ev1ltwin said:
So if I want to have a guy do inlay work, the neck can't be finished or fretted. That makes sense. According to the Warmoth neck builder, "You must have frets in order to have a string nut." This does not make sense. I want to get an R4 floyd prep with mounting holes. Am I doing something wrong here?
O.K. This is a rather touchy subject with luthiers, and believe me I spoke with a lot of inlay people before I finally got what I wanted.
Yes, in an ideal world, the inlay man will want to have the neck without frets or finish. I can't speak for the finish aspect, but inlay work can be done with the frets in place.
It is just a pain in the arss to do, so naturally the luthier wants to make his job easy and not put him self in a liability situation by screwing up your neck.
I was bound and determined to have custom inlay on my Warmoth V [see pic below].
Warmoth would not do a neck with a fingerboard that I provided with inlay. Additionally, nobody wanted to do inlay work with the frets in place.
So, my next attempt was to get the neck from Warmoth without the frets and have a fret job done after the inlay work was in place.
Sounded like a great idea until I started asking the price of a have a complete fret job done... Going rate was an average of $250; makes for a mighty expensive neck after paying for the inlay.
Then I found Bryan England's Custom Inlay; the link that I provided you previously.
http://www.custominlay.com/
They were happy to do the inlay work with the frets already in place. The difficulty comes when the inlay work goes right up against the edge of the fret.
That is why I mentioned that your design was so simple [not even close to the frets] that I knew you could find someone to do it.
If you look at the inlay on Valentina, you will see the inlay is right up against the frets the entire length of the neck.
I will admit that I was quite frustrated with Bryan England's at first because it took them a long time to do the work.
When I realized what a challenge it was to do this inlay with the frets in place, I sort of understood why it took so long.
The folks there said it took them hours to set up the machine to route around the frets.
Also, when they shipped my neck, they did not really clean it up much. It look bad when I got it and I was pissed.
However, after cleaning it up it looks great and I am really happy that I had them do the work.
I would definitely consider using them again, but just understand that they might have my neck for awhile and plan accordingly.
I would call the folks at Bryan England's before talking to the big W again and see just what they are willing to do.
I think you would be happy...
Good luck & :rock-on:
