alright kids, me again!
went today to see the guitar (it's like visiting a relative in hospital! i ate the grapes myself) the fretboard really is in a pretty sorry state. Jonathon and Wez both talked about heating the frets to soften any glue, obviously tech#1 hadn't heard of this and had just ripped the old ones out. the fret slots are now almost as wide as the fret itself! he had pulled out so much wood he had actually dislodged a couple of the inlays. so, with considerable sadness, it seems that a new fretboard is the best way to go. i realise this means the guitar will be non-original, but it will also be playable, which i consider fairly important! as regards originality; it has, at some point in it's life, been converted for full size humbuckers, and then later the mini humbuckers put back in, complete with little bits of maple to fill the bits that had been routed out.
i've had a miserable week, started with being dumped, has involved two deaths, this guitar thing, and then on my way up there today i got a flat tyre, during the only heavy rain of the evening, on a road an inch deep in muck. i'm actually surprised i survived the journey home! so, at least the guitar thing can be repaired, and may even turn out better than it was.