Bear mauled fretboard?

BatUtilityBelt · Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:18 pm

A few here might recognize this picture. It's not my guitar. It is from a listing for a guitar that is on my bucket list, but yikes. The seller blames his fingernails, and frankly I can imagine he walked away from playing with rosewood under his nails on a regular basis. I can't even imagine playing like that. And yes, I see the fret divots too. But here are my questions three: Can that fretboard be restored without it being noticeable? Could that repair be worth an otherwise sub-$1000 guitar? Who does that kind of work?

mozz · Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:36 pm

Over oiled fretboard and lots of cowboy chords? Rosewood is soft to begin with, and if you used too much oil or some other liquid I'm sure the wood would soften up. We used to call our rhythm guitar player "the claw" because he looked so tense playing chords.

MichaelR · Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:58 pm

mozz wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:36 pm Over oiled fretboard and lots of cowboy chords? Rosewood is soft to begin with, and if you used too much oil or some other liquid I'm sure the wood would soften up. We used to call our rhythm guitar player "the claw" because he looked so tense playing chords.

Hey now don't be picking on my cowboy chords!

mozz · Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:10 pm

I've seen some divots that would make a golfer cringe. I'm taking it the wood was really soft, there's a bunch of varieties of rosewood.

nomadh · Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:50 pm

I know an old blues guy who only buys old Kay's and Stella's if the look like this or worse. Generation of old guy gigging wear.
Never stopped him from playing it.

Partscaster · Thu Mar 23, 2023 9:23 pm

maple too,
my old 85'MIJ squier strat neck got plenty of hours of play at college.