Inlays & Final Steps – Building A Guitar (Part 4)
Last time, we had some big decisions to make – but it all came together perfectly. Now it’s time to put the finishing touches on this thing!
Next thing to decide are the inlays – inlays on a guitar are the beautiful decorative work you see on the fretboard of a guitar. In their most basic form, they’ll just be dots, but there are dozens of directions you can take from here.
I was a bit stuck here, so I took some inspiration from some illustrations my mum did (in homage to the fact that it was her guitar I originally began learning on, all those years ago!) and sent these doodles through to Erik alongside a couple of inlay styles that resonate with me to see what he made of them:
Between my mum’s efforts and Erik's artistic feel, these are the designs Erik came up with :
Adding The Guitar Inlays
Having decided on the inlay, I wanted to try the offset style (mock-up pictured below).
It wasn’t quite right, so we abandoned the concept, and Erik began cutting out the inlays – and onto the fretboard they go:
Finishing Time
With the primary architecture of the guitar in place and the inlays looking beautiful, it was time to firm up the placement of the electronics: Volume, Tone knobs and switches.
Here’s our electronics mockup:
Ultimately, I didn’t stray too far from Erik's standard layout as it's pretty well in line with what I was after. The volume knob is quite close to the bridge pickup, but since there wasn't much room to move, I thought it would be fine. Besides, it’ll be great for volume swells!
We were finally arriving at the big “wow!” moment I had been waiting for: applying the finish to the Koa. The result was astounding. 3D Chatoyance (Cat's eye) galore!!!
Make sure you come back soon for our final instalment!