Pearloid
Sheet plastic resembling mother of pearl
Pearloid is a plastic that is intended to resemble mother of pearl. It is commonly used in making musical instruments, especially for pickguards, electric guitar inlays, and accordions.
01Production
Pearloid is produced by swirling together chunks of celluloid in a solvent, then curing, which gives it a mother of pearl effect. It is sliced and bonded to or inlaid in other materials, such as the wood of guitar necks.
02Use
Pearloid is used in any context where genuine mother of pearl or abalone might be used, as it is much cheaper. Gibson uses it as a substitute for the mother of pearl inlays in the fretboards on most of its guitars. Various colored versions are often used on items intended to have a retro appearance.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pearloid”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Gibson Les Paul '57 Historic Reissue (2002).png by Gibson_Les_Paul_'57_Historic_Reissue_(2002).jpg: Jason Reinhardt derivative work: Guitarpop (talk), CC BY 2.0
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