Replacing Inlays

[Vic]

Hey Guys,

How hard is it to replace a guitar's inlays by a professional guitar builder ?

can this process damage the neck ?

Thanks

Vic

[Matt_B]

What kind of inlays do you have now and what do you want to replace them with?

[Vic]

Hey Matt,

its an ibanez with blue sharktooth inlays and i want to have it replace to a different color.

thanks

Vic

[ulijdavid]

It's more time consuming than difficult. Removing the old inlays is the easy part. Cutting and inlaying the new inlays is not that difficult either. The first "headache" comes depending on the fretboard. If the fretboard is ebony or rosewood, your inlays can be a bit less accurate. The darker fingerboards allow you to use black or brown tinted epoxy to fill in the gaps. Maple is harder to match and the gaps become more apparent. Sloppy work will show up much more. The final pain in the ass is leveling the inlays to the fretboard. With the frets still in place, it becomes more difficult to sand - especially at the higher frets where there isn't much room.

[DonP]

On the LesPaulForum, many people there are replacing inlays with more vintage accurate stuff. Many have written procedures and stickys on how to replace inlays.