MOP for fret lines under epoxy...good or bad idea??

[gpx1200]

so im planning to defret and epoxy(system 3) one of my spector basses, I have the proper tools, raidus beem ect.. so im shure I cab do the job but im not shure what to use for the inlay lines, the neck has the large srector crown inlays so I figure MOP or ablone would look good with the inlays but I have never done any work with either of them but if its suitable for inlays why not fret lines right?
any reason not to do this I might be overlooking?

 

[D-Smith]

You would either have to cut the shell as thin as the fret line or widen the fret line to the width of the strips you have. One thing you can not do is cut the slab sideways. In other words, you can't take the pearl slab, stick it in the fret slot on it's edge and cut it that direction. MOP and abolone lose their "pearlescence" from that angle.

I think abalone would be your better bet. First, pieces of pearl large enough to span the fretboard would be very expensive if you could find them. Pearl does not "join" well. If you used two pieces of pearl across the fingerboard the joint would be obvious and not very good looking. Abalone on other hand has many natural lines going through it. The technique for putting abalone purfluing on the curves of a flat-top guitars is to take a piece about 1" - 1.5", push it into the purfluing slot and break it to make it conform to the curve. The various colors and lines in the abalone completely hide the breaks. This might work for the fret lines also.

 

[gpx1200]

You would either have to cut the shell as thin as the fret line or widen the fret line to the width of the strips you have. One thing you can not do is cut the slab sideways. In other words, you can't take the pearl slab, stick it in the fret slot on it's edge and cut it that direction. MOP and abolone lose their "pearlescence" from that angle.

I think abalone would be your better bet. First, pieces of pearl large enough to span the fretboard would be very expensive if you could find them. Pearl does not "join" well. If you used two pieces of pearl across the fingerboard the joint would be obvious and not very good looking. Abalone on other hand has many natural lines going through it. The technique for putting abalone purfluing on the curves of a flat-top guitars is to take a piece about 1" - 1.5", push it into the purfluing slot and break it to make it conform to the curve. The various colors and lines in the abalone completely hide the breaks. This might work for the fret lines also.

thanks that is something I did not know and exactly what I thought I could do, I figured I could just sand and polish the edge of the MOP or abalone and it would look just like the top, will the pearlescence return when it's coated with a clear epoxy ?

 

[D-Smith]

No it will not. It will be a dull, flat grey color. The oyster puts the pearl shell down in layers, so it's kind of like looking at the face of a piece of wood vs. looking at the end grain on the end of the board. I had a couple time where I did an inlay with a very small piece that somehow got sideways when I epoxied it in and had to remove it and inlay a new piece.

 

[elgecko]

Would you even be able to see pearlscence from a piece that thin?

 

[gpx1200]

i have seen some pretty thin inlays that still looked like MOP or abalone i just don't know if i can slice it that thin

 

[ddtkills]

You could open up the slots in the fingerboard and have wider inlays. normal fret slot is about .023" . you could make them wider to what ever you want.

 

[kekani]

Wood. It doesn't have to contrast, nor match, etc. .023 veneers with wood glue. At .050, you can see curl in Koa - not sure about .023, but that also allows you to do pretty much anything.

Of course with epoxy, you pretty much do anything, meaning, you can add almost anything to make it what you want. Wood dust, tints/dye's, metalflake, pearl (as in automotive), sand (if you want to do a Kanile`a Ukulele style inlay), etc.

 

[D-Smith]

I was driving down the highway today when I remembered a conversation I had with an excellent luthier/friend of mine about inlaying wire years ago (like in the picture below) and he told me he cut aluminum soda cans into strips and inlayed them. He said under the finish the aluminum stayed bright and shiny, better than actual silver wire. Soda cans might be too thin for frets, but you could easily but a piece of aluminum at the local hardware store in the K&S metal rack the right thickness.