Acoustic refret and Pimping

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have an old Alvarez acoustic guitar - not an overly expensive one , but it sounds ok and is fun to mess about with.

I was stuck at home this weekend with a nasty cold and eventually got bored watching TV so I decided to pop the acoustic on the bench for an overdue refret - I'm going a bit bigger with the wire so it will be easier to play .
Also adding an Earvana shelf nut - handy that the nut is just 43mm wide like a Les Paul.

While we have the frets out we also set about changing the inlays - the existing ones were just small dots, and the choice of maltese crosses seemed like fun.

Here you can see that I have already pulled the frets out and laid out the inlays on the bare board to see how the layout will look


I've temporarily stuck the mother of pearl pieces down with the equivalent of model airplane glue - enough to hold them in place for me to scribe around to mark out where to cut with the router so I can set them into the board

[Kiichi]

Yeah, nothing better than working on guitars when you gotta stay home (although I am doing a lot less sophisticated stuff when I do).

Those new inlays looks great, especially on the 12th. By look it adds 200quid to the estimated price easily.

[roland_rat]

Very nice. The inlays look great!

[sgmypod]

mmm want them for mine now

[38thBeatle]

Great inlays there Jonathan.

[Telerocker]

That looks fantastic!

[FELINEGUITARS]

Okay - made some more progress , although I'll leave it for today:

Inlays installed and frets installed.
I chose to stain the fingerboard with an ebony stain  to even up the colour



I'm looking forward to having the next stages done , so I can play her

[Kiichi]

I gotta be honest here, I do not really agree with the choice to ebony stain the fretboard. Now keep in mind that I am just judging from the photos, but I think it looks a little off. It is probably better in real live, but I really like a nicely oiled rosewood fretboard. That brown richness (the richness is what I like) is, to me, nicer than what I see here.
I think this is actually the first occasion where I disagree with a style choice Jonathan made^^

[Philly Q]

^

To be fair, some rosewood looks anaemic whether it's oiled or not, you can't always get that "brown richness".

The ebony stain is interesting - does it hold up well over time, and do funny things happen if you then oil the fretboard?  I suppose it can always be re-stained subsequently?

[FELINEGUITARS]

Because of the awkwardness of the shapes being routed out there was a touch more visible filler than I liked, and whilst I used rosewood dust to conceal the gaps , the dust when mixed with epoxy looked darker.

That along with the general look was the reason for me to break out the stain.

We used a leather dye which penetrated really well , and will stand up against playing wear and tear.
If you gouge the wood , you'll go through it but with Dunlop 6100 fingerboard contact is kept to a minimum.

It is the same way that Ibanez offered Ebonised rosewood on many guitars in the late 1970s

Thankfully the binding was black , so it is neat edge to edge.

It also looks better in real life - the camera flash has made it look a bit flat

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I actually think it looks cool :D

[gwEm]

I actually think it looks cool :D

i agree :)

[AndyR]

Looking good :D

I was reading it earlier at work, not able to see the pictures, thinking "maltese crosses on an acoustic? oh well, each to their own..." :lol:

But no, I'm quite surprised, it looks really tasteful.

I'm firmly on the fence over the ebony stain. If the rosewood itself had been spectacularly yummy I would have thought "oh that's a shame...". But I think the new finish looks just as good - and seeing as something was necessary, I think it's a win-win :D

[FELINEGUITARS]

The darkening of the board makes the pearl stand out more too I have found.
Must get it fret dressed now!

[Philly Q]

I was reading it earlier at work, not able to see the pictures, thinking "maltese crosses on an acoustic? oh well, each to their own..." :lol:

I remember a Fender acoustic someone had in school.  It had cross inlays, of sorts, but rotated 45 degrees - in fact they were more like small diamonds with cuts in the edges.  I thought it looked really cool, never forgotten it even after 30+ years!