Beardly Customs Block Inlays!!

I finally got around to figuring out how to do block inlays the correct way. Not too bad for my first attempt. The inlays are sequenced walnut inlayed in a 36” scale marblewood fretboard. Thanks to Shawn May for the help!

 

i have a template that’s sized for 34” scale, but it can be used for other scales. I just drew an corner to corner X on each position and centered the template over it. I used a 1/16” router bit with a 1/2” bearing. I used a caliper to measure each inlay route and cut that size piece from the inlay material. A little sanding to correctly size it and the glued it in. Tedious work, but totally worth it.

 

i bought my template off of another luthier.

 

As exact as i could get. I didn’t chisel the corners of the inlay this time, rather i rounded the corners of the inlays for as close to an exact fit as i could. There are a few small spots that i filled with superglue.

 

You assumed right.

 

Here is the body this neck belongs to. It’s a repair job for my personal 5 string. The original walnut neck developed a major, unrepairable, twist and had to be cut out.

 

Good catch. Haha

 

Headstock mapped out.

 

I resurrected my old Beardly 5 string today. The original neck was a junk piece of walnut that twisted badly and couldn’t be fixed, so i cut it out and made a new one from a nice piece of katalox. It’s now a fretless bass with a marblewood fingerboard and figured walnut blocks. And yes, it was originally a dual pickup bass, Now it only has one, hence the filler blocks where the old middle pickup was. It has a 36” scale and a single Nordstrand Big Splitman humbucker.