Gibson MASTERTONE Mother of Pearl Name Block Restoration

    There are a lot of banjos that have these Mastertone pearl blocks set in the neck.  Often times the lettering will start loosing the crisp look that it had when the instrument was new.  The reason is the block was engraved and the engraving was filled with a black or very dark material (to make the lettering easy to read) when it was new.  Now that about 30 years have passed, this Mastertone block needs to be refreshed.

Click on photos for a larger view

    This pearl block is pretty rough looking to me.  The first step to recovery is a good cleaning.  I have removed the frets from this Gibson RB-250 to prepare it for refretting, but this can just as easily be accomplished while the frets are in place.

The tool I am using is a small, stainless steel scribe and I am carefully scraping away any remaining filler.

The thing that looks like a hair dryer, but is not, is a heat gun and when placed on high this tool can and will set things on fire!  Oh, the drama, right?  No.  I have children ... enough said.  

The last item in the photos above is a very cheep, oversized, black crayon.  I do not use the name brand ones that work so nice in coloring books, like Crayola, as they are nice and soft and are smoothly transferred to the recycled paper of the coloring book.  This crayon was purchased, along with it's colored brothers and sisters (say, that's pretty funny) at the Dollar Store and is terrible when used as a crayon because it is hard, it tears the paper, and little crayon makes it to the paper without a lot of effort and pressure.  This may make the young ones cry, but it makes Richie happy because it is a very good wax for bringing these MASTERTONE blocks back to life.

With the heat gun on low, I heat the block after having cleaned it.  After the pearl block has reached around 160 degrees Fahrenheit the crayon can be rubbed gently across the lettering and allowed to cool.  After cooling, the excess wax can then be removed with a clean paper towel and the end result speaks for itself.  I am very careful not to get any of this wax into the fret slots.

I hope this has been a helpful, insightful series.

Richie Dotson