This is going on a 2002 570. I'm going to try steaming the
rosewood fingerboard off and gluing this one on. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do it so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open. My plan right now is to make a template with the right dimensions, put a piece of masking tape around to give me an extra .005-.010, then trim the fingerboard down to size on my router table with a pattern bit, then glue the ebony on with hide glue and a curved caul held with some of the Stew-Mac plastic self-threading kinda clamps.
Also, to answer LGM, (And your work totally rocks!!!) is that all the flowers and petals were done with MOP. The stem was 2 pieces of B|W binding glued together white to white. It so happens that I had a .080 thick router bit, and that fit perfectly. The MOP I bought from Grizzly, because it was cheaper there than Stew-Mac. The Stew-Mac stuff was more (What is the right word, iridescent?) figured, but since this was my first attempt, I erred on the side of cheap.
I'm cutting my S logo for my next 2 basses out of the highly figured MOP for the headstock logo, and I think it will look great mounted in the Wenge peghead overlays.
The biggest advice I can give is from the mistake I made where I had 2 different bits and kept having to change them in and out of the 1 Dremel. I actually have another Dremel. It would have saved a whole lot of time and a whole lot of complication if I had bought another dremel router base and used 1 chucked with each bit, then I wouldn't have been taking the bits in and out and having to constantly reset the depth. Especially as I own the 2 Dremels, this was a big time stupid mistake on my part.
I also inlayed the stem before doing the petals, and I believe this was a mistake. I should have done all the inlaying at the same time, then I could have done all the filling at the same time. Also, I used superglue and ebony dust for some of the filling, and epoxy and ebony dust for some. I would probably go back and use all epoxy and ebony dust as it gave a much better fill, at least color wise. I also regret routing below the depth of the wood with a round bit, per several of the books I read on the subject. This was completely useless, as far as I can tell.
Oh, and if you use yellow on the fingerboard and scratch your pattern out of that, make sure to sand ALL the yellow off before inlaying. I got some yellow in with the epoxy fill and had to route that part back out and refill. I can't believe I made that mistake!
Once again, thanks to all the people on this board (especially LGM) for the inspiration. I will probably never have the cash at one time to buy a Jem, but I can drool over, and be inspired by, all the wonderful Jems I see on Jemsite. I think the people here who are so devoted to the Jem is what makes it such a special guitar. New models come and go, new features come and go, but a good guitar which is well liked is really something special.
And, this is completely off the subject, but I admire the fact that there are so many who are willing to turn thier instruments over to LGM and ATD and everyone else who helps turn these guitars in to works of art. I think that it is people like that who keep the artists like LGM going and working. I really started to notice this while watching American Chopper. If it wasn't for someone willing to take the money and plunk it down for something custom, then a lot of the great artistic working being done today would be lost. I also have to give it up to Jemsite. It takes a lot of work to manage a board like this and a site like this, and they do an excellent job. When I get to making guitars enough to actually sell a few, I'm going to donate some money. Now that I'm a little older, I'm starting to see how sponsoring the things you believe in really pay off in the long run. This is the kind of site that I value.
Oh, and my next project on this 570 after the fingerboard is rewinding my own pickups for it. I'll probably start with the single coil first, then do the
bridge humbucker. The neck I may leave alone.
