Official Luthiers Forum!

Where do you guys go when you need a larger quantity of inlay material premade? For example, if I have a logo or my name and I want to have a bunch pre-made for inlay into my headstock. Do you carve them all by hand or is there a service out there where somebody will route out the design in a larger quantity?

Thanks!

John

Talk to John Watkins... he can CNC the shell and the head plates for you.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

John Grieven also will do headplates and inlay material, not to take away from a sponsor, just a second suggestion.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Ditto what Rod said, not to take away from out sponsors but Andy DePaule and Custom Inlay will do them for you as well.

We should be ready to offer the same service in a few months. (As soon as I get some more hours with the software. 'Til then it's by hand, one at a time!)

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

I got my last batch from Andy and they were very nice. But, if some of our OLF sponsors will do these as well, I'll have to order from them. Gotta do what I can to help make sure this forum is around for a long time.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I bought mine from Tom Ellis. But that was before Watkins was comfortable doing Pearl. Now he's got my business from here on out.

Can someone clarify for me? Do these companies just provide the inlay, or do they actually inlay into the headstock veneer and provide a finished product ready for glue up to the headstock? And will they do small quantities of say 10 at a time?

[QUOTE=rich altieri] Can someone clarify for me? Do these companies just provide the inlay, or do they actually inlay into the headstock veneer and provide a finished product ready for glue up to the headstock? And will they do small quantities of say 10 at a time?[/QUOTE]

Rich -- Custom Inlay will supply and cut your logo and inlay it (at least they used to). Andy DePaule I think will provide the logo only. Mr Watkins will cut your inlay and pocket -- unless I am mistaken.

Rich, call John Watkins. He has the advantage of being a one-man show so he can most likely do what you need. His link is the CNC NECK link at the top of this page. I'm sure he can answer any of your questions better than anyone else can.

[QUOTE=Pwoolson] Rich, call John Watkins. He has the advantage of being a one-man show so he can most likely do what you need. His link is the CNC NECK link at the top of this page. I'm sure he can answer any of your questions better than anyone else can.[/QUOTE]

OOOPS -- sorry Rich -- next time I'll just provide the URL's....

This stuff is just amazing - I came across it yesterday on Frets!!

"""Chuck Erikson, the Duke of Pearl brought some samples of the computer inlay work that he and Larry Sifel are producing:
:

Just look at this inlay:

It's paua abalone inlaid into solid mother-of pearl. Look closely, that's a 0.010" pearl border AROUND the abalone. Let's zoom in really close"""

UH WOW!
Cheers
Charliewood

[QUOTE=rich altieri] Can someone clarify for me? Do these companies just provide the inlay, or do they actually inlay into the headstock veneer and provide a finished product ready for glue up to the headstock? And will they do small quantities of say 10 at a time?[/QUOTE]
Rich- You need to make a few calls, but most vendors need to charge a set up fee to produce the machine code for the inlay. Then it's a matter of their minimum order.

We do a pile of Logo work in my shop, by hand, which can be cut and inlaid or just sent as a cut logo.
P.M. me if you need any help. Good Luck!

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

Again, not to take away from our sponsors but what I like about Andy DePaul is that they are all hand cut yet as accurate as CNC and to date, I haven't been able to find anyone who can touch his price. Great guy to deal with as well. He will inlay it in a head stock as well (or a fret board etc) but I havn't priced that out.

You've gotta see their work in person.. Believe it or not it looks even better than the photos

[QUOTE=charliewood] This stuff is just amazing - I came across it yesterday on Frets!!

"""Chuck Erikson, the Duke of Pearl brought some samples of the computer inlay work that he and Larry Sifel are producing:
:

Just look at this inlay:

It's paua abalone inlaid into solid mother-of pearl. Look closely, that's a 0.010" pearl border AROUND the abalone. Let's zoom in really close"""

UH WOW!
Cheers
Charliewood [/QUOTE]

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

Here's a few examples of some hand cut fonts on some Ukulele fingerboards after re-slotting.

.

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

Paul, that's beautiful work.

Aw, shucks...You're making me blush

Thanks.

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com