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I had an instrument on my bench today and the concern from the owner was several other issues but I noticed this on the fretboard and neck seam.



My thought is that he didn't let the tool he used to cut the wood with cool down and as a result the wood secreted oil but he glued it up anyway. Or it could just be filler. Thoughts?

I told the customer that he ought to take it back to the maker and have him fix it along with the other issues (there were many).

It looks like a bound fretboard. I would suspect the type of glue used. There had to be a substantial period of time between milling the binding and gluing it on. Any milling heat would of dissipated rather quickly. If the surface was oily the adhesive wouldn't stick. How old is the guitar?

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

About 6 months, there's no binding it's just a slab board of purple heart on another piece of it for the neck.

+1 on the glue being suspect. I've worked with purpleheart for years in a martial arts weapon context. Epoxy right after an acetone wipe is the only thing I've found that really lasts. Not that you'd want to epoxy the board to the neck.....

Just a quick followup on this. The owner opted not to keep the instrument and instead sent it back for a refund.

The fretboard has a large radius on it. Never seen that before.
The nut looks terrible too.
Either the frets or the action looks very tall.
If there are cosmetic issues, there are bound to be hidden issues as well in my opinion.
Hope the feller can get a refund.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

There were plenty of other issues, here's some of the fretwork. I hope he can get a refund as well. Poor chap told me it was around 2k for it







The nut's fairly ugly as well.

Not good. I would be ashamed to do work that poor.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

What a mess!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.