I chose to undertake a full refret of my old "Lotus" laminate top mando. It had the typical issues of an old entry-level instrument: divots and dents in the frets, fret ends springing up over the binding, and not enough material left in the frets to accurately level and recrown.
It was a flat board, but I put a 10" radius on it. I even got fancy and figured out some tricks for nipping and filing the tang to overhang the binding. However, I haven't yet cleaned up the fret ends -- I want it to settle for a day and make sure nothing springs up.
My question is twofold:
1) Has anybody ever (purposefully) extended the fret slots through the binding?
2) On an old instrument with no historical or monetary value, what would it hurt to fret straight through the binding?
I'm obviously not afraid of work, but I now see why bound fretboards cost more. Assuming in the worst case that I had to redo my fret job, what would be the trade-offs of just extending my fret slots all the way out?
Thanks for all your information and tips that I've used so far!
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