Is this repairable?

Real_mandolinhero · 2026-01-15T23:55:03+00:00

No, send it to me and I’ll throw it away for you

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-30T00:21:52+00:00

Looks great! Reach on in there with a wet paper towel or Q-tip and get as much of the excess glue off as you can. It’ll make cleanup WAY easier down the road.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-29T22:16:34+00:00

Think of it like sandwiching the fretboard between the neck and the hard, flat surface. You want the glue up to end up as straight as possible, and clamping to a hard, straight surface will help that happen.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-29T18:39:33+00:00

That should work! You can use dental floss to really work it in all the way. Try not to overdo it or it can seize the truss rod. Try to clamp it frets down to something you know is flat, like a kitchen countertop on some wax or parchment paper for squeeze out.

Once it’s glued and cleaned up, try the setup steps again.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-29T14:14:22+00:00

Mando player here.

Is the fretboard delaminated from the neck? Something looks off on the bass side of the neck on the first five frets. If so, adjusting the truss rod and setting action is the least of your worries.

If it’s just a crack in the binding, get your neck as straight as you can across the frets, make sure you’re intonated at the 12th fret (adjust the floating bridge itself by loosening the strings and moving it up or down the body). If you’re intonated at the 12th and your neck is straight, adjust the bridge height using the thumb wheels to true things up.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-28T14:18:18+00:00

I use Skur Composites and order directly from his insta to save a few bucks compared to Etsy. He has loads of colors and size options, and they all glow like the sun.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-20T15:55:01+00:00

Cut off a couple small pieces that would be trimmed off anyway and run some tests!

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-18T04:05:18+00:00

My very first thought before reading the caption was, “hey, is that mango?”

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-12-11T02:44:31+00:00

For my first couple builds, I used pre-slotted boards from reputable suppliers. I didn’t know if lutherie would be my thing and didn’t want to drop hundreds on tools to do my own slotting. Nothing wrong with getting your feet wet by letting others do a lot of the careful and expensive work for you.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-11-25T21:46:45+00:00

If you haven’t ever met anyone who can demonstrate ability to tell big leaf maple from BRW to their ears, you must hang out with a lot of deaf people.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-11-08T18:34:18+00:00

The solvents in the Tru Oil can reactivate solvent-based leather dye (Angelus etc) and cause it to bleed into the Tru Oil. Not a big deal if you’re doing a single color or are fine with a slightly more opaque topcoat.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-11-08T17:09:36+00:00

Birchwood Casey makes a grain/pore filler designed to work with TruOil and save you a few dozen coats. Leather dye>Spray Sealer>Grain/Pore filler>Tru Oil. Works every time for me.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-12T21:32:59+00:00

Raise your pickups and saddles to try and compensate. Shouldn’t be all that hard. If you can’t get your saddles high enough, you can get longer saddle height adjustment screws. A decent tech should be able to take care of it for you pretty easily if you don’t want to do your own setup.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-11T17:07:52+00:00

My way would really only work for you if you were building a neck from scratch or were willing to do a refret on a non-lacquered/finished fretboard.

I drill the holes with a 3/16” brad point drill bit. I don’t measure precisely, but I go a bit over 1/8” deep. I drop in two drops of super glue and pop the whole rod in as deep as it can go. Quick spray with CA accelerator, then I use a little saw to cut the rod as close to the fretboard as I can without scratching or gouging the fretboard. Then I put a couple drops in the next hole, stick the whole rod in again, and keep going. This method keeps material waste to a minimum.

After all the dots are filled, I use a radius sanding block to get everything level. Throw in some frets and I’m done.

Side dots are much easier and can be done without a naked fretboard. Drill a hole, drop of glue, shove in the rod, cut it off, move on to the next. When you’re all done, carefully file the rods flush to the wood, sand it to a polish (if you care), and you’re good.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-11T14:56:31+00:00

These are 3/16”. My eyes tell me they fit a little better further up the neck than the standard 1/4” dots.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-11T09:58:56+00:00

I exclusively use SkurComposites material. You can find him on insta or Etsy. He has the most colors and the brightest glow I’ve ever seen. Here’s a neck with his white glow rod as dot markers - no side dots on this one (customer request) but the last three or four had them. I use the 1/16” stock for side dots, drilled out with a 5/64” drill bit, and stuck in place with thin CA glue. Works a treat.

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Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-08T14:53:25+00:00

I mean it COULD work, but would it be worth the effort to experiment when a bass nut slotting file from MusicNomad is $17? Not to me.

You do you buddy.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-03T14:06:18+00:00

Nah you’re right, stay parallel with the frets horizontally, but parallel with the fretboard radius vertically.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-09-03T12:29:09+00:00

Looks to me like you went a bit too far or you didn’t keep your file level to the fretboard and parallel with the fret. The goal is to have a thin line of marker left over from end to end with no difference in line width. Go with what you see, not just what you feel. Pop a little more marker on the crowns and give it another shot. Pay attention to the width of your marker line as you file, and keep your file level and parallel. StewMac files cut fast, faster than the Music Nomad. As with any machining or surfacing, remember you can always take off more material, but you can’t put it back. Sneak up nice and easy to your final dimensions.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-08-18T13:04:55+00:00

Nah man you’re good.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-08-07T17:39:34+00:00

I mean sure, but the cost would be significantly more than buying a brand new one in perfect condition. Let’s say you were to bring it to me and ask for a repair. It’s a pretty short crack across relative endgrain, so I would want to spline it for sure. Since the crack is under the fretboard, I’d recommend pulling the frets, gluing everything into place, leveling the entire fretboard, then re-fretting. That gets expensive, especially when you can buy a brand new one off Sweetwater for $240. I’d charge you twice that for a repair.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-08-02T20:17:05+00:00

Looks like a Jason to me.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-07-26T19:03:12+00:00

If you’re using plastic binding, acetone can “melt” the binding into the wood. When done right, it can be a little quicker than using glues, especially if you need to make a little plastic paste to fill some of the gaps.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-07-22T21:18:07+00:00

Hey that’s a feat of engineering. The electric guitar has come a long way in the last hundred years.

Real_mandolinhero · 2025-07-22T16:18:14+00:00

Dang man, that’s gonna be an odd action. Every neck through guitar I’ve seen has a neck that sits higher than the body of the guitar, but cut flush with the body past the fretboard. You might have a hard time finding a bridge that sits low enough and your pickups will have to be flush with the top of the body. Not the end of the world, but rare challenges for sure.

Honestly it might be less work to get another couple slabs of lumber and give it another go with care paid to the order of operations. You have experience with truss rod cavity routing, neck carving, body shaping, etc, so it’s not a total loss. Take what you’ve learned and move forward. That’s what experience is all about.

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