Pete,
Exactly my concern. Fortunately, the neck block will get to stabilize most of it. I have plans to stabilize it as best I can with CA glue as well. This won't ever be for sale anyway as it's intended to be my personal "beater" as they say.
There's a knot just north of the pattern on the top set (left) with a slight crack. So I have to keep the pattern well below that, even though it would be glued to the block and hidden by the fretboard.
I think I'm going to go with Madrose for the fretboard and bindings on this one, although it isn't set in stone. I've thought about tortoise shell bindings, but not sure about that.