Almost rocking!

This guitar has been coming back to her doctor(me) for quite a couple of times just because she dream to be rocking one fine day! So yes, she is almost ready now!

Things done for this project:
- Staining of body color
- Clear coating to a low gloss natural feel
- Replacing a brand new rosewood fingerboard
- Inlaying offset Mother of Pearl dot inlays
- Fretting with Jumbo frets and finishing with bullet ends

I can't wait to see her owner put her into action soon! The feeling of accomplishing other people's dream axe is just good :)

To Fret or Not To Fret?

I noticed that my work comes in some fashion. If you've been following my work you'll realize a pattern i'm sure! Hmz. haha. Anyway here's some fret work.

First up, a rosewood fingerboard that's pretty old and worn. Owner wish to get back the feel of jumbo frets instead of jumbo flats. So upon removing all the old frets, i realized the dirty and worn board. Took the initiative to restore it back to glory.




Next up, Remember the black vine of life on a maple board? Yup, i've completed it's fretwork. Sorry to the owner for the delay, my band have quite some activities lately. Anyway dealing with maple is always tricky as they need extra care always. Anything wrong will result in an almost irreversible move. Masking tapes are called upon for this case.

Here's a close up of the fret edges :)

And the neck picture splitting into 4.

Vine of Life

i have to praise that Steve Vai really created a very nice vine design for fingerboard. Recently i'm working on this "black and white" vine of life. This is not the first time i'm doing such inlay and i'm feeling the blessing from a cnc machine this time! These pieces you see are cnc cut and routed. I used to think CNC are like perfections, i am wrong. These are actually incurately routed on the fingerboard which resulted me doing more routing in order to let the pieces fit in. Nevertheless check out the pictures of the almost complete fingerboard.

Next step, clear coat and fretting! Fyi, this actually belongs to the b/w swirl jem body i've posted earlier on. The fingerboard was originally a normal maple fingerboard with black plastic dots and i swapped a new maple fingerboard on it.

Clear Coating a Marble

Service fee: $250





I was pleased to be tasked to gloss up this little jem.

This thing needs no futher introduction or a full body picture. I'm not going to post full body pictures unless the owner agrees.
The owner bought this body from the states and it came unfinished. So instead of paying usd$200 for them to clear coat, he got me to take over this task.

Please do not start emailing me about swirl finish...... yet... :D


Regarding the JPM fingerboard, here's the picture of the completed job

Two 85% Completed Projects

These 2 have been with me for quite a while. I'm sorry to keep all others waiting when i am focusing on these 2 baby :)

Razi's JPM Fingerboard
When Razi sent me his old fingerboard, it was an old rotten rosewood with greenish frets. At 1 look, nobody will wish to play on it. So after discussion, Razi decides to change the rosewood fingerboard and get the Ibanez JPM style inlays done.

These are done with high grade Mother of Pearl and a highly figured rosewood fingerboard. I'm left with oiling the board before sending it back to him. Nope, i'm not assigned to do fretting on this job.


Neo's JM Black Strat
Gr3y Custom Shop #10

Neo was the first guy that approached me with high interest of my JM Strat. After trying out my piece, he decided to get me do one for him. Throughout the journey, i'm constantly updating him with photos of the process etc. This gave him a piece of mind and i'm sure he sure trust i'm not out to con or something :)

I'm awaiting for his pickups to arrive before i'll setup everything. Also, i've not get the hardwares tarnished as of this stage.

Jem Jr to Jem Evo convertion

Jem Jr to Jem Evo convertion
Price: $ASK

**This is my very own Jem Jr i bought when i first started out playing electric guitar. There are quite a list of stuff changed.

-Fingerboard from Rosewood to Ebony
-Inlay full tree of life with Top Grade Mother of Pearl
-Inlay side dot markers with Top Grade Mother of Pearl
-Change of Pickup to full EVO set
-Change of bridge to Gotoh Floyd Rose style
-Change of pickguard to white pearloid
-Relic the body similar to Steve Vai's Evo.

Many often mistaken this as Jem from factory, especially after playing it. Each of the inlay are individually cut, almost any design is possible**

BeforeAfterInlay Pictures