Fretboard markers - basic custom work

darcym

I'm about to order a neck from Warmoth for a project and I wanted what on paper looks like a simple (but I appreciate it's actually quite fiddly when I think about it) fret marker inlay. I contacted Warmoth to see if they could do it, but as part of their agreement on licensed fender necks they can only do certain fret markers or none.

So my questions are if I got a blank fretboard how easy would it be to apple fretboard marker inlays onto this - or is it better to find someone else to make the neck (I know a few guys on here who have done great necks for me in the past) and just ask them to make the neck and fretboard marker inlays at the same time.

the markers are basically hollow dots, so just a circle outline leaving the center of the circle/dot to be the fretboard wood.

It would be on a rosewood board - or ebony or something along those lines, pretty flat radius for a floyd rose. 

How do I best approach this ?

WezV

I have done this style a few times in my early builds.  It’s actually easier to fill the centre with a seperate bit of wood or appropriately coloured filler

you can then use metal tube for the inlay, aluminium or brass work well and are easy to get hold of

@ttony has a neck I made which has aluminium rings on an ebony board, just with black filler in the middle, but an actual ebony plug wouldn’t be too much more work

@philking has a lapsteel I made with maple fretboard and I think that has the same rings with a red filler in the middle

WezV

i just went looking for pics and found my first lefty - i think this was build 12.   I assume i did it with rosewood dust and superglue in the middle
 

here is the lapsteel with contrasting filler

WezV

dot inlays can be done on a ready fretted neck easier than other styles, but you always get the best look by doing it before fretting

darcym

Sane words, sounds like it's better to just get someone else to build the neck.