Batfink

He's right, there's no such thing as 'cheap' inlay material. What are you after, i may have some offcuts that could be used for cutting practice but if it's big enough to be usefull then sorry but it's big enough not to give away. Depending on your location you can try David Dykes (Luthier Supplies) or Mike at Small Wonder Music (both Kent / Sussex border) but whichever way for plain MOP your looking 70p a gram which doesn't sound a lot but belive me it can add up very rapidly. Jem

Hi Craig, This is the guy i've got mine from, perhaps you may like them as much as i do ?!?! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...4350964893&rd=1 Jem Oooh, sorry if i've broken a forum rule by posting this link...doh !

Alexander, That's exactly what i meant, a lot of auto paint suppliers will be able to mix any colour you want, within reason, and stuff it into a spray can and echo'ing Genbloke the quality of paint (and nozzle) is far far FAR better than the crud you get at Halfords etc. Well put it this way, a VERY knowledgable Hamer collector enquired at what point Hamer did a Rising Sun graphic and was a bit put out when i told him i'd done the refin with car paint out of cans...take your time and the results can be quite remarkable. Jem.

Not that i'm any great authority on the subject but although you can get metallic colours in auto cans i don't think you'll find (well i've never seen it) metalflake in cans and i pressume this is because 1)..you'd need a larger nozzle than normal to allow the flake to actaully get out of the can and 2)..the can doesn't have enough pressure to keep up with the enlarged hole and get the stuff out cleanly. As i said, i'm not expert and if someone does know a source i'll have a crack with my nect project ! Jem

"Also- I don't polish out the fretboard to 600 or higher grit. I leave it at 320 or so. That will blend the glue in more. Anyting higher will only highlight the glue VS. the wood, by leaving the glue less shiny then the wood." Thanks Craig, you've inadvertly answered a question to a problem i didn't know i had but in a reverse way.....i've been inlaying some objet d'art and finishing right up to 1000 grade (without laquer, just bare ebony) and the glue's ended up more shiny than the wood. Time to be less zelous with the finishing !?!?!? Jem

Luke R CA = Cycrolacsomething..... industrial Super Glue to me and you ! Jem

Hey there, Well for you, the nearest supplier's gonna be Craft Supplies IF, and only IF you can get through to them ! I'm reasonably new...lurked for quite a while...but there seems to be quite a few of us on the board. Laters, Jem.

The best recipe is not to leave any gaps in the first place Hahahahaha.... I'm using ZapGap at the moment as the viscosity is such that you can fill 'em up in only one or two goes and also as i've only been inlaying for around a 18 months and i'm still a bit crap at it i'm sticking to ebony which is much easier to get away with gap wise. Jem

In my humble experience it's best to inlay when the board is about 50% radius'd as this means there's less chance of either breaking or sanding through the inlay too much. Jem

If you were to use clay ( i have a feeling Gretsh or someone like that use to use clay dots but don't quote me ) you would have to approach the inlay like any other inlay and have the completed inlay ( or component parts ) finished first and route to the outline of the inlay rather than doing the cavity first and stuffing it full of clay afterwards as it would, as already stated, shrink. With regard to finish, if you're thinking of an inlay on the guitars body then you will have to take the finish up to just before final top coats and then do the inlay as it would look fairly odd if you had a shiny guitar and a non shiny inlay slap in the middle of it. Just my thoughts, Jem

Why not use stone ? Try mike at www.smallwonder-music.com as he's now got over 20 different types of stone and coral to choose from. PS: Mike's nothing to do with me apart from i've brought pearl and stone slabs from him and the quality is always first class. PPS: I'm sorry if i've broken the rules by posting his link here. Jem

I find Craft Supplies a bit hard to deal with. Phone's permanatly engaged, they nver reply to emails and although they list many body blanks at very good prices they tend to have, according to thier online shop, bugger all in stock. Saying this i notice that several people give them a glowing report so perhaps i'm just un-lucky and the fact that i'm only half an hour away from David Dyke's and less than a mile away from Timberline does mean that i have plenty of material on my doorstep. Always try your local woodyard, you can sometimes get a bargain which is more than suitable for neck / body construction.

Hmmmmm, i thought my inlaying was making progress, oh what a way i've got ahead of me ! As someone's already said, there's peices there smaller than the cavity gaps i end up with !

Loadsa companies make them so i can't see why not !?!?! Jem

OK, now i see what you're attempting. Firstly you need a VERY good picture from which to trace from...no matter how good/bad you're cutting is it is ALL dependant on the quality of the pattern you take it from as the smallest deviation can look horendous when the inlay is finished. Make MANY copies as the overlapping parts need to all be cut seperatley to enable the edges of each peice to 'butt up'. The cavity shouldn't be too much of a problem with a Dremel and router base BUT if you've never done it before i would strongly suggest that you try it on a scrap peice of ebony FIRST, you'll be supprised what you can achieve and pearl plate is reasonably cheap to buy, something like that should use between 1/2 > 3/4 oz. I'm just a lurker here really but there's bound to be lots of help in the tutorial section or you can drop me a line if you want to ask something specific. Jem

Get the Dremel out and practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice...........zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......and then practice some more ! I pressume you're stateside ? Jem

Not that i really have any great expertise in what i'm doing but i would strongly suggest a laminate neck if you're design is going to have an angled back headstock ala' Gibson / Jackson etc. Jem

Hi Malmsteen, I'm very new here but i know there are some tutorial's concerning removal and re-fretting necks in the tutorial sections. Basically, how i do it, and please take note i am NO expert, is to heat the fret by laying a soldering iron on one end for a few mins (depending on the iron's power) to loosen the/any glue that's present and using a pair of fret pulling pliars gently ease the fret out....it sometimes helps to give the fret a slight sidewyas tap (and i mean slight) to release it from it's bed. "and another question regarding inlay: instead of drilling out cavities for the inlay is it possible to just cut out a piece of the fretboard (drill a hole right through) to make it easier? and if it'll effect the sound couldnt you glue a thin piece of rosewood at the bottom of the hole?" I think i get the gist of what you're saying here. You must take into account that most pearl / abalone is only generally available in 1mm > 2mm thicknesses and your average fretboard is 5 > 6mm in depth so again i think you'll be making a headache for yourself by trying to fill up the holes to a point that the pearl can be layed flat enough with the fretboard. (mind you, chambered fretboard anybody, now there's an idea !?!?!!?....or not as the case may be!) As with all things like this i suggest getting a scrap peice of hardwood, some loose change (as pennies, no matter where you live, tend to be between 1.5 > 2mm) and try your theory out BUT at the end of the day i suggest that if you take the frets out you'll have a clear run to route the cavities to within .25 > .5mm of what you need quite easily with a Dremel type tool which will leave you minimal sanding to get the pearl flush which in turn will lessen the chance of you losing the fretboards radius due to excessive sanding. Jem PS: I know there's a protocal on P.G. of where you post stuff, if i've posted this in the wrong place i do apologise !

Hey Malmsteen, In answer to a tree of life design. Try DePaule as his site has a few free cutting patterns that you may be able to mash together via a photocopier to get what you want...i think there may be a link to his site in the reference section, i'm reasonably new here and can't quite remember. Edited to say: There's a short mandolin vine FOC on his site, should have remebered as i've used it to do a sort of vine of life. With regard's to leaving the fret's in, you're just asking for trouble as you will run into problems trying to route the cavity's A...because of the radius of the frets/board you will find the cavity sort of 1.5mm one side and 2mm the other and B...you will not be able to route close enough to the fret to make the line appear to flow and C...you'll probably make a mess of the frets when you try to sand flush the inlay. OK, you could be very carefull and do each inlaid peice with a small file and careful sandpapering but it'll take an age and you may find that the fretboard no longer feels flat along it's whole length in relation to itself. At the end of the day you could do it with the frets in but i think half way through you'll ask yourself: why didn't i just pull the bloody frets out in the first place ! Just my pennies worth, Jem.

I had some Hamers (back in the day..... ) that had brass inserts for the cavity covers, and for the direct-mounted pu's. That was just awesome! Such attention to detail! Never had the necks off, so I don't know what they had done there......... Hiya, newbie post ! All US made Hamer's have standard screwed in necks. The threaded insert's are, as you mention, a great idea and show's much attention to detail BUT they use ~4-40 screws which although standard hardware for the US are impossible to get hold of over the pond !

I had some Hamers (back in the day..... ) that had brass inserts for the cavity covers, and for the direct-mounted pu's. That was just awesome! Such attention to detail! Never had the necks off, so I don't know what they had done there......... Hiya, newbie post ! All US made Hamer's have standard screwed in necks. The threaded insert's are, as you mention, a great idea and show's much attention to detail BUT they use ~4-40 screws which although standard hardware for the US are impossible to get hold of over the pond !