help!! Ding in rosewood fretboard

spauldingrules

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Ok, so I'm jamming, and I put my guitar in it's stand for a break (warmoth tele with 24 3/4 conversion neck maple/rosewood).  Guitar gets knocked off stand, edge of neck hits corner of table.  Rather large dent (1/2 centimeter or so) is put on the side of the rosewood fretboard halfway between the nut and the first fret.  Is there any way to at least partially "extract" the dent?  I finished the maple with minwax satin poly, and put it on the sides of the fretboard as well, so there is a finish over it.  Is my best option just to leave it?  I REALLY hate seeing it there.  This is my #1 and I see it whenever I grab the guitar, and then I run my thumb over it and it just drives me crazy (like flicking the sore tooth with your tongue!).  Ugh.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

- T.S.
 
Somebody wrote something about steaming the dent out, as long as the wood is still there but just compressed. I forget who posted it (CB?), it was a while ago.
 
Yeah so long as its unfinished, a damp rag and a soldering iron works wonders.  Put the cloth over the dent and use the iron to steam it out.
 
Interesting, somewhat related story:

At a house i used to live in, we had this old fashioned library type ladder as a decoration.
One day the ladder was knocked over, and it landed on a nice piece of antique furniture, and left a huge one inch wide, half inch deep dent on the wood.

We pulled out an iron and steamed it about 2/3rds of the way back to normal.

I think that if the wood does not have a hard finish on it, you could probably carefully iron it back most of the way.

 
Blue313 said:
Yeah so long as its unfinished, a damp rag and a soldering iron works wonders.  Put the cloth over the dent and use the iron to steam it out.

Beat me to it.
 
Uh, guys....

I finished the maple with minwax satin poly, and put it on the sides of the fretboard as well, so there is a finish over it.
 
Hmm, the steam probably wont get through poly...may have to sand and steam or just fill.
 
Yeah I think you'd have to strip and refinish it in order to steam it out.  :(  Maybe CB has some clever ideas...
 
That sucks dude.  Just be glad it wasn't a Cymbal.    they tend to dent a litle deeper..  they're nasty on frets too..
(it happened to me  :sad:  thankfully not on my W)
 
Sorry to veer off topic but does the soldering iron/damp towel method work for very very small dents?  I've got an annoying stray awl mark on my headstock from when I was drilling for the truss rod cover.
 
dbw said:
Sorry to veer off topic but does the soldering iron/damp towel method work for very very small dents?  I've got an annoying stray awl mark on my headstock from when I was drilling for the truss rod cover.

Yep - I've used it on my fenderbird headstock to get out a small ding.  Worked great!
 
In Dan Erlewine's book "Guitar Player Repair Guide" there's a long section on fixing these kinds of things. I've used his method of filling dents with thick superglue & accelerator successfully a number of times. Steaming is also covered but it's only going to do a partial job - I'd go straight to the superglue myself, if it's an area that your thumb is running over all the time. I had one of those, driving me crazy, and I can't even find it now.
I wouldn't advocate doing this until you've read the book.... :cool01: You need some kind of accurate little files or a fair amount of confidence with sandpaper wrapped around a narrow stick to sand the fill back flat again.
 
Steaming is always the FIRST thing to try.

If the cellular structure of the wood is not broken, just compressed, then the steaming will usually make the repair completely invisible, or quite nearly so.

After that.. I'd not do the superglue, but just leave it be. 

However, a picture would be nice, for a better idea of the damage and corrective measures needed.
 
But CB, the sides of the fretboard have a hard finish...

You could try to tape off the maple, sand the finish off the rosewood, and then steam it out.
 
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