Beate Ritzert wrote:John Catto wrote:Is this for inlays? Like the stuff Gibson used in the 50's and so on.
It is for the headstock of an old thinline archtop. BTW: some of the inlays became a little bit warm when i straightened the neck - so i know i must be careful.
If it's for a headstock I'd just shoot amber toner over it. All the colour on headstock inlays is usually in the lacquer. In fact I think the change of celluloid inlay stock from UV is highly over-rated, I had some old Gibson style Italian pearloid that came from the old EKO factory, it had sat around someone's workshop for maybe 30 years. It'd darkened a "little" but any leveling and it was straight back to brand new. The aging on fingerboard inlays seems to come from hand acids and other environmental elements rather than UV plus it's very surface, level a 50's Gibson fingerboard and other than the edge shrinkage the inlays look brand new.
All the eco-terror over old celluloid inlay stock is WILDLY overblown, it's not like it's an old unstable table tennis ball or film stock. They used to cut that stuff from blocks with a bandsaw. Think about that.
For the headstock, use an airbrush and shoot amber with a little bit of blue in it and you'll get the right sort of look.
Oh for glue I usually tack it down with CA then do any void filling with epoxy with pigment. Actually that brings up a good hint, we guitar builders seem to love to re-invent the wheel and do stuff that traditional craftsmen rejected 100 years ago. One of the worst of these is filler, everyone thinks you should mix wood dust with glue which barely works. For darks the colour rarely matches and there always seems to be light material in there on a magnifying glass level no matter how careful, for lights even worse and if your dyeing over it etc. it doesn't take it etc. For inlays on an ebony board the best trick is to go along to an old school art supply place and buy a little bag of
lamp black pigment. Be super careful with this stuff it's VERY concentrated and will trash a carpet in one breath! Mix with epoxy and use to fill, it will level with an exact match 10 times better than you'd ever get with ebony dust and so on. For Rosewood you'll need to play with the colour but the same applies.