Impulse control

Since these inlays have been taking me longer than I thought, I have had some time to think over certain design aspects of my guitars. One semi-major design change would be that I am not going to laminate a thin peice of Redwood under my fingerboards. This is because I want to do something that will make my pegheads look fancier, and the Redwood would make things too thick. On the peghead I was going to have a one peice ebony headplate. Basically a black cover to the head of the guitar. But I have been thinking of how I wanted to make some guitars in the past. Years a go I worked on a few 1910-30's era banjos. Something that banjo makers often did, was to put peghead laminates on the front, and back of the peghead. It creats a real nice outlining effect. So I have decided that I will do that, as a sort of throw back to an era of higher craftsmanship. My guitars will have a peghead with a black white black effect on both sides of the peghead. A fine white (maple) line will outline both front and back of the peghead. It's going to look great.

Inlays

I've been working on making my inlays for the guitars. It takes quite a bit of time, but it will be well worth it. I ordered some Les Paul Mother of Pearl inlay sets, and have customized the size to suit my taste. I also ordered a sheet of ablam (laminated abalone) to cut out stripes. What I have been doing, is cutting down the pre-sized pearl blocks to the size I want. Then cutting two 45* angles through the blocks. That is where I put in the ablam stripes. The ablam varries in color from green, to blue, to purple. I have one set mostly done. Only a little bit of squaring up left to do. Just to give you an idea, each inlay takes about 30-40 minutes to finish. Nine inlays for four guitars...