Wooden Inlays On Fretboards

[SawDust_Junkie]

I am working on a practice project to develop several different aspects of my guitar building. The body is made of several pieces of some old White Oak firewood I had in the backyard, laminated together with some Mahogany strips. This made a type of "cutting board" looking body blank. I used this for the top of the body, with a two piece White Oak back.

I can get Rosewood blanks from a local Woodcraft shop that are perfect for fret boards. They are 3" x 24" x 1/4". These sell for about $8.00 apiece. I thought at that price I could pratice slotting and radiusing my fret board at little cost in case of mishaps.

As another cost saving measure and to also practice doing inlays, I was thinking about doing wooden inlays on a Rosewood fret board. I was thinking about using some scraps of the White Oak I have left to keep the overall "wood theme" of the guitar. The neck is also a White Oak/Mahogany laminate like the body.

The questions I have are :

Has anyone here ever done wooden inlays on a fretboard ?

If, so, what do you see as the pros or cons of it ?

Also, I know Rosewood does not need a finish perse, other than a light coating of linseed oil or lemon oil or tung oil. But, what about the Oak ?

Keep in mind that these pieces of Oak would be small like any inlay.

Do you guys think there would be an issue with the Oak as far as grain filling or needing to use some type of finish on it ?

I know this kind of unusual, but I just want to play around and experiment and learn from this project. So I thought this would be a kind of neat inlay method and the wood shouldn't be too hard to work with to cut out the inlays and sand the fretboard radius and such.

What do you guys think ?

[68 lost souls]

Do a search I had a thread about this before not sure how helpful it will be. I havent done it yet as I had to put my build on hold for financial matters. Starting it again soon though (tax man owes me money) anyways I would like to hear what people think and what it came out like. I know there was a thread here about basses with wooden inlays. Should be on the 1st two pages somewhere.

[SawDust_Junkie]

Thanks for the reply 68 ! I did a search and found this thread:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...l=wooden+inlays

So it looks like a few people here have thought about, but not tried it yet, except for Clavin. There were some good bits of information that I had not thought of, in that thread. I would be interested if ayone has done anything like this since the earlier thread was started, and what was their experience with it.

By the way, I went by my local WoodCraft store at lunch today. I picked up a piece of Bolivian Rosewood that was 24" x 3" x 1/2". The guy at the store even re-sawed and drum sanded the pieces for me. I now have two blanks that are 24" x 3" x 3/16". All of this for $15.00. That's a deal compared to roughly $20.00 for a pre-slotted fretboard from StewMac.

And, I now have two blanks to completely screw up ! Oh, well, its all in the quest for knowledge, eh ?

Edited September 2, 2005 by Fender4me

[Clavin]

On wooden inlays:

Treat them the same exact way as any other inlay.

Tips-

1) Different woods will chip and fray at the edges as you cut. Rosewood is very oily and dense, maple is very fragile and can crack, others just be careful.

2) When you glue your patterns to the wood, add some sort of backer to it that you can easily remove without sanding it off. I use 3M tack glue. It backs the material, and will come off with a razor blade. You never want to soak woods in anything. Scraping them gently is easier. I normally just glue my patterns on, and smear glue over the backs, then scrape the back clean after it's cut. It really makes that much difference during cutting. If you don't back them plan on losing large areas out from the bottom and having serious frays and cracks.

3) Lighter woods will get dirty fast on a highly played guitar.

4) Soft woods are only going to look good on headstocks or areas that will be under a finish. Putting them into a fingerboard is a BAD idea. They will wear down faster than the board.

5) You may want to use a thicker blade on some dense woods.

6) Using true veneers is a pain. Most are designed for overlay, not inlay.

Try to get your woods and thickness them on your own with a thickness sander. I inlay woods at .06", just as thick as my shell and metals.

Good luck, take your time, I am here to help.

Please read the tutorial on the blue shark inlay about how to make a basic inlay. I know it's out there, and it includes everything you need to know I think, and it's NOT "just about dots"

Best.

Craig L.

[68 lost souls]

Just wondering if instead of inlaying the wood it would be easier to cut the design completey lout of the fretboard and the use a new piece of wood to fill the gaps, i.e. cut out the desing in a rosewood board then use that board as a stencil on a piece of maple and put it in like a missing piece of a jigsaw with a bit of glue? Any thoughts?

[cSuttle]

Just wondering if instead of inlaying the wood it would be easier to cut the design completey lout of the fretboard and the use a new piece of wood to fill the gaps, i.e. cut out the desing in a rosewood board then use that board as a stencil on a piece of maple and put it in like a missing piece of a jigsaw with a bit of glue? Any thoughts?

←

I think this would be a bad idea. In could cause the board to weaken and possibly create problems sonically.

To return to the original subject, use thicker woods that will prevent the inlay from cracking. Headstock plates available from LMI (.14" thick) work great, aren't too expensive and come in a variety of nice looking woods. Inlay the wood deep, say .08". This will also get rid of the problem mentioned above about the wood chipping around the edges since the bottom will be in the board and the top will be sanded off.

Inlay the board with epoxy (the two tube kind) using some of the saw dust from the fretboard not the inlays to color the epoxy. Then radius the board after the inlays are in. This will create a nice smooth board.

Now here is a POSSIBLE problem, although not very likely; many woods contract and expand at different rate with humidity. It POSSIBLE that the two different woods could lossen and cause the inlay to come loose. Not a big problem since the inlay can be reglued, but just something to keep in the back of your mind. This could also cause the glue around the inlay to crack. Another thing not too hard to fix, so not a biggy. Sealing the board could be helpful in preventing this.

Lastly, the comment above about soft woods is a good one if the inlays are large. If they are small (say less then the size of your finger pads) then this shouldn't be problem.

Good luck with your project.

[sashimimi]

Hi, I think that inlaying wood into wood is called marquetry. A while back, in the prs private stock, they had a neat marqutry (usage??) of some guys playing baseball, but it was removed. If you search goole images for marquetry there is some amazing things, especially with dyed wood and shading etc. Good luck with your project.

Edited September 4, 2005 by sashimimi

[whitey]

cSuttle:

you said that all the problems could be fixed by sealing the fretboard,i'm assumiong that polyeurothane would work,but what about an oil finish?

[ToneMonkey]

I tried it (I used to be Hotrock in a past life - I started the thread that you linked to).

It seemed very possible, I was just crap at doing it and it turned out...well...crap.

Look out for rosewood sawdust "bleeding" into your white oak inlays

[cSuttle]

cSuttle:

you said that all the problems could be fixed by sealing the fretboard,i'm assumiong that polyeurothane would work,but what about an oil finish?

←

Actually oil is what I was thinking about. Remember this isn't a big problem and shouldn't happen in most case as long at the inlays are set deep. It's the thin inlay that will pop.

[whitey]

i see,so about 2 or 3 eights of an inch,depending on fretboard thickness,k,thanks

i have an idea for a bass i'm making,a mix of purpleheart inlays and mop,simple design,but effective...i hope :O lol

[jay5]

The guy at the store even re-sawed and drum sanded the pieces for me.

Fender, they did that for you at the Woodcraft in Raleigh? Did they seem irritated when you asked? I always feel like theyre looking at me like im gonna steal somthing when I go there

[SawDust_Junkie]

Hey Jay ! Yeah, they did it at Woodcraft over off of Glenwood Ave. Can't remember what the guys name was that did it, but he is one of the younger guys that works there.

He told me that the store doesn't generally do cutting jobs, but since it was just one piece and a small one at that, he just used the tools they have setup in the shop they use for teaching classes and it took about 10 minutes to re-saw the blank and then run it through the belt sander a couple of times. ( I think he actualy wanted to try out the new portable belt sander they got in and so he was playing with a new toy !)

Anyway, I just gave him $5.00 and he pocketed that and I payed for the wood at the regular price. So, the way I see it, win/win for everybody.

[Clavin]

Inlaying wood into anything is still inlay. Not marquetry. Marquetry is a differently performed art, but can give similar results.

C.Lavin

[sashimimi]

Oh sorry, thanks for the correction Clavin.

[whitey]

ok,got my ebony fretboard a few days ago .should i put the inlays in before i join the fretboard or after its on...or does it matter...or...doesn't it matter? thanks

[SawDust_Junkie]

I think you'll find the consensus here to be to that you want to do your inlay before mounting the fretboard to the neck. It is much easier to do the neccessary routing or drilling (if your inlay is simple dots).

[Clavin]

I prefer to do my work on almost fully complete necks, boards on, slotted, and radiused. There is a higher risk of losing everyting, but once you know where your going it's easier. For a beginner I would recommend a radiused, slotted OFF neck board.

Why radiused and slotted?

You'll make yourself be more careful (hopefully), and also hopefully take more time doing things correctly.

Craig L.

[whitey]

i have just got a flat pre-slotted board,and i see wat u mean,dont want a 5mm D hole through the back :S lol

and i'm doing les paul style blocks in purple heart,and a mother of pearl triangle,simple...ish.will still work on idea's tho, thanks for advice,

[Ptt-Guitars]

Im currently building an acoustic steel string, the neck is rosewood and I've inlaid it with strips of maple.

Things which I took into account were, the desity of the wood used for the inlay (in relation to wear and tear) and the size of the inlay, also relavent to the previous point.

It will be interesting to see how it reacts to extreme playing.

[cSuttle]

The guy at the store even re-sawed and drum sanded the pieces for me.

Fender, they did that for you at the Woodcraft in Raleigh? Did they seem irritated when you asked? I always feel like theyre looking at me like im gonna steal somthing when I go there

←

You've got to stop wearing the bag over your hand and carrying the gun.

[cSuttle]

i have just got a flat pre-slotted board,and i see wat u mean,dont want a 5mm D hole through the back :S lol

and i'm doing les paul style blocks in purple heart,and a mother of pearl triangle,simple...ish.will still work on idea's tho, thanks for advice,

←

Sounds pretty. Purpleheart is an excellent choice to. It is a very hard wood and will hold up well to lot of playing.

[Doeringer]

You can use wood inlays in a maple fretboard since you have to lacquer them anyway.