I've decided to attempt to make inlays for the guitar I'm trying to build while I wait for Fernandes to produce more humbucker drivers for that sustainer kit.
After giving it much thought, it seems my best option would be to buy a "Jackson Style Neck", remove the fretboard, buy a pre-slotted fretboard , do my own inlays, glue the fretboard on, then take it to a shop to get the frets put in (I hope that's not TOO expensive).
I went with Morben's suggestion of Inlace, and I'm glad I did. It seemed to be the perfect consistancy - thin enough to pour, but thick enough to pour right to an open edge without any dripping off the edge.
For my first attempt at inlays (and routing), I used a scrap 1x4. I got white Inlace and tried adding only a little green dye, but it barely changed the color. I ended up with a very, very light blue-green.
My second and third attempts failed because they never dried. I could not get a halfway decent green color, no matter how much dye I added, and I ended up adding quite alot (experimenting, you know).
I'm pretty sure it didn't dry because there was just too much dye. I'm going to try clear Inlace with green dye when I get around to ordering some clear.
On my second successful attempt was on a 2x4. I tried making it go around a corner and was suprised at how well that worked. It seems to be durable and feels/looks alot like a very hard plastic. All the rough edges you see are because of my shabby routing job (not to mention the fact that I'm doing it on lumber).
There are two ways I'm thinking of doing the inlays on my fretboard.. Either make the whole fret into an inlay, and have it like my second picture where it goes around the edge, covering both sides as well as the front..
Or the way I'd really like to do it, but don't know if it would work right...
I made this diagram (I hope you can see what I mean by it). Do you think having the inlay and the wood meet at the corner like that would work out? I want the inlays to take up the entire fret without having square ring around it like shown on the third fret.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.