KM 1000 cut off fretboard extension ???

[Werner Jaekel]

What will happen if I cut just behind 21 th fret with a saw ? My pick is always hitting the thing.

[lenf12]

"What will happen if I cut just behind 21 th fret with a saw?"

Sam Bush's 1937 Gibson F-5 look alike. It's your mandolin and you can do whatever you want to it. There may be some diminished resale value but so what. If you do cut it off, try to salvage some of the binding and glue that back on the cut end of the fretboard. If you do this carefully, it could look like a pro job. Otherwise, take it to a pro luthier to have it done right.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[Pipeous]

Best thing I ever did to mine. I hated that thing
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...t=floridectomy

[kkmm]

I hate that extension too, so I cut it off

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...highlight=kkmm

This was done just with a steak knife !!! I have better tool now (rotary tools with a lot of attachments) and can use it to sand the cut flush with the sound hole.

[Gregory Tidwell]

So what's to hate about an extension? Just that you hit it with your picks? Does its removal change the instrument's sound? Thanks!

[Ben Milne]

Gregory, yes pretty much. Hitting the extension with your pick A: produces a percussive sound which is transmitted to the body, and B: inhibits a pick from making a nice clean contact with the top strings. Each to their own, some folk live with it or have a technique around it, some folk scoop it out of the way, some folk abbreviate it.

[Werner Jaekel]

Thanks to all of ye, so I will cut it off and have more fun without this continuous " clic clac" sound. Very disturbing.

[bmac]

Werner:
Before you cut it off consider "scooping" it... Which is removing the last few frets and sanding down the estension to just below the depth of the frets. That way you will retain the aesthetics of the bound extension without the pick bumping it and the disturbing click.

[Pipeous]

I thought about scooping too but then thought if it isn't low enough for my liking, I would have damaged the binding so I couldn't put a piece back on if I cut it off after so figured be done with it. it's like hitting the pickup on the mandobird except I can't cut that off and it doesn't go click everytime I hit it. sure is getting a lot of little lines in it hehe

[Werner Jaekel]

Thank you, very good advice.

[Brutus1999]

But if you cut it off when it is still new, especially if it is close to the nut, won't it keep the tone higher and more shrill and prevent the tone from ever maturing into a deeper resonance? Oh wait, we're talking about fret board extensions........

[tburcham]

Scoop it.

[mandotopia]

I had mine scooped. It solved the problem and retained the look. I do not like the look of the Sam Bush model. Same thing for the Weber Yellowstone. If not scooped then consider an alteration like on a Collings fretboard.