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I've looked through past discussions, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about this. It's a late 60's Fender Coronado II, but it's a player's guitar... it's missing quite a bit of lacquer, and the customer wants it playable. Adding to that, he would like me to try to fill in some rather severe fretboard dents under the cowboy chords, which will lead to some fretboard leveling, which would destroy the nibs anyway. And rebinding it is out of his budget. I've thought about adding nibs with melted binding in acetone, but then it is purely cosmetic (which the customer isn't that concerned with anyway) and yet it wouldn't pass for the original nibs, so why bother? I just don't like doing something irreversible. Or am I just overthinking this? To be fair, the nibs themselves are almost completely gone anyway... I'll throw in a couple of pics...

Tags: Binding, nibs

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I concur with the others: dump the nibs.  My mandolin has nibs and when it's refretted, they go.  Besides the cost, they gather dirt that shows a lot more than with standard frets.  On my mando, several have disappeared, knocked loose from playing or from fretboard expansion.  If one gets knocked off on the treble side, the first string can easily catch on the fret end.  

This is a real problem in dry climates like here in AZ, where almost every fretboard needs at least one trim when the fretboard shrinks in the prevalent low humidity.  this seems to be true even if the regular environment is well humidified--if they go outside that cocoon, they can shrink with remarkable speed.  With standard frets, well installed, it's easy to trim the fret ends if this happens; with nibs, it either pushes the binding away from the fingerboard or exfoliates the nib.

As Frank says, treating the divots is entirely a matter of taste--it won't affect playabilty.

My two cents.

Larry

The binding is very clean for a 60s guitar and it would be a shame to screw it up. I've rebuilt nibs: it takes effort to match the color and the different plastics can't always be successfully merged, making it a crapshoot.

Another reason to junk the nibs: if you go for a partial refret later, it looks really weird (and I know that there's different views on the desirability of partial refrets, so that's a different discussion).

Larry

Well, just a quick update... I ditched the nibs, fixed the divots a la Frank Ford with a slight twist (I actually scooped and inlaid some rosewood slivers into the deepest divot), and the customer is happy. Here are a couple of pics. Thanks again for the advice and opinions!

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Looks like a "job well done" to me!!

Kudos! Rod

Came out great Martin

Nice Job!

Larry

Nice work, Martin :)

Lovely Job. One you can be proud of!

Well Done.

P

Pretty slick.

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