Easy small modification to Eastman 305 fretboard extension

It turned out that my "sweetspot" for picking on my Eastman 305 was right over the end of the fretboard extension. Unfortunately, this resulted in a lot of annoying noise from the pick hitting the fretboard. So this morning, I decided to scallop the end of the extension to get it out of the way of the pick. I was actually pretty easy.

I pulled the last three frets. I don't have a fret puller, so I used the edge of a sharp knife to pry up under the edge of the frets. I did put some water on the fretboard before I tried this, but I still got a LOT of severe tear out on the fretboard. In this case it didn't matter, but I would NOT try this method anywhere else on the fretboard.

Once the frets were removed I shaved down the fretboard with a small rotary sanding drum bit on my Dremel tool. It only took about 10 minutes to get it down to the thickness I wanted. I thinned it just enough to get rid of the old fret slots, finish sanded it by hand, and dressed the entire fretboard with mineral oil.

I really like the result. It is easier to play, and sounds great, and was not difficult to do.
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Looks good!
I had the same dilemma with my 404. The extension is definitely right in my sweet spot! I did mine over the summer.
I didn’t pull the frets. I used a razor saw to make some cuts perpendicular to the frets and then I worked up with the saw horizontally from the end of the extension taking out a chunk at a time. Finished with various grits of sandpaper. I wasn’t timing it, but I think it took a couple of beers and a few John Prine albums. I’m happy with the results!
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Steve,
That looks nice! There is always more than one way to skin a cat. On another note, I really liked John Prine and am totally bummed out that he is gone!

Thanks! I was glad that I didn’t loose any of the precious ivoroid! There’s definitely no wrong way to do it as long as the instrument survives the modification and the owner is happy with the results. I’m comfortable using most power equipment, but when it comes to precision work on instruments I’m better off leaving things unplugged!
Ahh!!! John Prine. A great loss, but he left behind a great legacy of music and song!

This idea is picking up steam. Looong time lurker on Mandolin Cafe. I saw this thread and immediately went to work - modified my Eastman 514 - this has been my primary instrument since I got it in 2006. The cut-away makes such an improvement on getting that sweet spot! I then got trigger happy and took the finish off the neck completely, scraped the binding and took down the finish before refinishing the whole body with Tru-Oil. Holy shit what a difference. The tone and sustain have skyrocketed after removing whatever goop they sprayed on. And trimming up the neck has been a great improvement as well Eastman's finish quality has definitely improved since, but their earlier models were not terribly well done.

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I left this major scratching as is - it was from my time in an indy rock band when I regularly wore suspenders and the clip rubbed off the finish. Sucker for sentimentality. Also a few years ago I had my friend Ben of Outlier Mandolins do a setup for me and I got one of his 3d printed tail pieces.

Here's a video of me playing (not perfectly...) the first half of the Bach Ciaconne on the newly restrung instrument before getting interrupted by my children https://photos.app.goo.gl/oaTQLSAHArkQne1PA

Finally, And as a little Easter egg for those reading this thread - in grad school I spent summer 2009 in Beijing -our Architecture Studio happened to be only 20 min drive from the Eastman factory. Of course I just had to organize a tour! Here's the album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/L2P6m6oJDtFA6bzA6

I'm now endeavoring to build my first mandolin from scratch. Will post separately.

Congrats to you all!
I just cannot keep one thing for myself.... I see that some of you sanded or removed wood dangerously close to the last fret. Be prepared that the guy refretting it in the future will likely pull big chunk of ebony at the ramp with the last fret and it would be more practical to remove one more fret slot and carve new ramp at least 1/8" from the next fret then trying to repair and save the damaged slot.

Adrian,
I noticed this too. Also, I felt that the scallop that I made the first time was not long enough. So I pulled 3 more frets and extended the scallop leaving more material in front of the last fret. I like this much better.

Looks good. For those wanting to do this putting water on the fingerboard before pulling the frets will swell the wood, making the frets tighter in the slots. This most likely will cause more, not less, tear out when pulling them. If you want to do something before pulling the frets heat them with a soldering iron then pull them. Heat one, pull one.

Heck, why stop there? Just go ahead and pull all of them except for frets 1-5. Never could understand why they insist on cluttering up the fretboard with all those frets no one uses anyway! ;)