Making a slotted fretboard into a fretless has the feature that I can fill the fret slots with something of a different color than the rest of the wood and use them as fret position markers. This would be useful for this guitarist, who never played a fretless before. :-)
I initially wanted to use some maple veneer scraps that I had laying around (flame maple, but for this - who cares? :-) ) but then I though - maybe this will be too bright? I had also some padauk veneer, which has this nice reddish-orange color, that would not stand out as much and also should nicely match the red body.
The best way to see what it will look like is the usual small-scale test. I took one of the ebony cut-offs, put some superglue in four slots and inserted two pieces of each veneer:
After waiting about an hour for the superglue to set I trimmed the edges with pliers, quickly sanded the whole thing flat with P100 followed by P240 sandpaper, cleaned up with mineral spirits and gave a coat of Rustins danish oil to give it a little bit of the "finished look". Here's the result:
I like the way it turned out, comparing the two I think I'll be staying with the padouk.
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