Installing Abalone Inlays in the Fretboard and Peghead

In this, the 12th segment on building a dreadnought guitar, I inlay the fretboard and peghead with abalone. For the fretboard, I used a snowflake and diamond pattern and for the peghead I used a torch pattern. Both are quite traditional and I really like the look. I bought the patterns pre-cut from DePaule supply company, but still had to deal with getting them into their target spots. This was particularly difficult with the torch, because it was made of many small pieces. In the video, I show how I keep all of these pieces properly oriented by gluing small sticks to multiple segments, thus holding everything together. The sticks get sanded away after the pattern is glued in place.
www.zimnicki.com

[@brunoonlineschool7527]

so tedious. You really have a gift.. I can't even hang a picture straight. Amazing

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks very much!

[@mvecellio1]

Wow. That left me speachless.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks for watching!

[@dansmith2966]

That is impressive Gary !

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thank you, Dan!

[@chuckbowie5833]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing!

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks for watching!

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks for watching!

[@bradleydewey9083]

This video substantiates why there aren't many old time luthiers out there. This detail time/effort would drive most people absolutely nuts in the era of easy lasers CDCs and PLCs...
Ergo, nothing beats a Zimnicki Legit Git.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thank you, Brad. It's good to know that my manual efforts are appreciated.

[@marcoboni3807]

Complimenti Maestro......potresti insegnare alla scuola per liutai a Cremona in Italia...
Si vede passione in questo lavoro.... Complimenti

[@Ronys2YT]

Great process, good tip for the black ink on the mahogany. Appreciate the videos.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks for watching. I'm glad you found something useful in it.

[@Ronys2YT]

@@zimnickiguitars311 Always have so far :)

[@kmend3]

Awesome work! Just curious, why do you use epoxy for one set of inlays and superglue for the other?

[@zimnickiguitars311]

I wondered if anyone would notice!
I really don't find much difference between the two glues. There were a lot of pieces to put into the fretboard so I chose epoxy because I wouldn't need to handle/breathe so much super glue. I used superglue on the peghead because I wanted to finish the entire thing in one day and even though epoxy dries to the touch in 5 or 15 minutes, it really cannot be sanded without gumming up the paper for many hours.
Thanks for watching!

[@5barkerstreet]

the white paint doesn't stain the grain of the wood?

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Great question. No, it doesn't. The pores in ebony are quite small, so the white paint barely gets below the surface. It is easily sanded away when leveling the inlay. On a more porous wood , like rosewood, I first apply two or three coats of shellac before the white paint. That seals the pores and keeps the paint from going too deep.