• Ernie Ball
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  • Sterling by MusicMan

TheShreddinHand

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Jan 12, 2010
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Pittsburgh, PA
Hey guys, take a look at this picture of the side of my frets where they meet the edge of neck and notice the two holes immediately below the frets? Is this cause for concern? I had a bit of fret sprout on the treble side of my fretboard earlier this winter that I countered with a case humidifier and it did the trick no problem, but these two small holes don't appear to be related to fret sprout and they don't cause me any issues, just wondered if anyone knew anything or had something similar?

photo1_zps5fb9789f.jpg
 

Spudmurphy

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Aug 23, 2005
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I'm not speaking for EB but my conclusion based on watching the factory tour videos is that an operator uses a wax type substance which is colour matched to the fretboard, to seal the very end of the fret tang. I am assuming that this "substance" is no longer "in place"?

This wouldn't be a concern on my part and if it were to bother me I'd just probably use some wax on the end of my finger to fill it in - maybe when I next did a string change.

So in my opinion -There is no problem with your fret board.
 

Lou

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Jan 23, 2003
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MA
No worries. I have this on several guitars EB and others.
 

jvh

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Aug 29, 2010
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Hey, you might want to check at 6:50 of this video. How To Build Ernie Ball Music Man Guitars & Basses - YouTube . It looks like musicman cuts the tang short and then fills it in. Not a bad idea from my perspective. Not sure if they do it for time saving or just to try to avoid the overhang. Interesting that the gap showed up on the top, but since it's at the top and not the bottom I'm sure the frets still flush on the fretboard otherwise you would notice a high fret. So like the others said not a problem, but just wanted to show the video that spuds talking about.
 

Spudmurphy

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Hey, you might want to check at 6:50 of this video. How To Build Ernie Ball Music Man Guitars & Basses - YouTube . It looks like musicman cuts the tang short and then fills it in. Not a bad idea from my perspective. Not sure if they do it for time saving or just to try to avoid the overhang. Interesting that the gap showed up on the top, but since it's at the top and not the bottom I'm sure the frets still flush on the fretboard otherwise you would notice a high fret. So like the others said not a problem, but just wanted to show the video that spuds talking about.
Yup, that's the very video I remember - nice one JVH
 

TheShreddinHand

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Jan 12, 2010
Messages
599
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Pittsburgh, PA
Hey, you might want to check at 6:50 of this video. How To Build Ernie Ball Music Man Guitars & Basses - YouTube . It looks like musicman cuts the tang short and then fills it in. Not a bad idea from my perspective. Not sure if they do it for time saving or just to try to avoid the overhang. Interesting that the gap showed up on the top, but since it's at the top and not the bottom I'm sure the frets still flush on the fretboard otherwise you would notice a high fret. So like the others said not a problem, but just wanted to show the video that spuds talking about.

Thank you JVH! I feel much better now and yes my frets are all flush and the perfect height. Not sure how I missed this video but that was great!
 

straycat113

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Aug 17, 2009
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Born and bred in Brooklyn NY
It looks like a tiny fraction of whatever substance they use at the factory to seal the edges most likely got pushed out when you had the fret sprout issue. I must say you go over your guitar with a fine tooth comb lol. All jokes aside nothing to worry about at all.
 
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