Length of an inlay?

[doran.dragic]

Hello everyone,

I'm going to have position markers put on the side and on the top of my fretboard.

The luthier who's doing this asked me to provide my own material and I want white pipe luminlay.

The problem is that I'm not sure, how much should I order. The length of a white pipe luminlay bar is 7 cm which is approximately 2 and 3/4 of an inch. How many inlays am I going to get out of that length?

Thank you very much.

 

[Flamingo21]

Why not ask the luthier.

 

[MPU]

I'd say 4-5mm per inlay dot. Luminlay is brittle so it has to be sawn to length. I use jewellers saw to cut Luminlay. I drill the holes, use Titebond to glue the rod in the hole and then saw it close to surface, leaving it a bit proud of the surface.

 

[doran.dragic]

Why not ask the luthier.

He doesn't have any experience with luminlay.

 

[Beej]

One 70mm stick is enough to do a single guitar or bass with 24 frets and 12 or 13 dots. 13 if you use two dots for 12th and 24th, plus also put a redundant dot at the first fret. I tend not to, but some do. I cut them about the same as @MPU described above and usually have enough left over to do two or three more dots.

 

[polygon]

One is enough for 2 basses with 21 frets. First rule, not drill much deep. Second use fret pliers for cut it as close as possible to surface