mother of pearl fretboard inlay

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimistone
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jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
How hard is it to do a mother of pearl inlay on a fender strat type neck with a rosewood board (like your name or "blues power" ect...) and where can one get a neck blank that hasn't been fretted yet...for this type of project?
Has anyone attempted this before?
 
if you havent already....

check out http://www.projectguitar.com/ . i havent tried anything like what youre talking about, but ive used this website many times before and its got a great community on the forums and tons of resources and tutorials specifically for what youre trying to do.

Adam
 
It's not easy. You'll need a modest set of tools, a good eye for detail, a reasonable tools skill level and lots of patience. Where you are you can get all the materials you need from Stew Mac except for the eye for detail, tool skills and patience.

The best site to get info on inlay work for instruments is The Musical Instrument Makers Forum Register and do lots of reading in their library and archive. I would be prepared to invest a bit of time working on simple inlays and scrap before you commit to your guitar neck.

One last thing when working with MOP or any bone or shell inlay material take extra care to keep the dust out of your lungs. It is a known and powerful carcinogen.
 
Do your self a favor and find someone who knows what their doing do it.
I've found it easier building the whole instrument than doing inlay.
I've tried it a couple of times wasted money and time.
Imagine your 2 cuts away from having a rough cut inlay only to have it snap
on you. It will drive you nuts. I've tried in a couple times and have vowed to never attempt it again. For what you will spend on tools: dremel for routing finger board bits attachments, jewlers saw, blade various clamps cutting boards,
MOP,various accessories that are suppose to make it easier, etc you cound easily have it done. Unless your just looking to do it just for the hell of it.

If you want something pretty for a strat just buy a completed neck from that guy in Vietnam "Bruce" it will be great till it warps on you in a couple weeks :D
 
I have the inlay videos from Stew-Mac. You don't want to be messing around with MOP and abolone and all that. First off, you need a vacuum system to suck out the silica particles so they don't wind up in your lungs.

Most pearl is cut with a coping saw and it's quite a tedious task. Custom pearl work costs tons of dough because it's a PITA.

You can probably find somebody online that does custom CNC milling and can churn out a one-off, but again that's gonna be spendy.
 
c7sus said:
I have the inlay videos from Stew-Mac. You don't want to be messing around with MOP and abolone and all that. First off, you need a vacuum system to suck out the silica particles so they don't wind up in your lungs.

Most pearl is cut with a coping saw and it's quite a tedious task. Custom pearl work costs tons of dough because it's a PITA.

You can probably find somebody online that does custom CNC milling and can churn out a one-off, but again that's gonna be spendy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i was just wondering what it entailed. It's more than I would want to tackle.

I restored a '69 mach 1 mustang a few years ago and when I was half way through the restoration...I wanted to quit..I was to the "fuck this shit!" point.
I couldn't have recouped even half my investment at that point.
I had to grit my teeth and follow through on "the job from hell" and finish it.
I drove it a few weeks and sold it for $500 LESS than I had in it.

Don't want to go down that road again. :D
 
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Why don't you buy a book, some pearl blanks, and a scrap of dark, fine grained wood and give it a try before you start going after a fretboard. As luthier's tools go the investment isn't large. You need a jeweler's saw with lots of spare blades. You can make the cutting surface. Get a good dust mask. A shop vac with a fine filter works well for dust collection. How hard and tedius it is depends on the intricacy of the design.

Inlay work can be very rewarding if you're the patient type.
 
I used to do quite complex pearl inlay work in the 70's for a guy that custom built banjos and mandos ..... tree of life type inlay work and it is actually very simple and easy to do EXCEPT .... it is mindnumbingly tedious. Very time consuming ...... and really requires perfection since virtually anything you do wrong shows up.
Breaking pearl isn't really a problem .... you simply cut a slot in a piece of wood ..... slide the jewelers' saw (not a coping saw) into that slot so the wood supports the pearl and use only downward strokes.
But think how tedious that is ..... only downward strokes!

So while it's not difficult ..... for a single project or repair it wouldn't be worth the learning curve.
 
It was by far the most tedious part of the guitar building task for me (and I've just done somewhat simple shapes). But it's certainly not beyond someone who has a steady hand, patience, and the right tools.

I started with a book and it pointed me in the right direction and let me know what the best tools were for the job. If you're going to try it, get informed.
 
Honestly, if you only want to do it once or twice, send an email to Larry Robinson or Harvey Leach to get an estimate. They both do really exceptional work, and their rates are extremely reasonable.

If you want to do it yourself, at least get a copy of Larry's book, which will at the very least get you some serious inspiration. Get Grit Laskin's book too, though it's more expensive.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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