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Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:17 pm
by ChuckBarnett
Building my first ukulele, a tenor with a Redwood top and quilted Maple sides and back. I have a strip of Koa going up the back. Planning to use Koa binding on the instrument. Rosette is bird's-eye maple, neck will be Alaskan yellow cedar. I have considered putting a similar thickness strip of Koa up the neck -that would be about three eighths of an inch or so in width.
I am planning to use bird's-eye maple for the fretboard and had thought about bird's-eye maple for the headstock veneer.
Here is where my lack of ability as an artist exposes itself. Thought about doing a pearl inlay of one word length on the headstock, probably vertically between the tuning keys on a veneer of figured Koa. Or I could go with ebony on the bird's-eye maple.
Do you have any preferences; do you have any photos of things you like in this regard? Looking for some help from someone with a better eye than me. :-)
Thank you, very much
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Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 7:33 pm
by MaineGeezer
I'm no artist, either, so my opinion may not be worth much. I'm not sure I have an opinion, just some stream-of-consciousness thoughts.

Personally, I think I'd prefer a contrast between the fingerboard and the headstock veneer, so I wouldn't use birdseye maple on the headstock. Given your choices, I'd use the koa on the heastock and match the koa binding.

On the other hand....are you binding the fingerboard with koa? If so, then you could carry the koa binding around the headstock and if you did that a birdseye maple veneer on the headstock might tie together pretty well.

What are you making the bridge from? Birdseye maple to match the fingerboard? Or koa to match the binding? Or something else (ebony?) to match the headstock inlay...if you use an ebony inlay?

The birdseye maple rosette adds another factor. Are you including any purfling rings in the rosette? (e.g. thin black/white lines? Maybe a ring or two of koa?)

Thst is pretty random, but maybe it will jog your thinking and suggest a path that will lead somewhere.

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:56 pm
by ChuckBarnett
20170228_202109.jpg
Thank you, Geezer! I've got black white black purple on her side of the rosette. I like your thinking the contrast between the headstock and the fretboard. Might have to give that some thought.

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:16 am
by Danl8
No artiste here, either. My opinion is that with a (relatively) dark top and light rosette (very nice btw) having a light FB with a dark (relatively) head veneer, esp koa, might look good and balanced. Plus if you are inlaying as well a birdseye head would lose many eyes to abalone, weakening the effect of the maple figure.

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:40 pm
by ChuckBarnett
Good wisdom in looking for balance in the light/dark tones!
Geezer, not at all sure what to so about a bridge. Never sone that either... going one step at a tome on this. I'll need to see what woods are acceptable for bridges and then...

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 5:22 am
by MaineGeezer
I suspect (but don't have any authoritative knowledge) that a birdseye maple bridge would be okay, and look quite stunning. It might be too much birdseye though, and a darker wood might be better.

I don't know enough about koa to know if it would be suitable for a bridge or not.

Rosewood is of course a classic bridge material, and would I think blend in well with the maple and koa.

You could always use ebony, but I think you'd want some other ebony somewhere to balance it, so it's not the only ebony element on the instrument.

I think I might go with rosewood.

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:09 am
by ChuckBarnett
I have what I think is a stick of Ebony, or someone thought (another forum) it might be African Blackwood. I'll give the Rosewood idea some thought. Initially I like it. This stuff is all fresh and new for me and I am growing anxious to see how this turns out! I found a company in Seattle that, among many other things, does inlay work on computer routers,etc. I figured out what I want to put on the peghead and a friend, Randy (from this forum) suggested that inlaying that just might be above my paygrade at this point. ;) So I'll have Kevin at Gurian Instruments do either Ebony on Bird's Eye or Pearl on Koa for the head. And I like both ideas at this point. Got some time to decide but trying to think ahead a little.

Thanks, again!

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 2:40 pm
by Danl8
ChuckBarnett wrote:I have what I think is a stick of Ebony, or someone thought (another forum) it might be African Blackwood. I'll give the Rosewood idea some thought...... So I'll have Kevin at Gurian Instruments do either Ebony on Bird's Eye or Pearl on Koa for the head. And I like both ideas at this point. Got some time to decide but trying to think ahead a little...
Do all three (or four) designs. You know you're gonna be building more after this one. ;-)

Re: Headstock inlay: ebony on Maple or pearl on Koa?

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:02 pm
by ChuckBarnett
;-)