Nat'l New Yorker fretboard 'creep' - Help!

Eric Potter · From: California, USA

hey gang! it's been a very long time. getting back into steel - found this neat old New Yorker while in Tucson - one of the very last vintage 'finds' from the old Chicago Store on Congress St.

as you can see, the fretboard has slipped down toward the bridge. i figure it was kept upright in its case, in the Tucson heat. but i don't really know what happened. notice that there are steel bindings on either side. i can't get the fretboard to budge. i'll probably try removing the bridge and pickup cover, to see if i can find the 'bridge end' of the fretboard and push it back. i don't know if they used glue... i don't see any in the exposed section that you can see by the nut.

any idears??

cheers,
eric

IMG_1806.JPG by echoparkguitar, on Flickr

IMG_1807.JPG by echoparkguitar, on Flickr

IMG_1809.JPG by echoparkguitar, on Flickr

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

The old Chicago Music store was itself worth the trip to the Old Pueblo, even in the summertime. An amazing place; wonder how much the Fire Marshall was bribed to let them stay open year after year after year. You could hardly walk through the place. They didn't just have everything, they had two (or more) of everything.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

If this were mine, I'd pull the bridge, see if pulling the control cover (Hawaiian/Chimes/Harp) seemed useful, then work with a hair dryer (not a heat gun) and see if I could coax some movement out of it. I'm guessing that you are correct re: hot weather creeping of the adhesive but only some examination and probing will determine the next step.
Great score!

Nathan Laudenbach · From: Montana

I looks to me like it just slides into and out of place. Just set it upside down for 15 years.

Peter Harris · From: South Australia, Australia

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

I had one worse ! I bought a new one, A New Yorker, in 1950, and had it sitting in the back window shelf of my 1941 Cadillac, and the sun on the case over heated the guitar, and warped the fret board,,really bad !!
Since the guitar was new, getting a new fret board was not a big deal, and I replaced it. I still have that guitar ( but rarely play it )

The hair dryer sounds like a way to get it back in position !

Eric Potter · From: California, USA

thanks, fellers! Jon - that's very much the approach i was considering. i'll go gradually with the heat. wish me luck!

Denny Turner · From: Oahu, Hawaii USA

Eric: I happen to have a Valco sitting right next to me with the same fretboard assembly; I had disassembled it for refurbishment. Your and my fretboards slide into 2 aluminum "J" shaped folded rails, ...one along each side of the fretboard, ...clearly visible in your photos, running from the nut to the pickup area. The fretboard is narrower at the neck-nut end and wider at the pickup end, ...and the rails lateral spacing corresponds to the fretboard width, wider at the pickup end than at the nut end; So the fretboard slides in & out from the pickup end and gets looser in the rails the more the fretboard is slid towards the pickup end. The rails are screwed to the neck, ...and 2 of the several pairs of screws along the neck can be seen in your photo just under the front edge of your fretboard that slid back. There is NO GLUE involved, so applying heat is not necessary and should not be used for several reasons. Your fretboard is being prevented from sliding out the pickup / bridge end because it's up against the bridge, stopping it from sliding out; BUT it can likely be slid back in with some CAREFUL teasing: Both the fretboard and the rails on mine are are quite thin aluminum, so any prying of the fretboard or rails will HIGHLY likely bend / deform the aluminum just at the immediate area that prying or pressure is applied. It looks like your fretboard is also aluminum with the fretboard graphics silk-screened on, but a margin along the edges absent of silk-screening so the ink / paint won't jam up in the "J" rails crook. ----- SO: VERY CAREFULLY see if you can push the fretboard back into the rails: You might be able to put some sliding pressure onto the ENTIRE end of the fretboard that's up against the bridge (playing card pressure shims said later herein). If that doesn't work: Remove the pickup cover; Remove the strings; And remove the bridge; ...so that you can gain access to the fretboard end and better see what's going on to get the fretboard to slide back in. I am guessing that you could make some pressure shims to protect and put evenly applied pressure along the rear-end edge of the fretboard, by folding several playing cards in half length-wise, one at a time, and pressing the fold down nice and straight, ...then one at a time slide one or more of those cards under the bridge-end of the fretboard so that half of the card would be under the fretboard and the other half sticking out upward at the bridge and the fold fitting nicely along the rear edge of the fretboard and thus applying (or a place to apply) even pressure against the rear edge of the fretboard, even if a stiffer tool might be needed to apply even pressure across the rear / bridge-end of the card(s) fold(s). DO NOT use a wet lubricant on the fretboard / rails assembly; A wet lubricant could run to the rails' screws and follow the screws threads down into the wood; A common cause of wood turning to mush around screw holes over time. If necessary you could likely tease DRY graphite powder lubricant into and somewhat along the crook of the "J" rails, from the bridge end of the rails, ...but you would then have to remove the fretboard and clean out that lubricant, lest over time it works it's way out and onto a player's hands, tone bar, etc. ----- Once the fretboard is removed (slid out), then very slight upward bends can be applied to the 90 degree pointed ends of the bottom surface of the "J" rails, at both ends of the rails (neck-nut end and bridge-ward ends), which will exert a slight upward clamping pressure upon the fretboard at the ends of the "J" rails; In your first photo you can see that such slight bends were put into the corners of the rails adjacent to the neck-nut (mine was also); Increase those factory bends SLIGHTLY.

I hope this helps.
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Denny T~
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Eric Potter · From: California, USA

thank you so much, Denny - this all makes perfect sense! i've got 'regular' guitar gigs all week, but after that was fixin' on pulling off the bridge and p'up cover to see if i can give the board a proper nudge. indeed - no evidence of any glue on the exposed area, and the aluminum 'binding'/J-rail has a couple of small dents in it - that may be crimping the fretboard in its current position.

hopefully i'll report back soon.

cheers,
eric

Gary Rue · From: Maryland, USA

Could a thin paper copy of the fret board slide into the channel without doing any harm?

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