What I think happened:
Because of the cocobobo in the inlays, I sealed the f/b with a number of coats of shellac first. I leveled it out, then coated it with poly.
1) I think the poly was way thin after it was buffed out.
2) I think the shellac wasn't fully cured when the poly went on, then the poly sealed it in and didn't allow it to continue curing.
I think the combination of the two made it really soft and unstable.
The fret job took most of a day to do because of the binding. Still, it's not the re-fret that I'm wanting to avoid, it's the inability to clean out the slots well. Re-binding as well would certainly take care of that, but then there's the added difficulty with where it meets the headstock binding. (gripe, gripe, gripe!)
holding out for a bunch of input......