Hello all! I'm refinishing a bass of mine, and I've run into a snag: I don't know the best way to get an inlay in the headstock, which will have a matte black finish. I'm doing this with a buddy of mine who works on guitar for a living, but he's never done an inlay with this kind of finish, and so I'm coming here for ideas. I've searched the forum and internet already, and I've found plenty of examples of doing inlays on stained headstocks, or glossy headstocks, but nothing for matte. I checked all of the stickies too and haven't found anything. I was wondering if anyone has an idea for a good way to pull this off. Thanks for the help!
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Pearl inlay on a matte-black headstock: doable?
- Thread starter yngwiewho1
- Start date
Do you want to add a new inlay to an existing headstock? Or do you want to refinish a headstock in matte around an existing glossy inlay?
Can you post a picture of it? That will probably elicit some responses.
Can you post a picture of it? That will probably elicit some responses.
Matte finish is just gloss finish with some additives to make it less shiny. Rub down a gloss finish with a white scotchbrite and voila: matte finish. Or just install the inlay and spray over just the headstock face with matte clear.
As a guitar refinisher, I can only think of one way to do this. You would need to do the inlay, mask it off and then spray the black. Normally after that, I'd clear coat the head stock, sand it until it is all level and then re-clear. Once it is dry, use the previously mention Scotch Brite pad to dull the finish. If you want the inlay to remain glossy, you would need to mask it off again before dulling the finish. In other words, it will be a pain in the azz.
My Spector has a mother of pearl inlay, black headstock with matt finish. The satin over the MOP makes it have a smokey glow to it that is quite surprising. At first I was not sure if I liked it, but I got used to it. Pictures don't really illustrate the effect, but it's kind of like the irridescent changes in the MOP and the edges are out of focus, like looking at a street light in fog.
In that case, I would install the inlay, mask it carefully, spray the black, remove the masking and clean up any edging, then I would spray clear and bury it so the whole headstock can be leveled. At that point, I'd either top it with matte clear or do a hand-rubbed matte like Fodera. I used to spray mattes but I moved to hand rubbing them without looking back. Way easier to return to matte when touch points eventually polish out.
