Official Luthiers Forum!

Get in touch with Don Williams. He has the background and perspective of a luthier, and his work is pristine. I'm currently working on something with him myself, and a number of other OLF members both past and present have made him their choice, too.

What sponsors do CNC inlay?

Bob Garrish has done some of mine in the past and done a fine job.

To avoid having to ship internationally, I switched to Todd Reith at http://www.customluthier.com/

He has always done a great job and given accurate time estimates. Price varies with quantity.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Check with Andy DePaule. He does custom work like this.

Precision Pearl is another option.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I am taking on new work like this. Please email me or PM if interested in talking price etc.
don@dewguitars.com

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I don't think this work falls into my area (I only do very high end intricate stuff, or quantities these days) but I wanted to mention that the 'negative template' thing works pretty well. A couple of my clients, and at least one pretty prominent luthier, are doing exactly what you're planning to do and it works well.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Don Williams does both MOP and the rout in my chosen headstock material. I supply the MOP and he cuts out a few in advance of my needs. I then send him my headplate and he makes the rout in the location I choose. If turnaround time is fast (1-2 weeks) then it causes no problem nor delay for me in the building process. I like working with Don...he's as detail-riented as any of us would ever require and then some!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I've got a few years worth of MOP logos from PPI, and it set me back a few hundred bucks. I supplied the CAD logo, and they did the rest. Good people to work with.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Chris, a while back I had Bob Garrish CNC a positive and negative of my logo in aluminum. I am able to cut from any material a logo and with the negative, I can cut an exact cavity for the logo to fit into. Works really great and accurate. In the pictures you'll see a dremel mounted in my duplicarver, but I no longer use the dremel due to runout, I don't have any updated pictures but I use a Bosch Colt with a 1/32" carbide end mill.

Chuck

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Chris, the runout was not very noticeable when inlaying into darker headplates like rosewood, walnut...but in lighter woods like maple the runout was noticeable, probably around .003"(thickness of a sheet of paper), making the logos fit a little sloppy. In dark wood with tinted glue it is no problem, but in lighter wood the glue line is not so easy to hide and it was not consistent enough to go with a darker glue and give a halo effect. I tried different size guide pins, but no luck. The worst part was that when cutting out the logo in abalone, I was breaking end mills due to the runout. After switching to the Colt, I no longer break bits and the logos fit tight. You may have better luck with your dremel.

Chuck

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Precision Pearl made me a pin router template that I double stick tape on the back of my veneer in the proper location. I use a Dremel in a modified Dremel drill press with a 1/32" bit and a 1/32" pin on the table. Got the idea from Charlie Hoffman's website a few years ago. It works very well for me and the fit is great.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.