Herringbone back strip

I’ve just inlaid the back strip into the back of Nadim’s guitar. As part of the Phil Hare signature guitar’s spec., there’s a decorative rosewood herringbone strip running down the centre of the back. You can put a decorative strip right through the back, when you glue the two halves together, however for a marquetry style strip, I prefer to inlay it.

The first thing is to route a slot about 1mm deep along the centre of the back; this should give you a nice clean groove for the herringbone to sit in. I prefer that the herringbone is glued in with epoxy; as the herringbone is a really snug fit, you don’t want to introduce any moisture (in the form of wood glue). You’ll find that both slot and the herringbone will swell just enough to take a snug fit to, “No way, where’s the hammer!” And you don’t want that, hence the use of epoxy.

 Clean-up is with a nice sharp plan and hay presto!