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http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZinlaidartist

Check out this ebay store. You guys may know this already but I just came across it. I assume all this stuff is factory made - and not be hand - but the look is incredibke on soem of this stuff. AS for the guitars - seems to me to be China factory made stuff, although I wonder how it really is. Thoughts?

Dennis

Yeah, methinks that guy's for real. Seem him around for quite a while, and he's one of several Taiwan-based eBay stores catering to those who love the inlay bling. Most of the stuff is, I gather, done in the asian style (much thinner blanks than western inlay artists use), but if you like the designs, seems like the price is surely right. I've gotten bone nut/saddle blanks from a taiwanese seller before, bleached buffalo, good quality stuff and above all cheap, and arrived in Europe within a week of payment.

This guy looks like he's been at it for a good long time, he's got good feedback.

Mattia is right on the thickness of the pearl. Pretty thin stuff. I have bought fretboards from this source in the past with intricate inlay work but the quality of the board was questionable and when I went to level and radius I sanded through the inlays and also uncovered some of the filler work that is used. In one case what I bought as ebony turned out to be dyed rosewood. I have also bought headstock veneers with inlays and they all seemed to warp badly to the extent many cracked on me and never used them. Have not been real pleased with overall quality although the guy seems lile a really decent person. I think the quality culture is different from what we see in NA

    I tried it once . Nothing to right home about. The pearl is too thin .

Tony Tsai is a really nice guy.

Here are a few things to think about when buying from a Taiwanese supplier...

1. Their climate is much more tropical than ours so one of the reasons that they inlay ebony less that rosewood has to do with stability.
2. There is an asian method of inlay that basically uses a very thin veneer layer pearl that is then lacquered over. Technically this is overlay not inlay.
3. Much of the inlay work is jobbed out to others so the quality can be all over the map from amazingly well done to poor.
4. Asian taste in inlay tends to be much more ornate tending to over the top for a westerners taste. This is based on the fact that for centuries ornate showed social/economic status with the poorest having nothing of ornament.
5. The instruments that are extensively inlayed are usually lower end factory instruments that are dressed up with inlay/overlay.
6. In general the price that a eBay item ends up winning for can determine who Tony jobs out the work to be done. While the item represented on eBay will be what you get if it is a low winning bid then Tony farms it out to the lowest cost builder to do the inlay.

If you want better quality work done then the best is to email him and he will give you a quote on just about anything and is very fair.

If you have any issue with anything from Tony he will stand behind it. If you email him and ask for a particular thickness of inlay material that is what you get but you have to ask.

Look at Andy DePaules business as an example...he contracts with asians (I think vietnamese) to do the work but it is he that has to set the standards in terms of quality, thickness of material and all of the other details that make the difference.

I saw one of his Dragon inlaid acoustics in my shop this past year, unfortunately the guitar was pretty poorly made, great big globs of glue all over the inside. My customer had me write a letter saying what it would take to get the instrument up to snuff. He was actually disputing the cost with e-bay. I am not sure how the transaction was resolved. The guitar though was atrocious.
        Evan

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I had him make me some custom inlays in some peg head veneers. The peghead veneers weren't good quality, but I was happy with the inlay. I bet if you drew up a design he would do it for you. However, since I learned to cut my own, I have no need for him. Good luck!
Tracy

Bought more than once from Toni Tsai in a past, the quality of the wood was VERY poor, the quality of the inlays far worse. Wrote him for a custom order (as Shawn says) but had no answer. Some items were quite bad, some others terrible.

Lack of quality is what I have often experienced with most of the ebay sellers I have known but one of the worse ripoff I had was from the famous wood seller from Klamath Falls, Or with 4360 feedbacks: paid 330 usd and received nothing, no wood, no refund, no answer to my emails

Luigi

Thanks to all of you and Happy New Year!

Dennis

Everything has been well covered here, but I would add that I have purchased shell from him in the past. Overall I felt I got a good value for what I paid. In fact when I use it up I will order more from him. The only criticism I could give would be that some of the abalone shell pieces had worm holes.

I just won an auction for a complete abalone purfling for rosette, top and back for 53$ U.S. The thickness is claimed to be 1.5mm...
I figured if it worked out it would be a steal, if not, a 53$ lesson.
One thing I didn't like is that he claims to have over 10,000 positive feed-backs but many of them are of the same person posting up to 10 at a time...
We'll see how it turns out. Regards,

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...