_____14. Once the ledges are cut, you can glue the
inlay strips in place. If your Inlay Bands are made
of wood, use regular woodworking glue. If they
are plastic strips, then you’ll need an adhesive that
works with both plastic and wood (Duco Cement
and Sig-Ment are commonly available, but we like
Weld-On #16 best for acrylics).
Use short strips of masking tape to hold the inlay in
place until dry. This job is easiest if you cut a bunch
of masking tape pieces ahead of time and stick
them to the edge of the table so you can grab them
quickly. Then spread glue in about 8” - 12” of the
ledge at a time as you move around the instrument.
If you want to miter the corners of the inlay strips
when you reach the END BLOCKS, you can either
use a sharp razor knife to cut the bevels, or a little
flat sanding block to sand them, as shown.
When the glue is dry, peel off the masking tape and
sand off the glue residue to clean up your decora-
tions. If you installed plastic binding, you’ll find a
cabinet scraper to be the best tool for working the
plastic down flush with the surrounding wood.
You can sand the wood inlay strips a little too -- the
color goes through the full thickness of these pieces.
PREPARING THE FRETBOARD
_____15. (OPTIONAL) Most people like to mark certain spaces on the FRETBOARD to guide their playing. We
provide 1/4” diameter PEARL DOTS for this purpose, but you may choose to do something more or less ornate if
you like. Here’s how to install the dots:
Find the centers of the spaces in your FRETBOARD corresponding to the dots in the diagram below. Punch-mark
the wood to help keep your drill from wandering off-center. Then simply drill a shallow hole in the wood for each
dot. The hole can be a little deeper than the thickness of the pearl.
To inlay the pearl, use 5-minute exposy or thick superglue to fill the hole, then push or tap the pearl dot down almost
flush with the wood, being careful not to push it below the level of the surrounding wood. When dry, you can sand
the dots flush to the wood.
CAUTION: Notice the numbering system with 6.5 and 13.5 spaces!
That means #7 dot is actually in the 8th space, #10 is really #11 & #14 is really #16.
NOTE: The underside of the FRETBOARD is both hollowed out and scalloped on this kit to help lighten up the
board and increase the sound. Some people ask if they can enlarge the arches even more, and we think that is fine.
Use a large drum sander for that purpose, making the FRETBOARD look even more like an old Venetian bridge.
Just don’t carve the arches any higher than the hollowed out space in the middle, and don’t make the contact points
shorter than about 1-1/2”.
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