DM-1F Build

I've been eyeing the DM-1F build for some time now, and finally pulled the trigger when one popped up in the Second and Specials menu. My money seems to be on a constant outflow now that this hobby has become and obsession, but what can I say, I love it.

Unfortunately I only have a couple of pictures of the build in its current state. My phone bit the dust over the weekend, and at some point the SD card had filled up and all pictures were going to internal memory, so they're gone. Below is what I have so far. I wanted to experiment this time with highlighting the flamed maple with black stain as the base. It's certainly not perfect, but I've learned a lot for the next time I want to attempt this.

Attachment 40835

It's going to look a little...off at the end. I wanted to change the bridge to an imitation Bigsby tremolo, but the posts are too far apart for a roller bridge. Instead I'm going to try and use a wrap-around bridge only for the saddles, we'll see if it looks too goofy to keep it that way. I picked up a black Wilkinson dog-eared P 90, but am now debating on using a cream colored P 90 for contrast against all the black hardware. Still more pondering to do there.

The next step is to add a little more red to the burst portion, right now it just looks black, but I want a nice onyx red, or just enough red that you see it in the sunlight. It'll get there though

Looking good so far

Have a question about the fretboard. As you can see in the picture below, there is a crack running along the 7th fret. You can tell there was a spot in the 8th fret but it was filled. What would you all suggest is the best way to handle this? I would think redoing the frets in that spot, fill, and then sand, but I've never redone frets, and the fretboard has binding, so it makes me very nervous. My next thought is just fill and sand that section, but the frets are still in rough shape. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Attachment 41488

Since you're in the US, I'd get brown-tinted CA from Stew-Mac.

Tinted CA - Stew-Mac

If I were doing it here (AUS) I'd just use clear CA as the SM stuff would be cost prohibitive for me to import (unless placing a big order of other stuff - which I typically wouldn't). It wouldn't be invisible, but I could live with it on my own guitar.

Using either clear or tinted, I would fill the crack, let stand for 24 hours (usually just overnight is enough) then scrape it flat with a razor blade before sanding.
When filling the crack, you want to overfill it and try and get enough liquid that it sits proud of the fretboard (it will shrink when cured) but doesn't create a pooled mess. You also want enough that when it shrinks it doesn't require another layer on top. You can do it, and sometimes it's unavoidable, but the more layers, the more risk getting air bubbles or weird seams.

When scraping, go with the grain just like sanding. You can put cello tape or masking tape on the blade to create a "depth stop" and also vary the width of your scraping area (there should be YT vids that detail how to do this).
There should be no reason to remove the frets IMO.

nice answer McCreed!
I like the look of this kit. I an in the process of finishing the PBG-1 kit I bought years ago, another custom design that I liked.
Looking forward to seeing the progress!