A few years ago my client wanted to make his PRS shiny again using some Gibson polish.
This reacted with the finish on the neck, leading to some severe acid reaction.
After cleaning it all up, he noticed some darker spots on the fretboard around the 5th fret and up, and on the back of the neck. No, this isn't play wear. Take note kids, read the label!
Not just that, the frets were really worn. My client wanted a very specific fret size, that would match the feel of the original fretwire, but one that was harder than the regular 18% nickel-silver. Here you can see some measurements I took of the 22nd fret (seeing as that had the least amount of wear) and the comparison to the new fretwire. Once I was happy with the chosen size, I pulled all the frets out and adjusted the neck to were it was as straight as can be.
Checking the fretboard, I noticed the radius was all over the place.
Varying from 9,5" to around 11", obviously I wanted this back to the intended 10", so out comes the sandpaper! You can clearly spot the difference in color were the sandpaper hit first. After quite a lot of sanding the damage in the wood slowly started to fade, without having to sand away more than I wanted. I got lucky on this one.
After final sanding, the neck is perfectly straight.
So much so that my straightedge would stay up on his own.
The obligatory photo had to be taken...
The damage is almost invisible now, the fretboard is radiused and straight, with the right amount of trussrod adjustment. That way I can still go either way if the neck needs it when new frets are installed. As a final addition I shot a little video while wiping the fretboard with some naphtha. Look at that flame!
To be continued.