davee5 Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 So I've been thinking about trying to do some fretboard inlays which are simple, subtle, and personal for this baby. As a mechanical engineer I'm thinking about making my dots into little gears! I've got a deeeeeep black ebony fretboard and I think I'll do the gears in black mother of pear, something real subtle and hard to see from far away but which pop up close. Then the "rotating" centers of the gears would be done in either paua, abalone, or white MOP for a stark contrast and to make the fretboard look like it's got normal dots from far off. The 12th fret would be a bunch of the black MOP gears fully meshing where only those on the ends would have contrasting centers. Here's a mockup: and the full length version. Any thoughts? -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTU 7's. Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 Nice idea man! Maybe in the 12th you can put to wrenches, that would be a good idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 Or at the 12th, a larger gear that extends into the 11th and 13th. It doesn't all have to "live" inside the 12th. Good idea in general, though! I practiced some inlay on some scrap, and the logo I chose was the Mackie Tracktion logo, which is a half-gear. Not sure if the pic shows very good detail: Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davee5 Posted December 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 Dang, Greg, you whipped that nice example for me fast! I think my primary motivation with using a gear chain on teh 12th is a few things: - It allows me to keep a std. "dot" layout when viewed from a distance - It makes the whole gears motif more obvious than a odd-looking snowflake/star with involute rays. - I want to keep the details pretty small. Already I'm questioning if I want my guitar to be "the gear guitar" "geartar" or anything like that, it's intended to be a little personal touch, not a real deliberate statement. I would be choosing the black MOP pieces with the least amount of color in them, just enough to be noticeable, but pretty dang black. I actually was initially thinking of using std. dots in black MOP just too keep everything real subtle and classy-like, so having mechanisms all over the fretboard is still an idea very much in its infancy. Thanks for the note, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanb Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 I really like the idea, but I think they are too dark. I know you wanted subtle, but I think it would be better if you made them out of MOP or something and made them really stand out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davee5 Posted December 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 Ryan, I get what you're saying, why go through all the trouble of making 10-15 little tiny gears and their respective holes in a nice piece of wood if you don't actually want to show it off? Just for you I modified the mockup to the "white MOP" version. Also I currently have access to a bad-arse laser-cutting setup, so I may cut a few of these in stainless steel. I may not be as metal as, say, Metal Matt, and my guitar will in no way be metal, but at least I can have little bit of metal in there. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 What I think might be hot, is NOT doing it in any type of sheel, but doing it in sterling silver or gold, depending on whether you're using gold or chrome hardware. I've used sterling before and it cuts fine with a jeweler's saw and is fun to inlay. There are a couple of suppliers around that provide thin sheet sterling silver/14k gold perfect for this type of application. I know Myka has used it, might give him a PM? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davee5 Posted December 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 Chris, Myka name-dropped his silver supply company earlier, and I have a jeweler for another (non-guitar) project. However I'm a mote concerned about silver tarnishing over time. Pure silver would be ideal, but sterling will eventually fade. That said, I absolutely love Myka's silver ring outlines on his side dots and was very strongly considering ripping off that design detail. The main reason SS is on the table is I have immediate access to it, can get it cut to micron-level accuracy tomorrow (unlike my routing, and my access to the cheating-machines goes away very shortly), can do it for free, and I know the alloy I have will never tarnish. Plus its already polished! I'll probably get some stainless ones cut regardless, then I can go home and mock up the layout on the real board and see if I like it enough to do silver, or shell, or what have you. The mockup was deliberately done in illustrator, so I can export the DXF file and get it cut, since I don't have cad on my work laptop. Boo, but it gets the job done. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davee5 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 So I had the little stainless steel gears cut while I had the chance, even if I don't use them I'll have nice reference pieces. The best thing about using these steel parts is they're cut perfectly to shape, far better than I could cut by hand. I laid them out on my Gibson rosewood fretboard. What do you guys think? I haven't decided yet which of the following arrangements would be best, in approximate rank of preference: 1. SS (or silver) gears with abalone or white MOP center dots in "standard" fret marker positions and black MOP in centers on 12th fret meshing gears 2. SS gears with only black MOP centers in all gears (incl meshing gears) 3. White MOP gears w/ black abalone centers in std. marker positions and meshing gears 4. Black MOP gears with white MOP or abalone centers in std. marker positions I'm still thinking the black gears with std. dots in the cneters is the safe way to go, but the custom look of the gears seems more and more like it should be featured, not hidden. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanb Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Ryan, I get what you're saying, why go through all the trouble of making 10-15 little tiny gears and their respective holes in a nice piece of wood if you don't actually want to show it off? Just for you I modified the mockup to the "white MOP" version. Also I currently have access to a bad-arse laser-cutting setup, so I may cut a few of these in stainless steel. I may not be as metal as, say, Metal Matt, and my guitar will in no way be metal, but at least I can have little bit of metal in there. -Dave Cool. I definitely like it better that way -- especially the 12th fret. (I'm an engineer too.) Of course, pick the one you like best. The stainless ones look good, but that seems like it would be a nightmare to inlay. You can't hardly 'sand it down flush', and I would think that getting (and keeping) a good smooth, flat inlay to fretboard joint could be hard. Here's an idea ... how about a chain of gears (Rube Goldberg style) running all the way down the fretboard? ... different types of gears going all directions of course! Hummm ... that has potential ... I may have to work on that idea.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davee5 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 The huge chain-o-gears is an interesting idea, but more than I want to bite off this time around. Plus I don't want this to be the gear-guitar, I want it to just have some subtle, personal touches. Yeah, showing off the gears is appealing more and more to me, and I hear wha tyou're saying about sanding the SS, I might do them sub flush and cover them with clear epoxy, or I might redo them in shell. I figure if I use a good sanding/radius block then keeping them all flush should be tough but not impossible, yet why make things harder for yourself, right? Make more real shell gears or make an uneven fretboard, my choice I suppose. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Inlay them then use acrylic sheets over the top not unlike the pyramid JEM inlays. Thats how i would go about it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneMonkey Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 All the finest people are Mechanical Engineers Of course, if you were a proper Mech Eng, the cogs would rotate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.