Epiphone Joe Pass

Owner requested to replace the original plain plastic inlays with some real mother-of-pearl blocks.

Though it's a seemingly simple job, the big block makes inlaying on a fretted board exceptionally difficult. I'm glad i managed to finish the task and the owner love the end results. :D

So why MOP? It gives a lively 3D depth with vibrant color of commonly pink,green and blue. It's hard to resist isn't it?

Tutorial ( String Changing for Archtop Bridge )

Many people often miss this part when restringing an Archtop guitar. Since an Archtop's bridge is not screwed onto the body or held in place by any support, it is common that people cannot find the intonated perfect position for the bridge after restringing. This problem can be easily solved! Works well for violin or other string instrument of same nature!


1st
Tear a low tack masking tape into 3 pieces. I'm using the 3M blue colored low tack tapes. It should look like the following illustration.

2nd
Make sure you are using the original edge of the tape and then tape it as close to the edge of the bridge as possible. Look at the following picture.

3rd
You'll no longer worry when your bridge came loose after you've loosen your string! Perfectly marked in place. Also do note that i keep the end of the masking tape up. This helps to reduce the chance of creating a ding with your nails or scratching the finish when you are removing the tapes.


Anyway this belongs to my client's beautiful Epiphone Joe Pass model which is currently going through re-inlaying process. He has cleverly opted for the real deal, high grade mother of pearl :D

Neck Reinforcements Have Arrived.

Alright.. so the neck is now glued back with the headstock.. But is that safe? Considering the tension of strings are pretty powerful. Personally, i'm not that much of a scientist so i'll prefer to play safe. I found some Nato wood lying around and decides to put them into action. For those who don't know, nato are the "asian" mahogany and have pretty much the same characteristic and are often used in guitar neck building.

Sawing these nato into shape is quite ridiculously tough. They are indeed the choice of wood for neck building.

So i carefully mark out where i plan to inlay some reinforcements.

Test fittings are as important as you trying out your jeans before buying. These sits about 3-4mm deep, depending which side you are on.


Finally. Now i have a safer feel when i'm going to string up this Gibby. Don't worry, since i'm going to coat it with white paint, it won't be visible. Anyway, it still looks ok :D

The beautiful start of a series of unique Inlays..

Hi folks!

I'm starting a series of beautiful inlays designed and made by me. I hope you'll like what you see.

A little background. These inlays are made from high grade White/Gold/Black Mother of Pearl shell and Abalone shell. I might throw in certain other stuff like copper or acrylic if there is a need for some special color. These inlays are handmade by me and by no way i can duplicate something exactly the same. Meaning to say if you like something i've created but it's bought by someone else, i'm sorry but you'll just have to wait for something else you might like and act fast.

So today i made 2 of these inlays and i've not set the price yet. Don't worry we'll start once i've come up with a price list for these beautiful stuff. You can purchase them for your ambitious d.i.y inlay adventure or you can simply get me to do the inlaying onto your guitar/bass/banjo/lapste.. ok you get the idea.

Without more talking, let's look at the result for today!


Let's start with something light..
I was thinking to myself, what could possibly be the type of inlay that most people will like it on their instrument.. I do know that most christians love nice inlays because it's part of their culture and history however they might not want a cross smacked on their instrument. (you can still request me to do one for you :D ). So the next that came to me somehow was this Dove. Pure, Peace and Happy.
This is shot in white light as compared to the above shot in yellow lighting. I'll try to get a day shot, where the natural light really glows the Mop gloriously! Btw, these are not polished thus you won't see the smooth and glossy finish :)

Next we have something in contrast! I call this the Angel and Demon. Why so? The main dark greenish(black mop) skull represents the demon's skull while the purplish(abalone) broken part represents the angel. The white(white mop) left wing belongs to the angel and the dreamy dark(black mop) wing with piercing nails(white mop)is from the demon!
This is shot in white light as opposed to the above shot in yellow lighting. All these photo are taken with my old Konica Minolta Dimage X50! Though the color and focus is not the best but i'm glad it still works well! and yes... i'm sure you've spotted some other things on the way.. ;)

Custom Mahogany Truss Rod Cover

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 :)

Old Skool~

So finally the old school tele project is completed. I can't help it but took a few shots and post it here to share.

Total mod:
- Mother of Pearl Star inlaying
- Single ply 5 screw w/o pup hole pickguard
- Bigsby B5 installation

Everytime i pickup this guitar, i can't help but play sleepwalk! It's an amazing telecaster~

Star Inlay!

Hi folks,

it's been really long since i've posted. Still, that does not mean i am not doing any more modification etc! It's just that most are small scale repair jobs and i've been really busy with my band RazzlePlay .I'm so glad my regular clients are so patience with me! Thanks peepz! You know who you are! :)

I wonder how many of you remembered this bigsby B5 installation?

After i've posted that blog, i received quite a number of emails asking me to install a B5 for them. I'll now take this opportunitity to announce again that i do not carry in any Bigsby product and as for that installation, my client provided the bridge he bought off ebay.

Anyway, he came back to me recently and this time round we worked on something better! Mother of Pearl Star Inlays! Some people emailed me before on what is the difference between a real inlay using plastic, shells and sticker "inlays". Inlays are nothing but decorative but having a decorative on your guitar that does not last can be really annoying. It is also a form of art pass down from skillful wood craftmans that served their king. A good inlay are one that have defined edges without excessively big routed slot and is completely flat and smooth with the wood beside it. Buying stickers to stick on the fingerboard will not be able to last a fraction of the actual inlay and when removing, it'll cause gooze to sip into the pores of the fingerboard. Yucks!

So here's some pictures to look at the result of his request.

(i fake an email that claimed i spoilt his fingerboard, i wish i could see his expression when he saw this picture! :P Don't worry, it's part of the inlaying process)

Here we go, the first star that shined!




There are more projects that i'll be posting, please be patience with me :)

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.

It's all about inlays

Recently i was tasked to do a very special truss rod cover. I'm glad that it made a break through for Gr3y Custom Shop as it was the first time i did such things. So guys and girls! Anything you feel that i can do for you, don't hesitate.

Another great news for Gr3y Custom Shop is that i've managed to reduced the size of inlay i can handle! What does this mean? I'm able to do real small inlays for your sweet guitar :) Recently my friend Errik had his 21st birthday. To get a guitarist a present, it got to be related! Why? Majority will go for t-shirts, chocolates, jewellery etc.. those are plain boring to me. So somehow during a certain morning the thought of doing a real unique inlay for him came into my mind.

This inlay is 1.5cm wide. Made of Gold Mother of pearl and is ready to inlay into any fingerboard.

A New Adventure

So i was called upon to do this very interesting new thing for customizing a guitar. Make a guess.

Materials here are Mahogany and High grade Abalone shell

Remember the "marble" ? Alright, it's not a marble but a swirl jem. I'm glad that i helped in the process of glossing up this babe! Next step? I'm going to help this little monster get entangled in black vines! Keep a look out :D

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.