Inlay Differences?

[Mr. Jelly]

Please help me understand something in regard to pearl and abalone inlays of guitars. What are the differences between inlays on a Martin or a Santa Cruz guitar compared with the inlay on my $300 Alvarez guitar? Or put another way, or maybe a different question, between an expensive guitar and a guitar of lesser expense?

[fazool]

Like any manufactured product, it is a combination of materials and labor.

A higher quality will have a genuine abalone shell inlay. A lesser guitar may have an abalam or even just plastic inlay.

A higher quality guitar may have a hand carved inlay and hand fitted pocket. A lesser guitar may have looser fits that sre filled with more glue and more visible upon closer inspection.

[Earl49]

Fazool has answered adequately, but I also have pondered this over the years. For example, my 1985 made-in-Japan Sigma had an inlaid pearl script logo and sold for under $400 retail at the time, even with California sales tax. When I went to order a custom shop Martin four years later, I wanted similar pearl script inlay instead of the 40 series block inlay. To my surprise, Martin's custom shop wanted $650 extra to do that, way more than the first guitar cost in total and roughly 40% of the entire purchase price of the Martin! I went with the gold foil logo.

I suppose that Sigma did it with early CNC machinery or laser cutting and thin abalam, but it sure looked great - no perceptible filler or flaws. Martin was probably going to do the inlay by hand with real abalone or MOP. For many years, every time I looked at the genuine Martin, my head shook in disappointment that the inlay could not have been done at a reasonable cost.

[mirwa]

Also materials used,

I can buy a sheet of mother of pearl 200mm by 100mm in a thickness of .2mm and it costs me 35 dollars, if I get the same sheet in a thickness of 1.5mm (my preferred thickness for inlay work) it costs me just under 300 dollars

Steve

[tadol]

It also has something to do with where the inlay is - you can stack multiple layers of veneer and thin pearl, and cut many headstocks at once with a fret saw. Fretboard inlay has to be cut, then routed in - that can be done one at a time by hand, or with automated machinery. There is also cost difference in the quality and color and figure of the shell, which can come from a number of different species - so there are alot of variables that can account for differences -

[tahoeguitar]

A big part of it is that American workers want to earn a living wage, while in China Malaysia, Vietnam etc they are willing to work for far less.

I think Martin's upcharges are often obscene. Anybody who is having a standard logo made for a headstock is probably farming it out to a CNC Co. that makes logos and headplates. I get mine done about 20 at a time by a company in Maryland. It costs me $6 per headplate to have them cut and averages about another $30 to have my logo cut in MOP or abalone or fake ivory. So even if I charge retail I need to get 2x that or $72. Add $50 for the labor of gluing it in and sanding it flat and it should be what $122? $650 ? I need to raise my prices.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by tahoeguitar

......$650 ? I need to raise my prices.

Don't do that. Your price seems quite reasonable, Larry. I was clear in my post that the prohibitive price prevented me from going with the nicer inlay, something I always regretted. For $150 definitely "yes". For $650, no way.

[Bill Yellow]

It's cheaper and easier for a budget brand to add fancy inlays and bling than to improve the tone, playability and build quality of their instruments, I'm guessing.

[jonfields45]

BTW, Ablam is hardly shunned by high end factory guitar makers and it looks pretty astounding to my eye.

[John Arnold]

my 1985 made-in-Japan Sigma had an inlaid pearl script logo

I doubt it. Original Sigma guitars were Asian made, and the vast majority of those have overlaid pearl on headstocks. The pearl is extremely thin, and is just glued to the surface. A thick polyester finish is applied to make the surface flush.

[Earl49]

Could be, John. I no longer own this excellent guitar (it now lives with a friend in Anchorage) so I cannot check with this in mind. But I never noticed any "edge" to the logo, so it certainly appeared inlaid. Thick poly coating and an overlay is a clever build technique....

[McCawber]

I think some of the inexpensive ones are really mother of plastic.

[tahoeguitar]

AKA "Mother of Toilet Seat" like the pickguard on my Tele...

[John Arnold]

The overlaid pearl is so thin (~ 0.005") that you really have to look closely to see the edges.
The clue is no visible filler, even under magnification. In some cases the polyester finish was applied so thickly that it is cloudy from trapped moisture.
You can see overlaid pearl on the pegheads of modern Blueridge guitars, as well as countless other makes from Japan, Korea, and China.
I first became aware of it on 1970's Japanese banjo resonators. Some of them were highly decorated with assorted shell materials.
The art of slicing genuine pearl that thin has a long history. The existence of it was the inspiration for the patented process known as Abalam (laminated shell), which is widely used today....even on US made guitars. Abalam saves material, but the main reason for using it on pearl borders is to reduce labor when installing it.

BTW, CNC technology has reduced the prices of 'real' inlay work drastically. A script logo that may have cost $150+ to do by hand can be done with CNC for less than $40. Even so, Martin is well known for charging whatever the market will bear for custom work.