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Great Guitar Inlays – Gallery #2
Well, as promised, we’re back with our second gallery. The first is here, if you missed it:
What always strikes me as I look at inlays is the level of detail, and though that goes into these designs, and the fact that it’s very tiny pieces of whatever the chosen inlay material is – meticulously placed. This is extremely time consuming and detailed work.
Anyway – I know what you want. Here is the gallery.
Click any image to enlarge and get more details.
Some of the inlay artists featured above:
Larry Robinson
Larry is the artist behind the History of Flight and the Peacock above. The History of Flight was done around 2006, and Larry cut the Peacock one by hand as well, in the 90’s.
Universal Laser Systems
They do much more than guitar stuff with their product – which you can purchase from them at their website: http://www.ulsinc.com/markets/woodworking/
I didn’t check since it’s beyond the scope of this article, but I’m willing to bet its not cheap.
Jens Ritter Instruments
Jens Ritter takes the art first approach to building his instruments. It’s an art form to him, reflected in the company’s motto: “Every one is a masterpiece.”
Jens only makes approximately 60 instruments a year – a little quick math tells us that’s about 6 days per unit. He’s made instruments for Phil Lesh from Grateful Dead, Mary J. Blige, Prince, and more.
CB Guitars
Coming out of Tennessee, CB guitars is run by and named after Chris Bozung, with Don Hunter taking care of the finishing work. They built a guitar for Vince Gill’s 50th birthday present – commissioned by Vince’s best friends. Chris uses all solid woods – no laminates, and he hand shapes each neck per the customer’s wishes.
Ken Miller Guitars
Ken Miller Guitars does some fantastically out of the ordinary and beautiful work. Ken started building guitars in 1962, and he also worked for Guild for awhile. His wife, Virginia, is responsible for most of the inlay design and cutting. Ken’s philosophy is simple and cardinal to his trade: all guitars must posses three things: Tone and responsiveness, playability, and beauty.
Thorn Guitars
Thorn Guitars specializes in inlays. There isn’t a whole lot of information on their website, but it does showcase a bunch of their work in images, so it’s well worth checking out. If you do – check out my favorite of their series – The Artisan Series.
Wrap-up
Well, that was fun. There is one more inlay gallery to come, so make sure you check back for that. If you missed the last gallery, it can be found here:
WOW! Those 2 galleries were awesome.
You think the laser cutting is expensive? I wonder what Larry got for the peacock!
D