MIMF

Thanks.

It finally came out nearly invisible, even from closer than 2m:



Thanks alot for the advice!

Good news!

Give it a couple of weeks of playing in and it will be invisible. Nice job!

Very nice work!

Just another question: what if such a mistake would have occured in an instrument for sale (which is not the case here)?
What would the market demand / accept such repairs in new instruments (of course if the client had been told and given a suitable discount)?

To me that would be a target conflict between sustainability and "professional craftmanship".

I have repaired a fret board on a commission (A5 mandolin) but the repair was absolutely invisible and that was my requirement. If the repair had been visible I was going to replace the fret board. I didn't ask the client.

Well, the same neck: a nasty mistake while fitting it - the neck pocket was so tight that i did not fully see that misfit because the neck never was correctly in the pocket The gap appeared to be a lot narrower as you can see from the slice of maple it dit already fit into the slot. And i should possibly not work at 3 o'clock in the night... And i needed to deepen the neck pocket a bit after sanding the body.

Anyway: the opposite side seems mostly "ok" although not "perfect".



Well, as a repair i am considering filling all three sides with a narrow stripe of rosewood. Intentionally make a contrast. Or would You use maple or walnut for that?

Use ebony to match fingerboard.

Oops....fingerboard is rosewood.

i agree - use a dark wood to make the contrast - you can see how it would look in your photo where the shadow is acting as a dark line

What do you think of the following idea to hide the gap frm the back (where it is widest)?

Regarding the gaps on the sides. These are much more narrow. I am considering to do a very narrow inlay of, say 1.1-1.25 mm (< 1/20 in), but i am completely unsure on the best way to cut such a slot. The cutaway would enforce a cutting angle of about 45° if i used a large chisel. And my smallest chisel is 2 mm, so i need to buy something appropriate.

I like the back inlay. Looks intentional instead of corrective. Very creative.

Thanks.

The main reason why i did not just do it is the questions on tools and procedure for the slots on the sides, which need to be done first, see

Recovery and fixing mistakes is the mark of a good builder Beate!

Great advice here. I was so embarrassed when I cut a wrong slot a few weeks ago I didn't even search for solutions. Akkk! My wood dust and superglue fill is obvious.
Probably you're all done but I've found that if a slot is only, say, .5mm off I can reshape extra wide fret wire to get it right.