Inlays becoming proud of fretboard?

[Kerry Krishna]

 I have no idea what could be going on with this guitar. It is s 70s Fender plywood guitar with the snowflake inlays. There are no signs at all that the fretboard is shrinking on this guitar, yet over the last year, some of the snowflakes are pushing straight out of the fretboard, one is almost 1ml out. The fretboard is not being oiled (as maybe some would think that excessive oiling would do this).  After consulting with my mentor up here, I will try his suggestion to get the inlays back in, but just wondered if any of you might be able to shed some light on this problem. Thanks Forum!

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Iif they are plastic ones, they are shrinking because of the old plastic formula which tends to dry with time. I would just unglue them and glue them back in place with a radiused caul. To get them out, I would try to warm them a little bit or pour some hot water under it with a pipette.

[Paul Hostetter]

Pierre-Antoine, it sounds like the inlays are lifting, not shrinking.

Pop the nut and see if it's a veneered fingerboard. With the nut out of the way, you'd see the endgrain of the board. Usually they're solid, but sometimes they're some lesser wood underneath and a veneer on top, where the inlays are only set into the veneer. If this is the case, it's possible that the veneer is shrinking with age.

It's a safe bet the inlays are plastic, not real pearl. The plastic itself may be decaying and expanding as the stuff breaks down. I saw this happen with a whole batch of bridgepins where the pearlescent dots puffed up and protruded and died a permanent death.

[Kerry Krishna]

Thanks people. The fretboard is solid rosewood and the inlays are real pearl.

[Paul Hostetter]

Curious. I guess the next step would be to pop them out and reset them. Perhaps some glue under them puffed up?

I remain skeptical that they are real pearl. If they are, you should be able to press a sharp blade against the side that's projecting above the surface of the rosewood and flip them right up and out, intact.

[Kerry Krishna]

I just did the red hot needle test on them to prove myself right. Guess I should have done it before I spoke. They ARE plastic. Anyway, I know how to proceed Thanks for answering folks. And nice seeing you here Paul.