CPG
Well-known member
I know there is nothing new under the sun and everyone has their own tricks and techniques for fixing mistakes, but just thought I’d share this here as I am absolutley astounded by how well this worked and maybe it could help someone else someday.
I'm not a luthier, but before I had kids and before I played uke I spent a good bit of time pursuing a woodworking hobby. I haven't woodworked in a few years, but do occassionaly apply what I learned to tweaking my instruments. I was just adding some side dots to my new Flea with a maple fretboard and despite making every effort to avoid a mistake I ended up with tiny gouge in the side of fretboard next to a dot that I felt the needed to fill. I had never previously found a solution I liked for filling these tiny types of mistakes in maple and other light woods. The CA glue sawdust thing can work if the shape looks like a small knot or some type of natural discoloration, but if not it just looks like a gouge filled with something too dark. I was just randomly reading some guitar luthier threads and someone half jokingly said something like "fill with anything that matches, tumeric and water covered by CA glue would probably work." I thought hmmm, this person might be on to something. I thought about it and decided to try mixing white nail polish with some spices (the idea being to start with something too light and darken). First I mixed some tumeric and was not at all suprised to find out that it was WAY to yellow. Then I tried mixing some cinammon in with a fresh drop of nail polish and watched in amazement as the nail polish became nearly invisiable on the scrap of sycamore I was mixing it on. I held it up to the fretboard and it was a dead on match. Because the cinnamon is granualar and not liquid the fill also isn't overly uniform; as in there is some very tiny natural flecking that occurs that makes it look more like wood. So I mixed up a little more, used a pin to put it in the tiny gouge, used another pin to put the tiniest amount of CA glue on it, let it dry, and VERY gently smoothed is with the corner of a 1500 grit buffing pad. It is pretty much invisible and I will definitely use this again if needed.
(WARNING: If you do this on a finished uke, remember, you are working with nail polish here which could potentially react with some finishes)
I'm not a luthier, but before I had kids and before I played uke I spent a good bit of time pursuing a woodworking hobby. I haven't woodworked in a few years, but do occassionaly apply what I learned to tweaking my instruments. I was just adding some side dots to my new Flea with a maple fretboard and despite making every effort to avoid a mistake I ended up with tiny gouge in the side of fretboard next to a dot that I felt the needed to fill. I had never previously found a solution I liked for filling these tiny types of mistakes in maple and other light woods. The CA glue sawdust thing can work if the shape looks like a small knot or some type of natural discoloration, but if not it just looks like a gouge filled with something too dark. I was just randomly reading some guitar luthier threads and someone half jokingly said something like "fill with anything that matches, tumeric and water covered by CA glue would probably work." I thought hmmm, this person might be on to something. I thought about it and decided to try mixing white nail polish with some spices (the idea being to start with something too light and darken). First I mixed some tumeric and was not at all suprised to find out that it was WAY to yellow. Then I tried mixing some cinammon in with a fresh drop of nail polish and watched in amazement as the nail polish became nearly invisiable on the scrap of sycamore I was mixing it on. I held it up to the fretboard and it was a dead on match. Because the cinnamon is granualar and not liquid the fill also isn't overly uniform; as in there is some very tiny natural flecking that occurs that makes it look more like wood. So I mixed up a little more, used a pin to put it in the tiny gouge, used another pin to put the tiniest amount of CA glue on it, let it dry, and VERY gently smoothed is with the corner of a 1500 grit buffing pad. It is pretty much invisible and I will definitely use this again if needed.
(WARNING: If you do this on a finished uke, remember, you are working with nail polish here which could potentially react with some finishes)
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