Finishing up the fingerboard

Now that the summer semester is over, I have a little time to catch up on the progress I have made on my latest guitar. The last post left off with me getting ready to bind the board with some walnut off-cuts from the guitar sides.

This guitar won't have a lot of 'bling' but I do like the look of a little bit of inlay. I decided on 2mm dots as side markers and a couple of little curly bits as 12th fret markers. The MOP pieces came from Andy DePaule at luthiersupply.com

I sanded the pearl flat starting with 220 grit through 600 grit. I then sanded the entire board through 2000 grit using mineral spirits as a lubricant rather than water. After cleaning out the fret slots with an x-acto knife I set the board aside and worked on the top.