inlay materials

[Skyjerk]

What inlays would you use for this fingerboard?

I know the automatic response from many will be "none", but thats not the answer I'm looking for

I'd like to do birds like I did on a previous build. They look nice, but are not really big and wouldnt obscure a lot of the wood like trapezoids, but dots are boring

I was considering abalone since that would contrast reasonably well against both colors of wood in this fingerboard.

This is Brazilian rosewood, I bought from Archey a few months back...

 

[WezV]

I don’t like abalone for complex shapes. The patterns fight each other

I would go for a nice gold pearl. Maybe black pearl but be sure to lay out the shell first to get the best refraction from the same angle. Nothing worse than installing a full set of black pearl inlays only to realise you can only see half off them at any one time

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

how bout whatever you decide, to split it down the color line. make the right hand portion of the inlay from ....say black pearl, and the left hand side gold or white pearl....just for the heck of it. you are the type that can pull this off like you do it all the time.

 

[Kingdom of Nye]

Abalone inlays shaped like bubbles that are dissolving up the neck and exploding with root beer flavor.

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

wow.....never mind on the lame two tones i suggested.

 

[emoney]

I dunno, I think a dark amber, vintage looking diamond would look really sharp on that board.
Plus it wouldn't distract from the beauty of the wood.

 

[Freddy G]

I would go with white MOP. It will pop the best considering it has to contrast with the dark and also the light sections of wood. Abalone would get a little lost. Gold MOP might be cool as long as all the pieces are the same hue of gold.

But I still gotta go with white MOP. Aside from popping the best, I find that it's also classier in a situation like this. You've got this wild piece of Braz....it should be the star of the show. No need to gild the lily!

 

[kakerlak]

Man, I'd get hung up trying to decide which end to make the nut and which the heel -- it'd look super cool either direction. I think Freddy's advice makes sense. Thumbnail inlays might be tempting, to avoid breaking up the flow of the grain.

 

[Skyjerk]

I would go with white MOP. It will pop the best considering it has to contrast with the dark and also the light sections of wood. Abalone would get a little lost. Gold MOP might be cool as long as all the pieces are the same hue of gold.

But I still gotta go with white MOP. Aside from popping the best, I find that it's also classier in a situation like this. You've got this wild piece of Braz....it should be the star of the show. No need to gild the lily!

I expect you are right. This axe will have a quilted top as well so it'll be pretty busy all over...

 

[Skyjerk]

Man, I'd get hung up trying to decide which end to make the nut and which the heel -- it'd look super cool either direction. .

Yeah I havent made up my mind yet either. Leaning toward putting the near end in the photo at the body and the far end at the nut.

 

[archey]

I've bought 1/4'' brass rod and cut it into dot inlays. They look pretty sweet in my opinion.

 

[Frack]

Only one nice white MOP inlay at 12th.

 

[jkes01]

Only one nice white MOP inlay at 12th.

The Phoenix

 

[Skyjerk]

The Phoenix

Yup. Did that one already

That was unique to that particular build, though. I wont be using it on any others.

I learned a lesson with that, though, and that is that I use the fret markers on the front more than I previously believed. I figured I used the side dots more than I really do and I've been playing so long I dont really have a conscious awareness of how I track my location on the fretboard.

Took me a while to get used to the single inlay and its not an issue now, but it did throw me at first.

Still, in general I prefer to have markers of some type in the standard places as opposed to just a lone 12th fret inlay

 

[WezV]

I've bought 1/4'' brass rod and cut it into dot inlays. They look pretty sweet in my opinion.
View attachment 295678

Works nice if you do it with metal tube too...

 

[lowatter]

I'd like to see a mock up with the board from a top view Chris. You could import it into a drawing program like Corel Draw and mess around with different inlays and styles. I kinda like to see what a thumbnail approach that kakerlak suggested would look like with white MOP. Awesome looking fretboard however and whatever you end up with I'm sure will look great. Maybe a tribal theme approach.

 

[jkes01]

Yup. Did that one already

That was unique to that particular build, though. I wont be using it on any others.

I learned a lesson with that, though, and that is that I use the fret markers on the front more than I previously believed. I figured I used the side dots more than I really do and I've been playing so long I dont really have a conscious awareness of how I track my location on the fretboard.

Took me a while to get used to the single inlay and its not an issue now, but it did throw me at first.

Still, in general I prefer to have markers of some type in the standard places as opposed to just a lone 12th fret inlay

I agree, I would love the Phoenix on my own guitar

What about something like these?
https://www.woodcraft.com/search?q=Mosaic+knife+pins&button=search

 

[Skyjerk]

I agree, I would love the Phoenix on my own guitar

What about something like these?
https://www.woodcraft.com/search?q=Mosaic+knife+pins&button=search

I saw someone else on this forum use knife pins like those. Very cool. Like Freddy pointed out, though, that might be too busy for an already busy build.

I expect I'm going to go with the same white MOP birds I used on this build from last year...

 

[archey]

I saw someone else on this forum use knife pins like those.

I think that was me too...