cSuttle

Yes, it can be done with a few reservations. As long as the inlay stays above the 12th fret, pretty much anything can be done. Once the inlay goes below the 12th fret, it is HIGHLY advisable to remove the frets. This inlay was done with the frets in place. It's definately not as easy, but doable. When you get that close to the frets you have to be (in my best Elmer Fud voice) very, very careful.

I agree, my personal favorite is 2/0.

I start by drawing everything by hand. Then I use Corel Draw to vectorize and clean up the sketches. From there I cut and route everything with a cam machine. I use to do it all by hand of years until I finally bit the bullet and bought a cam machine. I was good before, but my quality has definately taken a step up with the computer. There are times when it would be faster for me to do it by hand, but I still use the cam machine for the accurracy of it. By Hand: By Machine: I know to the untrained eye it hard to tell the difference, but I can tell. If you want a more detailed description of how I inlay, go to my web-site and check out the "Workshop" or "Special Projects" sections. Shark Inlay Website

Not as much time as you might think. I've gotten pretty quick at it. The majority of the time I spend it in the design.

Well, that's pretty cool right there!

I've always wanted to do a joint project with a great air-brusher (is that a word :-), but I've never had the pleasure.

Yep, works fine.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. To answer the last post, the dragon head is made up of Paua Red Abalone Gold Mother of Pearl Black Mother of Pearl Silver Fantail Jasper Mammoth Ivory On Rosewood

Hi Gang. I haven't posted any pictures in a while, but just finished this and thought it was really cool. So, I thought I'd share. Entitled: The King Of Dragons Matching tcover

Write me at Cliff@SharkInlay.com. I can make pretty much anything you want. Snakes are no problem.

Cool !!!

Well this is cool. All you seem to see here is guitar, guitar, guitar, this is a breath of fresh air. How does it play? I use to play voilin as a kid and always wanted to pick one up, but the funds just never seem available.

MOT is what Gibson uses on their block too.

Inlay the tip and them etch it. I wouldn't do it on the fretboard because the etching will ware off, but on the body would be cool. How about just painting it. Dip you fingers in paint and paw the guitar. Just a thought.

The body (skin is what I think you are talking about) is 10,000 year old Mamoth Ivory. About the biggest pieces you can get of that are about 3"x4". Makes awesome looking skin. Yes, I do all the work myself, from drawings, to piece cutting, routing, glueing and leveling. Oh, and I just got a new picture from Minarik Guitar that is way better than any of the pictures I took.

I do cuts for shell of all kinds if you want the real shell. I don't do MOT, so if you want that call Doug. Here is a precut I did for a banjo maker.

Very nice!!!

How thick is your brass?

This is probably personal perference on this one. I use several Dremel Digitals. Highly recommend. The digital is a lot easy to set the exact speed you like. I use 22K. Seems to work on just about everything. Best thing to do is try it and figure out what works for you and your eyes and your hands.

Try Rescue Pearl (www.rescuepearl.com). Fair prices and good service. Definately better prices than stew mac

Well ... two out of three ain't bad. Actually I'm in my 40's. How I got started ... I use to be one of the main writter for Harmony Central, back when they actually had writters and not just an endless string of press releases. I use to do an series of articles from the NAMM show called the "Golden Axe Awards," where we would rate the top 10 guitars in different categories at the show. One of the categories, and my favor, was the "Unlimited" section. Price was no object, the more ornate the better. The very first year we did these award one of the PRS dragons won. While writing these articles I really fell in love with inlay and the art that went into it. I had taken art classes in college and was a pretty good drawer/painter, but those 2d forms of art never really seemed to keep by interest for long. I had also babbled in wood working. So, I started inlaying as a hobbit. I purchased a small collection of tools and materials and had at it. My first attempt was on an old table that use to belong to my grandmother. There was a company out there that offered a class you could take on-line on inlaying. But, I was a cheap a$%, and didn't take it. However, I noticed that for their final project they inlaid a butterfly. I do a butterfly. So, I set off on my first project, a butterfly on my Grandmother's table. It was a 52 piece design made out of 11 different materials. I found out later that the butterfly assignment in that on-line class was 6 pieces :-) Well, I swore a lot and made a lot of mistakes both big and small on that first project. The routing was so bad in one spot that I actually added to the design to cover it up. Took me like a month to finish it. After that, I said never again. Three weeks later I took a belt sander to one of my Grandmother's other old tables :-) I guess at that point I was hooked. When I had driven my family nuts inlaying just about everything wood in the house, I turned to my guitar collection (small though it my be). Tcovers, fret inlays, whatever. A friend asked me if I would do a small project for him. GREAT! another job to do, what fun. When he picked it up he said, "So how much do I owe you?" Bing!!! Money!!! It took a lot of marketing work to get things going and I was lucky with a couple of really good breaks early on (chance meetings with people who help me get started), but the rest is history as they say, plus I'm getting tire of typing :-)

And you were going to do an Angel ??? ??? Hmmm ... I hope it was a least an avenging angel. Let see; viper, cobra, scorpian, chain saw killer, zombie, skeleton, bloody axe, bloody axe guitar, sword sticky out of a skull, skull pile, burning skull, burning guitar, skeleton angel, demon, flamming demon, flamming demon with a sword through his head, and that's just my short list. How about a cobra wrapped around a sword?

+1

Sure, always willing to share. I use Corel Draw. I have all the materials scan into to fill files. Once the drawing is vectorized and can fix and match materials all day long. Really makes things easier.

Well, I know one of the designs anyway. I for one refuse to copy other peoples work. I get requests all the time to do PRS Dragons and such. Nope, sorry, won't do it. It's not because I'm afraid of the PRS police, but I have too much respect for the original artist to do this to them. I know it has cost me some jobs, but at least I sleep well at night and I can look myself in the mirror. If I'm ever asked to do one of your designs, the answer will be no.