Batfink

Speaking of which...I have this cutting board from Ikea...it's huge, and it's at least Les Paul thick, made up of lots of little rectangles...I've been thinking it'd make a funky looking guitar... ← Ahhhh, the Beechblockocaster commeth ! Jem

I may be wrong but i think a lot of original Shergold guitars had Obeche bodies. Not that thats a great help in how it is to work with but it does prove that someone did use it for 'mass' produced guitars. Jem

There are two radius of nut available for OFR, 10" and 15"...i can't for the life of me remember which are which ! Edited to say: yes i can remember as i brought a replacement nut and couldn't work out why the thing played like a dog until i did some background looking as the guitar in question originally came with an R2 nut but the replacement i got was an R3. I can't 100% say this is correct but what i wrote down was: R3 and R5 are 10" radius and R2 and R7 are 15" radius. Jem

On the MOH scale both MOP and Abalone are relatively soft'ish. As it's just dots, rather than sharkfins or something massive like that, you should be able to sand the new dots edges flush with a fine file or failing that some 320 or 400 grit wrapped around a ice cream stick or something simular. Take it slow, check regulary and you should be able to get them flush without significantly touching the fretboard and without going anywhere near a fret as such. As with everything try it on scrap first, (i wish i practiced what i preached ), buy a few extra dots and practice your technique, i'm sure you'll get the hang of it quite quickly. Jem.

OK, you didn't mention that they were just dots in your original post. Just hike 'em out as described and pop the new one's in with a tiny bit of superglue, if you take your time and are carefull when you sand them flush you can do it without removing the frets. Jem

Errrrrr.....what are you exactly trying to do ? You say you want to change the inlays...from what to what, as i'm trying to think what you're planning to do with all this sawdust ? Are you: 1)... wanting to remove the old inlays and, using sawdust, try to make the board look as if it has no position markers at all. 2)... wanting to remove blocks or crowns and replace them with dots, hence the sawdust to fill in the larger cavity's 3)... remove some cheap plastic or MOToiletseat and replace them with MOP or Abalone and want to raise the bed as the existing inlays are deeper than the new material you want to inlay. In answer to some of your questions: Drilling: most inlay material is around 1mm > 1.5mm thick so you dont have to go very deep at all. If you have a brad point bit use that, the smaller the better until you get the first one out and see what you're up against. Use a hand drill if available as a power drill will be through to the rod in no time . Once you've broken through the middle of the first one use whatever's at hand to gouge the remainder out....carefully. Sawdust: All woods will, with the exception of ebony, change colour when their dust is mixed with glue, they tend to go lighter or darker. Ebony still changes colour (tends to go darker) but it's much less noticable than with other woods. Superglue: Use the thinnest you can get so it will seep into the dust uniformly, don't use epoxy unless you're doing something big like the full headstock or the back of a banjo. Precautions: Don't drill through the neck or your fingers Hope this helps, Jem

Fine work Perry, fine work indeed. Jem

"and also an idea would be maybe to use thinner fretwire.".........errrr, why ? I've got 8 Hamer Cali's and they all have 27 frets and use 6100 series wire which is around 2.8'ish mm. Jem

Hamer Californian ! Jem

Matt, what you need is a bullion dealer not a normal jewellers, jewellers are NOT allowed, by law, to sell any gold or silver that isn't hallmarked and obviously a un-specified length of silver stock ain't gonna be hallmarked. Not a million miles away from you in Southsea are Goulds Jewellers (do a search and if no joy pm me and i'll send a link) and these ARE a bullion dealer. Very efficient online ordering and silver stock isn't quite as expensive as you think...mind you it ain't so cheap either. Laters, Jem

Matt, i'm sure i've seen someone who put an led behind a MOP inlay (ie: a single shape) and as the pearl is slightly translucent the whole image (i'm sure it was a winged devil ala Black Sabbath) sort of glowed. I'll try to remember where i saw this but the memories fade fast nowadays Jem

I don't know why i haven't found this before but Behlen's UK website now offers sanding sealer, as well as other stuff, in spray cans....a godsend for people like me who have very limited access to proper spraying equipment and end up brushing sanding sealer on which is a crap way of doing it. Anyway just a heads up for the UK as we all moan about S'macs etc not being able to send such things via airmail. Jem

I think on this occassion i'll keep my money in the bank thanks. Jem

"so I'm not really sure what the difference is between a sealer and a primer" Don't fully quote me on this but to my mind: sanding sealer is (perhaps not always but the stuff from Behlen's is) clear so you can see the grain through it for transparent finishes and also to seal in any dye's or stains that have been applied to the bare'ish wood. primer is coloured (light for light colours / dark for dark colours) for a solid finish. Both, to all intents and purposes, do the same thing.....well that's my hang on it. Jem

The only 'dyed' shell i've ever seen is laminate sheet thats been pre-dyed before it's epoxy coated. I'm not quite sure what you could dye normal shell with as it's not very (if at all) porous, so as soon as you sand, away goes the colour. I think the acrylic suggestion above is what you're perhaps looking for. Jem

If your fretboard is not radiused at the moment there is no reason to radius before you inlay. What LGM and Craig have said is that they get thier fretboards already radiused not that they radius them before they start inlaying....please someone correct me if i'm wrong. Jem

Gun, this is not what i meant to say. Ebony dust when mixed stays around the same colour of the original wood BUT Rosewood does not, it tends to go a lighter colour. Try to route your cavity very close so just the excess glue will fill the gap. Jem

Definately sounds like a plan to me Jem

Of course you can change them but on a finished neck it's a bit tricky. Try the search facility as i'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere but basically; drill with a brad point bit the old one's out...superglue the new one's in. The problem you'll find is (sorry, i can't get on SMc's site for some reason at the moment) if it's a maple board it'll be laquered over so drilling out the old dots will make a mess and you'd really have to re clear the neck. Also, the fact that's a complete neck you'll have to make sure that all the dots are in at the same angle or else it'll look weird ! I'm sure i saw, within the last few days, that SMc's necks are made by Carvin (may be totally wrong) so why not give SMc's a call and see if they can offer the neck with different dot material as a special order....and no doubt for some SMALL upcharge, but it's better than making a mess of a new neck. Jem.

Greg, i know of a few people that use dentist drill bits, i don't purely because everytime i see my dentist it cost's about the same as a guitar build Jem

Not that i want to get into this but errrr...that would be Titebond then, see the post above your's whitey. Jem

Chris, common sense really. Just make sure everythings compatible with everything else otherwise if you start mixing nitro with acrylics with waterbased with whatever else you could end up with a gooey mess or something that NEVER dries hard. If your thinking of going to a local paint factors explain what you're up to and most are more than willing to guide you through. The first time i walked into my local paint factors and i blurted out that i wanted to paint something the guy immediatley said 'painting a guitar then !' and it turns out that this isn't as unusual a request as i thought it was. You'll find that most can mix up whatever you want depending if you're going to gun it or can it although obviously you won't be able to get metalflake and some other groovy finishes in can version due to nozzle and pressure limitations. Just another thing, my local parts factors closed down recently and they were having a clearence sale and i got 12 big cans of nitro clear for a tenner....always worth keeping an eye out ! Jem.

Craft supplies David Dykes (Luthier Supplies) I think Touchstone's also carry nitro as well, i'm not sure as i buy most of my stuff (grain filler / sanding sealer being the exceptions) from my local auto paint supplier. Jem

Greg, Most wood suppliers will sell CA (superglue) in a variety of viscositys (is that a real word ?!?!?) and compared to the little bottles you buy at your local DIY store it's cheap (but if you don't have a local supplier just use superglue from your diy store, it's not like you'll need gallons of the stuff). As for router bits for Dremels: Stewmac are, to my mind, horrifically expensive for some things especially when you're not US based and as Guitarguy said, there's normally an alternative (but i will admit i wouldn't be without thier router base, the standard Dremel one's crap). I use twin flute down cutters that are manufactured for making printed circuit boards, they cost me between £5-£8 ($9-$15 Usd) for 10 depending on the size, and are plunge point so you just stuff 'em in and away you go and size wise they go from .8mm > 3mm. I've been inlaying for about three years and still make the most stupid cock up's routing stuff out, it's one of those practice, practice, practice things. Oh, about the dust / glue thing: 99.9% of the time, for me anyway, you can get away with just using CA by itself but if you make a horrendous mistake and it's too late to go back and start again just fill the hole with dust and dribble a little glue into it (not a bloody great dollop else you'll be sanding for ever and it tends to look worse than if you'd left it with just glue). Final top tip, if your cavity is a bit oversize and you're worried that you'll see the edge of the blank just go round the blank with black permanant marker before you glue it in and it'll take the eye away from the join. Jem

"For the stem titebond will work fine, for perloid I believe I will use the epoxy with some rosewwod powder mixed in if the route is too big." Do be careful with rosewood, the dust tends to not match the wood when used as a filler. I tend to use ebony all the time because i'm a chicken Jem