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I have a question about doing an inlay on an existing headstock. I am rebuiilding this LP copy and the headstock has a nice open area just waiting for an inlay design. See a picture here

http://s992.photobucket.com/albums/af50 ... G_0580.jpg

My question is how would I go about doing an inlay on this headstock without having to refinish the entire headstock? Is that possible? I'm thinking about just cleaning her up and not refinishing her so I can keep the look of the age of the guitar in tact. (30 years) I will only totally refinish her if that is my only and last option.

My main concern is dealing with the finish. And the laminate on top. I'm comfortable doing an inlay on a fingerboard since it is unfinished wood. I just don't know how to go about doing the inlay on this headstock because it is already finished. Can someone lay out the process for me please? Feel free to go overboard on the details. They will only help me in the end.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

You can if carful inlay wiwithout doing harm to the finish by laying masking tape down and tracing the pattern and milling with the masking tape in place to reduce chipouts but you will need to clean the tape of the mill regularly. Now you will still have seam edges that will be odvious because the finish does not cover the shell. Plus you going to have to level the shell to the finish anyway so if you inlay this I think you need to refinish the head stock.

Thank you for the info.

Since this will be my first attempt at this I am going to assume I will run into a problem or mistake that will require me to refinish the headstock. If I tape off the surrounding area well enough would that allow me to sand the inlay down flush with the headstock without damaging the finish? Or should I just forget about trying to save the aged finish alltogether? If so then is there a way I could refinish the headstock in a way so that it would match the age of the rest of the neck? I really want to keep the aged look of it if I can.

Taping of the surrounding area and sanding to the tape will not get you to level. There is no god way to sand to level other than to sand to level. If you sand to level to the tape then you are .002"-.003" proud of the finish level. and if you try to sand just past level with the tape then you tend to bowl sand. If you are going to do this kind of work then jump in and do it. sand to level add layers of new finish, allow to cure, sand the finish level through 1500 to 2500p and polish out. It is really not that hard adn a peghead top si a good place to start.

Besides the abrupt finish sheams tht will be left from routing for the inlay are stress points just waiting for a chancefor the finish to start pealing. Just inlay it and refinish it