Back in for upgraded pearl inlay

Here is it in it's original form

Gill Quilted Maple Resonator
11"  Cox Rolled Maple rim
Yellow Amber/Green/Purple stain with gold pinstripes
FQMS  Gold Engraved hardware
Sullivan Flathead tonering
Custom neck by Vinnie Mondello

Jeff came up with Arvilla for a visit and brought the Mardi Gras in for an upgrade.
It turns out that the coloration on the inlay pleases him but they are hard to see from a playing angle and like me, Jeff likes to look at them while playing so we chose to inlay the rest of the fingerboard in "Slab Ab"....or in layman's terms block Abalone

 Jeff had placed white tape in the blanks as a stopgap measure and now we are going to finalize the work.

All cleaned of tape glue, and scuffed with 0000 steel wool

I have cut paper templates to glue onto the blocks of pearl that will quicken the sizing of the blocks.
I had went back and forth in my head about doing this myself or sending it to Dave and with his schedule and my anguish over what could happen to the carefully tinted and pinstriped paintwork.
Well.....lets just say if that gets messed up I want it to be on me.

Ready to rough in the blocks
 

Jeffbreau wanted the highly figured side to face up so here is a mockup of how that will appear
In the end, the new pearl will have the same gap on each side as the Accutone block and this will look uniform

Routing the first cavity
Large Downcut inlay burr works best  to hog out the bulk after the outside is established with a finer point

I polished the inlay before placement to ease my work after I get them all in and sealed
This one is fully set and profile looks good
Setting the inlay with frets still installed require perfect depth so that there is no ups and downs when the glue sets.

After the inlay was cured I still had several thousandths to shave off the edges because of the imperfections of the pearl which in turn took the some of the tinted finish from the bindings so I have decided there is no way to have my beignets and eat them too, so I will have to remove the colorant from the inlay and reverse the process when I am done with the inlay.
If that is all that will be compromised I am still happy with the way it is going
Now to polish the Pearl again
 
 
 

Personally  i like it with the bright contrast now that i can see it against the white markers.
I have the Abalone in a mirror finish that cannot be seen, very fiery.
Im taking my time and will continue forth.
 

All the inlay is sealed amd bindings scraped on the topside.
I removed all of the tinted inlay coatings .
You can only tell up close, that the abalone is so fiery that the overcoatings looked very dull in contrast.
Jeff and I think we may leave it this way and now that I see it all at once I am really leaning that way if he is.
Now to amber up the bindings on the top, and seal that with a wisp of clear.

Binding retint complete
I decided to make a MOP truss cover out of the same style MOP  in the Liger head
Now to add some honey amber and clear to make it match up with the rest

Back to square one, and beyond.
Karen likes it, thats a plus!
You cannot see any of the true coloration in the pics, the flash will not react as I want.

We have a problem, the Presto is broken in its joint
 I will return it to FQM for a replacement.
No big deal, i will string it up with something  for testing

let's string her on up

I will let it settle in and see how she does.
Looks pretty spiffy!

Tailpiece is now gold plated, and she is ready to go back below sea level to Jeffbreau.

Happy MardiGras!

Thanks for watching,
Vinnie