Repair Services

This is more of a modification than a repair, actually. Many modern mandolin players experience “pick click” because they like to pick in the area over the long extender, and some decide to have the extender’s surface relieved to allow room for the pick under the strings without it contacting the fingerboard and making the clicking sound. This mandolin needed fret work (mill and re-crown) and the owner asked to have the extender relieved or “scooped” while the work was being done.

Click on the thumbnails to see larger images.

Here’s the starting point. This mandolin has the full 29 fret extender as introduced on the F5 mandolin.

First, I pulled frets 23 through 29 out of the extender.

I think a “scoop” looks best with a nice radius or curve going up to the original fingerboard surface. I wanted to relieve the surface all the way to the bottom of the fret slots for a smooth look, so I figured I could get the best radius by putting the center of the radius right at the bottom of the 23rd fret slot. Cutting away wood too close to the 22nd fret might leave it weak and prone to chipping when the fret is removed sometime in the future, so I had to use a fairly small radius. I used a rat tail file of about 1/4″ diameter to start the cut…

…right over the 23rd fret slot.

Here, I’ve filed almost to the bottom of the fret slot.

For a smoother surface, I switched to a fine grit 1/4″ sanding spindle…

…to finish the cut to full depth.

I used a chisel to chamfer the edge all the way around the extender…

…so that I could pare away the wood with a wider chisel without risk of chipping the edge of the ‘board or knocking the binding loose from the edge.

Here’s the chiseled surface, almost to the bottom of the fret slots.

If you notice those chips of ebony and plastic lying around on the bench, you’re seeing one of the reasons for chiseling away the wood rather than grinding it away. All that stuff would be dust if I had ground away the material, and some of it would be in the air and in my lungs!

I switched to a file to remove the last bit of wood for a smooth surface. (I will, alas, be making a little dust starting now.)

Some block sanding starting with 120 grit and going to 320 grit…

…followed by some hand sanding with 400 grit…

…and a quick buff with this small rag wheel buffer in a flex shaft tool…

…and the surface is appropriately smooth and glossy…

…and flat and low.

Now that the frets are milled and re-crowned, and the whole fingerboard cleaned up…

…it’s time to string it up and play without “pick click”!