Haven't bought any new ones in years, but I have made little blades for fret-slots by cutting the tapered part off an x-acto key-hole saw blade. the ones I have are around .020" at the teeth.

Before that I always did it with a dremel and dental type bit.

[doug]

These work really good, but you'll need to be careful.

Clean Slots

[noctambulant]

if you feel confident enough you could use a dremel with the fret slot bits from stewmac as well..

i have the dremel base from stew mac and i measure the depth, of the slot currently, then adjust the bit until i have just a bit more than i would need to to make clearence for the slot, and as stated earlier, being careful of not cutting through the board or binding..

(ps, this works great and way faster than anything else as far as i know, but practice it on some scraps. cut a fretslot if you can in some scrap, then draw a line ontop of the wood and pretend that line is where the binding is, practice getting close to it, but not going into it. then cut some of the tang away to compensate for the wood you didnt hit up with the dremel..)

[Prostheta]

I found (having had to do this on my first bass, and not had the tool from Stewmac) that taking a half inch piece of an old saw blade and attaching it to a makeshift handle does the trick nicely. Kind of like a miniature saw you can drop into the slot! Mark the depth you need onto the blade with a small permanent marker (sharpie).