The Steel Guitar Forum

My partner in crime, Denny made this new cabinet for one of Tom Bradshaw's rebuilds. I made the inlay logo.
We also did the chess inlays for the fret board, but they were really too small to inlay in the higher positions so they ended up using another one to do it that will not hide the nice figured wood.
Thought you all may like to get a peek at it. I thought it came out real nice;


The logo is White & Black Mother Of Pearl with Red Coral Re-con Stone.


The wood is really nice Quilted Western Big Leaf Maple.


Denny also inlaid one of my Dragon inlays into this fret board for an electric guitar he is building. He does real nice work IMHO.
The inlay is made of several materials. Paua Abalone, White & Gold Mother Of Pearl with Blue and Red Re-con Stone.


Not sure if Tom is doing this for a customer or to sell? Someone will have a nice looking MSA to play.

That is one beautiful looking guitar! Keep the doors locked or it will disapear.

NICE!!!! I love anything MSA.

Thanks for the nice comments.
Denny does nice woodwork.
I think the cabinet has been sent back to Tom now?
Glad I got a couple of photos first.

That wood has just the most outstanding figure. Love it!

Used to be lots of quilted maple here in the north west.
Now it's become so popular for guitars and gun stocks it's not easy to find the best any more and the price is often through the roof.
One look at it and its clear why it is getting so hard to find.

Too bad about the great woods being swallowed up like they are but hey, looking at that steel, how could you not be distracted by that figure? Spectacular!
Very nice work Andy and Denny...and it looks like it could have come out of the MSA Custom shop (if they had one). Kudos

Great work Andy!!!

Thanks but this is mostly Denny's work.
I only did the inlay and even that he installed.

Thats a fabulous piece of wood and awesome inlays Andy

Thanks Paddy,
Guess you'd know that the abalone is from your neighborhood.
Dunedin on the south island to be exact.
Best wishes,
Andy

Beautiful cabinet. Very nice inlay too!

Thanks Kyle,
Same as the response above.
Best wishes,
Andy

HI wondered about that Andy -- Abalone, or Paua as we call it is very widely used in jewellery as well as inlays in this part of the world :-} .. the contents of the shell are quite tasty too if cooked correctly !!

Hi Paddy,
Paua Abalone is one of about 100 species of abalone.
Only about ten of them have pearl that is usable for inlays.
The Paua Abalone from New Zealand is the strongest colored pearl shell in the world.
Though sometimes we want lighter colors and then look to the Green Ab, Pink Ab and Red Ab from Oregon, California down to the Baja in Mexico.
The Red Ab, named for the outside color of the shell has real nice pale pastel colored pearl and was used in the older Martin guitars as well as others.

No commercial fishing of it in the US for years now, so have to use Mexican, but they often don't bother with the legal documentation so we can't use that.

New Zealand government has had tight controls on the abalone fishing so it's a constant supply. Good thing they did that a long time ago because California was all but fished out years ago.

I got to get to NZ before the management orders me upstairs, or downstairs for that matter.
Best wishes,
Andy

Andy,,,beautiful,,,,just beautiful!!!!! Cabinet AND inlay,,,just beautiful!!

Very 👍nice, beautiful grain on the maple.

Thank you Len & Sonny.

That is absolutely gorgeous.

How are you finishing it?

Thanks Chris,
Nice of you to say so.
After our exchanges of messages I'm putting a lot of thought into the entire subject.
Perhaps we'll have a chance to meet some time in the future.
Best wishes,
Andy

Good idea Andy, if you get to Christchurch you have to come and stay with me mate hehe

Andy, that is pretty. The MSA badge is jaw-dropping. Beautiful work by Denny and you!

Thanks Dan,
The pearl logo is all hand cut and all the sections fitted together.
Less than easy, but we do a lot of those kind.
Best wishes,
Andy