What is with all this rubbishly cut Mother of Pearl??.. the 'sight view' quality of MOP

Hi www

I am fed up of all this mother of toilet seat poorly cut 'real' mother of pearl!!

I got some 'real' mother of pearl from Spain a couple of years ago.. the viewing angle is so sharp it might as well be MOTS..

I made up a term to describe the quality.. think of it like a fine quality scale.. 'Sight View Quality'


See here:


The above has a 15 to 30 degree low viewing angle.. very bad, not worth the money. Should have the same weighted value as Mother of Toilet Seat.


Correctly cut MOP:



Or better still..




















The above has a 45 to 90 degree center viewing angle.. but the broader the better!.. the *perfect* MOP sight view quality you want to achieve is 180 degree center.. but I doubt anyone will find such a magnificent piece of Mother of Pearl.


The result of correctly cut Mother of Pearl is this:



And this:



The result of incorrectly cut Mother of Pearl is this:



(credit: Crimson Guitars. Not their fault but should have chosen better MOP)

And this:



(Credit: EY Guitars)

And this:



(Credit: Gibson Guitars.. yes that's a real Gibson.. an SG Supreme.. degree angle looks to be 30 to 45 low.. so not as bad as the others but still incorrect)


And this:





The guitar on the left.. both are my Gibson SGs. I did the inlays myself so I inspected the inlays when they arrived.. they are real MOP, feel like shell.. but look at the poor quality of the cut!!

What you want is..

The minimum translucence sight view quality should be 15 to 30 degrees.. NEVER 'sheen' in the center!! Which is what the above MOP is suffering from.. so then we need to make sure of the quality and for that we need a scale to price the MOP inlays correctly..

Dava's 'Sight View Quality' Mother of Pearl Grade Scale

Sight	Description	Glamour Aperture		Grade
15 Degree low	Trash	MOTS		F-
15 to 30 Degree low	Trash	MOTS		F
30 to 45 Degree low	Almost OK	Almost MOTS		D-
15 Degree Center	OK-ish	Not MOTS		D
15 to 30 Degree Center	OK. for lower end guitars.	OK not great		D+
30 Degree Center		Good-ish		C-
30 to 45 Center	The *least* you should expect on every Gibson.	Good		C
45 to 90 degree Center		Good		C+
90 Degree Center	What Gibsons should have on every Standard and above.	Significant		B-
90 to 105 Degrees Center		Significant		B
105 Degrees Center	For 'professional' type series and above. non Custom Shop premium guitars	Significant		B+
105 to 120 Center	Higher End Pro guitars.	Dazzling Quality		A-
120 Degree Center	Less expensive Custom Shop.	Dazzling Quality		A
150 Degree Center	Custom Shop standards.	Dazzling Quality		A+
165 Degree Center	For all commissioned GCS guitars and handmade luthier guitars (non Gibson).	Near Perfect		S
180 Center	Cannot be improved upon. Looks like; 'ghosts dancing in a rainbow at night' from every angle.	Perfect		S++

Q: Hey Dava where did the inbetween ones go?

A: Erm.. as the view gets wider there are less and less degrees to transition between. So you get just get more and more 'Center'.

Q: How do I use this scale?

A: The methodology is simple.. have a normal (usual setting the MOP will be in) single light source, directly above the level fretboard. Put a two armed protractor flat side down on the frets.. when the 'glamour' changes from translucent to sheen; mark it. Do the same again for the other side with the second arm of the protractor. take the measurement then check the scale.

If in doubt.. round it down. No one will be angry with you for getting more than they expect. Everyone will be angry with you for getting less than they expect.

We get charged a fortune for MOP, no matter its quality.. we need to start holding these people to account!


Dava





--------------
Original:
                                       Grade
15 Degree low          =              Trash (MOTS) F-
15 to 30 Degree low =              Trash (MOTS) F
30 to 45 Degree low =              Almost OK almost MOTS D-
15 Degree Center =                  OK-ish not MOTS D
15 to 30 Degree Center =         OK not great D+ for lower end guitars.
30 Degree Center =                  Good-ish. C-
30 to 45 Center =                      The *least* you should expect on every Gibson. Good C.
45 to 90 degree Center =          Good. C+
90 Degree Center =                  Significant quality. What Gibsons should have on
                                                    every Standard and above (unless better is available) B-
90 to 105 Degrees Center:        Significant Quality. B
105 Degrees Center:                 Significant Quality. For 'professional' type series and above. non                                                     Custom Shop premium guitars. B+
105 to 120 Center =                  Higher End Pro guitars. Dazzling Quality A-
120 Degree Center  =                Less expensive Custom Shop. Dazzling Quality A
150 Degree Center =                Custom Shop standards. Dazzling Quality A+
165 Degree Center =               *Near Perfect* Quality. For all commissioned GCS guitars and                                                            handmade luthier guitars (non Gibson). S
180 Center =                              *Perfect*.Cannot be improved upon. S++