A question about fretboard inlays

[garp]

A quick question for luthiers who have done fretboard inlay work.

I have a fretted Jazz bass neck with a rosewood fingerboard and dot-style position markers. I’m considering having the dots replaced with MOP-type blocks. Nothing fancy — I just love the neck and don’t want to swap it out with a replacement neck. I don’t possess the skill or the patience to do the inlay work myself, so I’d be supplying a quantity of MOP blanks to a local luthier and letting him do the work.

My question is this: do the inlays themselves need to be shaped/radiused to match the fretboard radius? Or is each individual inlay rout cut with its own radius, and then the inlay merely epoxied into the rout?

Thanks!

 

[Gone]

One would normally inlay the MOP and then, using a sanding block of the appropriate radius, level it to the fingerboard.

 

[stevetx19]

...which can be difficult with frets still in place. not impossible though

 

[garp]

The two luthiers I’ve spoken with about this both agreed that it’s much easier to do inlay work before frets are installed, but they can still do it on a fretted neck given a little more time (and — consequently— a little more $). Guess I’ll just have to source some MOP blanks that aren’t too thin. Thanks very much for the replies.