Official Luthiers Forum!

Here ya go GW - I reversed the picture in PhotoShop so you can think in reverse:

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Ah, I see. I think I like this one better than the Dragons, actually.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

thanks gw... me thinks this may be a bit more complex to do, but i'm excited to see how things turn out!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

OK Kids, I have quite a few pics from today - yall don't mind me posting pics of all this stuff?

For breakfast, I painted the cocobolo fretboard with poster paint:



Then carefully slid a ruler underneath all of the inlay that was glued to the board yesterday... sometimes the cyanoacrylate seeps through the wax paper and you have to separate the wax paper from the printout.:



Separate entities:


Flipped over:



Then I peeled off the wax paper and put it on another piece of Cocobolo to show you the contrast:



As you may remember, I do all of my designs in Illustrator and Photoshop, so I can see what things look like as well as having some pretty accurate guides for alignment purposes - here I have the printout for comparison:



Next, I put dabs of elmers on the underside of the inlay:



I actually should have put a little more because a few pieces did come off later on in the day when tracing with the X-Acto blade.

After The glue dried, I had to go in to scrape off any excess glue and wax paper remnants:



All cleaned up and ready to be traced:



After it's traced, I then pop off the pieces - it usually busts up at this point which is fine - it would be nearly impossible to put the ENTIRE inlay all at once - here you can see the tracing marks on the yellow fretboard:



A little while ago, I started routing into the board - should have everything routed out by tomorrow.....

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

kewl

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Nice!
Hey, do you have a job!

I submit to your awesome inlay skillz. my hat is off to you yet again sir.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Thanks gw - plowing right along!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Hey Alan!
Yeah man, this is definitely not my favorite part of the inlay - takes a steady hand, utmost concentration, but most of all, I try my BEST not to JUMP when the local squirrels decide to throw acorns on my metal roof. True story - I have a huge oak tree over my house and the squirrels like throwin' these dang things on the roof - usually at my most crucial moments and it sounds like a gun shot on the metal roof on the porch, just a few feet above my head! - I can do it!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thanks so much Shad - This is my second fretboard to cut into - the Cocobolo seems WAY more dense than the Indian Rosewood I cut into on the first one. I am getting REAL excited as I near the end of the fretboard inlay to see if my skills have improved. What's funny is (And I don't point this out often) is how I can see my improvement over time on the Dueling dragons guitar... the fretboard was first thing I inlaid and I could see where I had a few "Cafloogities" on there... It feels a little different on this board not only because of the density, but also the tighter radius - I'm surprised of how much of a huge difference between the 16" on the last one and the 12" on this one. I'm curious as to how much "fix-ups" I will have to do on this one- stay tuned and thanks again!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

If you have to err, err on the side of making the cavity too low in the middle of the fretboard. When you are done with the inlay, you can use the 18 inch beam to clean up the paint/glue stuff, but you want to make sure the edges of the inlay aren't thinned out too much. As long as the center of the fretboard remains 1/8th of an inch thick you will be okay, 3-16ths is better.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Art guitars aren't my thing by any stretch of the imagination, but you sir, are a true legend in the making.

BTW even if you go to a 1/8th thickness, you can always add veneers to the bottom of the fretboard and build it back up, it'll be just as strong. Sometimes I do this deliberately. In fact, that's how I get my accent stripes under the fretboard and headstock after I bind my necks. I guess what I'm saying is don't get too hung up on worrying about the thickness of the fretboard, be more concerned about the thinness of the inlay on the edges.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Most of the inlay material is .06 thick, which is close to the route(which is probably around 0.055). Even with the radius, there is no real way that the inlay will go too thin. The FB hardly gets sanded (Not sure of your experience with inlay of large items covering the entire fb ???).... more like the inlay materials get sanded flush to the board. If I happen to go to thin on the inlay (which I doubt) I can always replace pieces (been there, done that) I already have almost 1/3rd of the pieces inlaid at this point. Right now, the thickness of the center of board is at 0.21 which is roughly 7/32, so I'm still above your figures. ALL of the materials should (and are) be above the surface when gluing in.

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thanks Ian! My next 2 builds will be "Non-art" guitar lol!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

I know the fretboard doesn't really get sanded, except in certain situations, like when really large pieces (hummingbird) that cover a lot of the width and don't conform to the radius get set in a little deep, there's some potential for an issue. If you don't want to replace thin pieces there are other options, that could also end up being more decorative elements.

Sounds like there will be no issues, though.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Still plugging away - Got the board routed, pieces glued in, cleaned up all the pockets and am now on the engraving......have a couple more days left on the fretboard. Am I up to a month yet?










Sorry, I seem to be finishing things at night and I get too tired to spend "quality time" on getting the photos great...



These shots are from tonight - I just spent about 3 hours engraving the dragonfly wings. Unfortunately the photos can't show the changing of rainbow colors popping off the Gold MOP:












Also, got some big news yesterday - I pre-sold build #3! Woot Woot

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Open for business - can use any spare "DOH" as homer would say!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Purty!

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

tanx gw

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Nice work on the dragonfly wings!

Dude......

*sorry man, that's all I can say at this point

double post

Thanks Alan! I have a blister on my right index finger from the graver blade - it was a bit tricky, but I'm into that fine-line art schtuff - cutting into MOP is a bit trickier than my rapidograph on bristol board!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thanks Roger - it's making me want to do a fretboard with a crapload of flies now!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar