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Posted (edited)

Hey guys...

I'm thinking of using either Ebony or Rosewood for the inlays on my next guitar. The fretboard is Pau Ferro. Will this look cheesy, or cool??? Good idea, or bad???

Well it is really up tp you and what you like, and the tastes in inlay that you have......

I will add that you need to pick something that has a good amount of cantrast to you fretboard. That way it will stand out.

Here are a couple of examplesthat I have made to show you what I mean..

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aut3395sr4.jpgaut3847bw1.jpg

aut3848ek3.jpg

Mike

Edited by rsguitar
Posted (edited)

I'm starting to like marquetry more than I like inlaying shell. Here's one I just finished(I had made another one just like it, but it didn't live up to my standards). This one will be getting some copper tubing as dots. They'll be off center towards the bass side. Those dots are the big challenge, to be honest. I need to order a piece of titanium tubing with the right od and id and machine some teeth on it, I think.

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peace,

russ

Edited by thegarehanman
Posted

How did I do that, well let's see...first I tapered the fretboard. Then I routed off enough wood to leave room for the coco binding. Then I routed a ledge for the white purfling. I then cut out the coco pieces and lined the outside of them with white purfling. Next, I routed cavities in the fretboard for the coco. I then glued in the coco and trimmed off the excess. Next I glued the white purfling onto the sides ofthe board where there was ebony, but not cocobolo. Finally, I bound the board in cocobolo.

No progress pics though, sorry. It's too simple and streamlined a process to actually bother stopping to take pics.

peace,

russ

Posted

ya know what i tried that worked well;

i tried ordering some birdseye headstock plates from lmi; but they wernt wide enuff for ****; but very bright gold/yellow; i cut them into big squares like an LP or somthing and thay look awsome; my only concern is if i should put a finish on the fb so it dosent get dirty/damaged, cause its pretty soft wood; it worked perfect because it was about 2mm thin i think;

Posted

why not buy core drills for the right diameter or plug cutters or whatever? I am sure it will be cheaper and last longer than titanium tubes... and should be available in most diameters.

Titanium isn't as hard as the movies want you to believe, alot of steel (especially tool steel) is harder. Titanium only makes sense cause it's lighter and almost as hard as steel, and corossion resistant too. So unless you are building airplanes or high class race cars, stay away from titanium...

Posted

rahimiii, the aerodynamics fluids labs I work in is constantly requiring that I order titanium and stainless steel tubing, so those two metals are the most convenient, durable metals for me to get my hands on in specific dimensions. Anyhow, if nothing else, it's good for bragging rights... :D

peace,

russ

Posted

Rosewood on Pao Ferro is going to be almost invisible. Ebony could work, but it won't show up real well, so that would be more of a subduded look.

any suggestions??? i wans something striking. I've never worked with shell. Next guitar. :D

What about maple, cocobolo, purple heart, red heart (problem with sun light on this one), cedar, etc. Just anything out the the brown/black range would show up better.

Shell is really not that much harder to work with than wood. I a lot of ways I like it better.

Posted

why not buy plug cutters or whatever?

Plug cutters!

I was going to ask how one goes about making wood dots....now, I just have to figure out how they call these in French...(insert obscene joke here)

(edit: they're called 'fraises a bouchonner' ...as usual, I won't find it in a regular hardware store and online it's massively overpriced... damn French... :D )

Posted

If you can find one in the UK, send it to me and I'll forward it on to you. If it works out cost effective anyway.

Thanks, but usually the UK's just as expensive...I'll just pick a set up in the States next time I'm there.

But on a related note...maybe something like this exists:

A set consisting of two pieces --the first is a metal cutter, like a cookie shape cutter, that you could use to hammer an outline into wood --it'd make it easier to clear out inside the lines with a chisel.

The second piece of the set would be pieces of wood or whatever material in the exact shape and matching the dimensions of the metal cutter (or more accurately the shape it hammers into the wood).

Which would make it really easy to do certain types of inlays...Stars, for example. I really like stars.

So does that exist? What's it called?

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