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Considering that there are 2631 views on this thread (so far), I think it's fairly safe to say more that three people are reading it...

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Jim Hansen

OK, I thought it was just me and a couple other people looking at it a couple hundred times....

WOW, what a flippin long day on the SW - I usually start in my workshop after my morning meditation, which includes a cup of coffee and a bowl of cigarettes (Part of this complete breakfast AND part of the 2 food groups) and I just finished a little while ago - my only interruptions are food and guitar students - which is kind of a cool break from building guitars to teaching guitar.. only had 4 students today, so that took 2 hours from building...

This morning I was REALLY excited to get on to the inlay of the ebony - most people may think that since I routed everything out yesterday, I could just glue the pieces in this morning... unfortunately, things are not that easy -First, I had to go back in and rout the areas that ended up being too shallow, which was caused by the carved top - wherever there were dips, I ended up having to extend the router bit out quite a bit to compensate for the deepness - what happens though when you are doing that, you eventually get to a more flatter surface and the bit wants to dig in as deep as it extends from the bottom of the router base - so I actually "Balance" the router base with my hand and it is actually "floating" in my hand on the small sections where the 2 routs meet and I make the "grade" all by balance in my arthritic hands (Whoo hoo! old age sucks!) The first picture actually shows a rout where I didn't do the "grade" (see if you can find it!) The next thing I had to do was try fitting all 28 or so ebony pieces - I think only 2 or 3 actually fit, so there was a lot of sanding, re-routing to get them all to seat in the channels depending on the curve, I would use some clamps on there to make sure they were pressed down good, but before clamping, I made certain to clean each piece with acetone and used heavy cyanoacrylate and put that in the channel. this picture is the 3rd piece inlaid:





This piece definitely needed to be clamped down because of the bend:





I KNEW that I couldn't cut the design out of one piece, besides, ebony can get a bit pricey, so I did a resaw on 1 fretboard from Grizzly (it cost $15) and was able to get ALL of the pieces with some ebony to spare!



Even though you see seams from the separate pieces, my PLAN is to make this seamless to the human eye....

This was shot around 9:30 pm (12 hours after I started working on it this morning!) all pieces are inlaid!



After everything was inlaid, I went back and filled all the sides with medium cyanoacrylate:



My plan tomorrow is to start sanding everything down - some of the ebony will be extruded from the wood and some with be flush with the Padauk... stay tuned kids!

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

Righteous, dude!
Very organic looking.
It does look like tree branches.

Thanks Alan - there are the 3 willow branches that move down into the fretboard - I can't wait to see the neck on there with them - hope they match up 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

Dude, yer startin' to make me real jealous again. Those branches are awesome, and will be even more so when blended into the curves and finished up all shiny

Also, the detail of the engraving on the dragonfly's wings is gorgeous.

I think it's time to start plotting my ultimate inlay guitar.

Also, you should go buy some shell from Athena in the classifieds. Good prices on really great stuff. I'll go bump the thread up top.

Hey Dennis - nice to see ya! Yeah man - I'm sanding the ebony flush to the surface this morning - starting to look pretty cool - can't wait to see your project - lemme know! I guess I need to "Purchase" a membership to see/use the classifieds?

Thanks, V

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

That's outstanding, dude. Over 2300 views? I knew I was checking in on it pretty frequently, but I didn't think it was THAT much

Seriously, you've got some mad skills when it comes to inlay

Thanks Roger! I'm workin' it bro!

I only have 2 students today~!
I broke out my palm sander this morning (Yes, I have NEVER used one before) Threw some Norton 60 grit on there and it got the ebony close to being flush with the Padauk, and am going over the inlay with a scraper now - here's a couple morning pics kids:





Back to work! WOOOO HOOO!

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

Wow, seems like I'm hogging the board today guys -sorry

But, I have to say, the following pics show the ebony inlay off pretty good - here ya's go:





One of the strips that I inlaid ended up not seating right(it was too high and not actually seated at the bottom of the channel), so the scraper ended up going all the way through the ebony (WOOOOOPS!) Cure: Routed out about 3/4" of the strip, cut a piece of ebony with the grain running the same way, splashed some CA glue in there and hammered that sob in! Yup, I hammered it in with my fret hammer - remember, I was in the military (Navy veteran), when something doesn't fit, use a hammer to make it fit - if the hammer breaks it, order another one. (And you were wondering why our taxes are so high )





Tomorrow, I start cutting the sterling silver that will be used for inlay; Remember kids, it's been called "The Silver Willow" since day 1 for a reason.

_________________
"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 man, I did this blindfolded while listening to Barry Manilow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHx-QAEBlv4

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

Be careful, or one of these days you'll want to build a guitar... instead of a reason to just do more inlay

Can't wait to see this thing all together. After the legendary Dueling Dragons, you've got us all a twitter with excitement. That's right. I said "a twitter"

Hey I don't see any silver here. And that's not willow, it's ebony.

Nice work.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Ahhh, ya spoke too soon: Did I say that I'm done with all of the inlay on the guitar?.... here's the next step.... Sterling Silver:

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

Yeah, it seems like everyone could care less about my "guitar building" chops - everyone thinks I'm some kind of glorified inlay artist 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 decided to go with the following pups:

DiMarzios PAF (DP103) in the neck and a Norton (DP160) in the bridge - oh yeah....

_________________
"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 dont think I have the patience or the talent to do inlay nearly half as well as Virgil.

Jimmy - I'm just screwing the pickups in - I'm not actually going to "inlay" them!

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

Virgil I'm just blown away by your skills.

I hope I can attempt some inlay later this year...you
have sure helped inspire that.

I love the theme and looking forward to seeing it
come together...thanks for sharing!

Hey Michael,
Thanks so much man - I really appreciate your kind words - comments like yours always helps me move forward, knowing "They're WATCHING" LOL - I been inlaying silver leaves for the past few days and I will be done in a little while - this is the tricky inlay stuff because the sterling silver I am inlaying is actually 28g thick, which is 0.32 mm! (thin stuff! YIKES ) So you can't rout too deep or your wood will dip in the section when you sand things down and if you go too shallow with the rout, you can sand the silver away and you are left with a nice epoxy inlay!

Since this inlay is so tedious, the trick is to go incredibly SLOW - if there is anything I have learned and can pass on to anyone else is go REALLLLY slow and make sure you have good magnifier goggles - my theory is if you can make things look "ok" with the magnifiers, then the naked eye thinks it's GREAT!

I had to order an end pin jack over the weekend because I realized that my bevel on the side of the guitar just left 1 inch of flat surface, which was too small for the jack plate I bought --- I will begin making the knobs tonight/tomorrow, but this week I should get all my control holes cut, put a bevel on bottom side of body, including contours, glue the neck on, drill all the hardware holes, make the trussrod cover, the heel piece and it should be going to the finishing guy in about a week(hopefully!)
- thanks again and stay tuned....

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

WOOO HOOOOO! Done with the body inlay! Heres some pics over the past few days to a few minutes ago - all 7 sterling silver leaves are inlaid!

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

Man Virgil! That looks fantastic.
The silver really sets it off.

The inlay is so tight it appears to be paint.

Thanks Michael - they were all very tight fits... it takes a steady hand and a brand-new x-acto blade and keeping it flush with the side of the silver when tracing... I would say I go through x-acto blades like sandpaper around here!

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

You know what would be cool? If you built a semi-hollow with a piezo and actually inlaid pickups on the guitar.
When this happens just cut me a check for 10% of whatever profit.

You got it Jimmy, would the check be written out to "Mr. Sux"

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

As long as it don't bounce!