Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

I'm reasonably certain that Brazilian rosewood costs a bit more than a 2x4 since it's not illegal to import it. No issues of that type on my '95 PRS Custom, the '89 PRS Standard I used to have, or any others I've played.

[slayer]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Favorite: Iron Crosses
Least: None or Vine

Jack.

[David Dineen]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

likes: skull and crosbones, plain old sharks

dislikes: ebony sharks on maple board

[Toby]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

One of my Charvel has a rosewood fretboard with MOP dot inlays, the other one (my custom order) has a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard with abalone dot inlays.

I prefer Brazilian rosewood for fretboards, IMO it's the best sounding and great feeling wood for fretboards.

For the fretboards, my preferred fretboard material is abalone. There are many different inlay styles available, and I like many of the. Though the dots are simple, they are useful and authentic to the original Charvels. Sharkfins are cool. Abalone flames are fantastic. The dieces are funny. There are other great inlays. What I don't like are Gibson style inlays, they are boring. For my future custom orders, I am thinking about custom graphics with matching headstock and matching custom inlays.

[roodyrocker]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

I can dream up so many inlays its not funny. My custom shop Rhoads has custom coiled Cobra inlays made of a combination of Abalone and MOP. They look great! Perhaps Remcarr will post a picture of them for me. This axe and Remcarr's MF-1 were ordered together. I think his flame inlays look awesome. Having seen his guitar in person, I can tell you they look even better than the pics he posted. Flames rule!
Of course I'm also a big fan of sharkies as far as stock inlays go. I tend to favor Ebony fretboards but I also own some rosewood as well as maple ones. Its all good.

Rudy

P.S. Soon I'll post some pix of another recently arrived custom shop Soloist with cool 12th fret inlay [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Tekky]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Likes: Ebony sharkies on maple, black dots on maple, offset black dots on maple, ebony flames on maple (see a pattern here?)

Dislikes: zig-zag inlays

[jwoods986]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Likes: vine or pyramids (JEM), sharkfins (regular or reverse), basically anything other than dots. Ebony boards (bound!). I have also come to realize that I LOVE maple necks but they must be unfinished or very lightly coated. None of that 10 layers of laquer (sp?) crap like Strats.
Dislikes: no inlays or just one at the 12th, cheap rosewood.

[jgcable]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

I like traditional dots in abaloni or MOP the best.
I dislike offset dots or no fretmarkers. I am not too fond of the BC Rich diamonds either.

[sully]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

likes: rosewood, maple, ebony boards, dots, blocks, sharkfins (but i prefer reverse ones), iron crosses (as long as they're all small, mini stars, blah blah blah.

i think that dots, while the standard, has its place. visualize a strat with shark fins, or blocks. it just looks goofy. jeff beck's soloist with the binding and the dots looks nice. dots can be a bit plain, but i've always been more drawn to the body of a guitar, and prefer to have the necks not be a main focal point, but part of the flow from body to headstock.

dislikes: ebony sharks on maple. that's nasty. i also don't care for the overuse of abalone, zig zag sharks, flames, iommi crosses, or things that are too ornate.

not to start a rant, here, but i'm also not a fan of the bound and purfled fretboards and bodies, especially when they have figured tops. to me, that's the guitar equivalent of "pimp my ride" when you have a body with a figured top that's got binding and purfling on it, along with the neck. it's the diamond encrusted gold teeth of guitars, and it's oh so ghetto. might as well toss some kind of retarded tribal inlays in 27 different forms of abalone.

....hm, i think i just described a schecter! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

sully
fan of the understated

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Likes: Simple stuff
Dislikes: Ugly stuff

[AfterForever]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Inlays:
likes: MOP Sharkins, reverse fin, Vine inlays, anything extreme, abolone dots, flames, MOP fins om maple is awesome imo (:

dislike: trapezium/blocks, pirana teeth things (DKMG), offside dots

Fretboards:
Like: ebony, maple
Dislike: light rosewood, birdeye maple

[Newc]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Inlays:

Like: Fins (normal, reverse, or ziggies), blocks, traps, crop circles (Roswell only), "PLAYBOY" like on the Les Paul, triangles (not the disappearing JEM thing), Hamer Boomerangs, ebony-shapes-on-maple-boards, plastic inlays on imports since they don't affect the tone but greatly lower the price to compete with the used market; the NASL inlays; the new SLS/KV2T inlays; split parallelograms; split diamonds; BC Rich clouds and diamonds; Iommis (but only on an Iommi SG); Skull/Crossbones (KH ESPee); "Ozzy" crosses; no inlays

Dislike: Weed leaf - seriously, how weak is that?; Trucker Babes - again, very weak; the "HATE" inlays - ultra-weak; dots of any kind on anything except a Strathead [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] - round inlays with an angular/pointy head is combining two geometric shapes that do not conform to one another; Iron Crosses (too small); "pretend" evil stuff - too much like Beavis and Butthead - "Look at me! I'm all evil and stuff!" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ; plastic inlays that DO NOT result in a lower price and DO NOT compete with the used market [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Boards:

Like: Maple (not heavily birdseyed but maybe moderately so), ebony, dark rosewood; bound head/neck

Dislike: those over-priced exotic boards that have minimal or no effect on tone - "Look, it's a rare tropical wood that looks and sounds just like ebony but costs 5 times as much" [img]/images/graemlins/brow.gif[/img] ; heavily birdseyed maple - I had it, I thought it dulled the tone - maybe a less intense figuring woulda left some "snap" in it - BM was right on that one; light rosewood - rosewood=dark reddish-brown - period - not open for discussion - if you have light rosewood, make some furniture out of it and save the good stuff for guitars [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

[JACKSONWOLF]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

My Preferences are Ebony Boards (although, I'm really into my 25th Anniversary Charvels Birdseye Maple Board with Abalone Inlays) with pretty well most types of (Jackson) Inlays but I would really like a Guitar with Large Iron Crosses.
Dislikes for me are Pearloid Inlays, they just look cheap . Also, I'm not too keen on the Ebony Sharkfins with a Maple Board.

[Hamner1]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

1. Ebony with Sharkfin inlays & binding
2. Rosewood with sharkfin inlays & binding
3. maple with black dots no binding

As far as other inlays I don't like dots on anything other than maple, I hate pirahnas, muti fret inlays (flames, vines, etc), don't like trapezoids (or any other gibson inlay). I do like diamonds, pyramids, iron cross, iommi cross, oh yeah I also hate the pot leaf inlay.

[TheSteveMan]

Re: Favorite & Least Favorite Inlays / Fretboards

Likes:
Maple!
Ebony is alright too, feels nice and looks good. They can't *all* be maple.
Sharkfins are nice on either white on ebony or black on maple.
Creative and unique things, as long as they are in reasonable taste. (Jason Becker's Jackson with the colored number inlays is pretty neat-o, for example)

Dislikes:
Rosewood
Dots (though they *do* belong on strats and teles :-p)
Light inlays on maple (Eh, I just prefer black)
Excessively gaudy stuff