Mai-Guitar

Custom Ibanez Insipired Guitars

JEM/RG Headstock


This blog is showing the steps for putting a wood grained thin laminate over a headstock.

The first two pages show making the piece. A planner only goes to about .25 inches. So I have been gluing a piece to a fixture piece. I put the glue on the ends, then use a table saw to cut the thin piece off. Maybe not the smoothest process, but it works. On the first pass, I went too thin, so I left the piece at a bit over 1/16.



These two picture show the glue down. Lots of clamps. I put some tape on the back of the neck to protect the finish.



These to show the trimming of the edges. I used a razor knife.



Some more trimming. The knife is in one pic with a red handle. An Xacto.



Then some final trimming around the end. Pretty close with the trimming.



I used a Oscillating Spindle Sander to get the inside engges. With the sides trimmed, the wood was sturdy enough to not rip.



I used an orbital sander to hit the straighter edges. Not too bad so far.



I ran a bit of black stain to match the project. Then ouch - messed up drilling the holes. I needed to go from the back to get the alignment I had a bad feeling. So I guess a redo on this one. I'll clamp a sacrificial piece to the face next time.



Here is the re-do. The holes went a lot better this time.



I ran some tests on the thickness of the headstock with the extra wood. It looks fine.



This is how the Mahogany looks with some black stain. It turns brown and has black lines. I really like it.



Here are some pics nearly done. Bummer there was a bad pickup from DiMarzio. This one will be wrapped up afer that gets swapped in.







Here are the final pics. It took a while. This is a nice one.







Here is the original top.



  • Chris Mai
  • Revised April 2019