Song of the Great Lakes - Oops! Less than perfect inlays

Frequently Asked Questions and tool tips

Don't feel bad if your inlays are less than perfect.

This is from an old Orpheum banjo. The inlay was broken before it was installed, the maker didn't even line up the broken pieces very well, and there is a lot of filler around the inlay cavity. This was, in its day, a fairly pricey instrument.

This manufacturer decided he could put a square peg in a round hole. This was pretty visible, even to the casual observer. In the not-too-distant future I'll have a page on the right way to install a diamond inlay.

This is a modern instrument. It has an inlay on the peghead that is flawless, but on the fingerboard the factory routed large cavities and used a lot of filler. However, the filler blends in pretty well and many of my guitar playing friends really like this fingerboard.