Making the fingerboard

One day I received this cryptic email from Kirk Sand:

"I am having a creative moment on the end of your fingerboard. I want you to see this and tell me what you think."

Kirk had the idea of an angle at the end of the fingerboard, to echo the Brazilian rosewood wedge on the back. Here's the original fingerboard template:

Long story short, I thought it was great. Kirk made a mock-up to give me a better idea.

And a full size mock-up, cut from a length of blackboard.

Then, he had another creative moment, this time at my heel . . .

Why not cut the heel at an angle, to match the end of the fingerboard (which echos the Brazilian rosewood wedge on the back)?

I agreed, and here is the result. First, the heel . . .

. . . and now, the fingerboard.

The 12th fret inlay (my initials) came from an idea we tossed back and forth. I like the symmetry of the letters in this font- it looks more like a design than initials.

Here's the mock-up I sent Kirk. (It looked so good, I left it on for a couple of weeks. The further away you got, the better it looked- kind of like me.)

Here's another photo of the actual inlay.

Next time- frets and finish!

-Craig