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There in lies the problem. The binding and purfling is on already. Fortunately, there is a gap in the rossette under the fretboard area as well as a gap in the binding/purfling for the trussrod. That will allow me to keep an eye on how thin everything is getting. My UTBs are flat in the middle and are very slightly tapered towards the ends so there is a VERY slight curve towards the rim on the edges. This works in my favor because I shouldn’t be removing quite as much material from the edges of the uppe bout. Also, the sound hole is forward shifted (18 frets), that should help too.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Here’s an old picture from just after the binding was installed but not sanded. You can see that there is not a lot of surface area to reshape for the fretboard extension. So, I got that going for me. . . Which is nice. . .


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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Nice looking guitar, for what it's worth. I think that purfling pattern suits the body shape perfectly.

My original comment about removing a bit of the top was meant to be considered in conjunction with thinning the fingerboard as much as possible. I faced a similar problem before and it all worked out fine. I'll bet yours will be okay too.

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George :-)

I had a similar problem on one. I chose to sand the top and it was sufficient. Unfortunately the upper third of the radial wood tile rosette was ruined in the process. It took a bit of work but I was able to repair the rosette and all was good. Do what it takes to get the geometry right then deal with the fallout. In the worst case you may have to replace the top; I've done that too - several times for one reason or another. If it doesn't play good it won't be worth anything.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I gotta’ give an update and, more importantly, a thank you to everyone. Tonight I taped a 2.5mm thick spacer across the saddle location and started sanding with a straight edge spanning from the spacer to the binding. In no time at all, everything was level and there was plenty of rosette left.



I guess I was expecting a bigger problem than I had based on how much it seemed to be off. I wasn’t thinking about the error getting larger the further you get down the angle. There really wasn’t that much of a discrepancy above the soundhole.

Thanks everyone for your ideas, support and calming me down from assuming the worst. A special thanks to Trevor for giving me the 2.5mm number for the saddle location without a fretboard attached. That made it SO much easier to get to the solution.

Edit:
Sorry about the weird picture orientation. . .
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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

And Bryan lets see the end result! Dave