Introduction to DePaule Supply

ome of you already know me, some don't. My name is Andy DePaule and I've been building stringed instruments since 1969.  I have also taught hands-on guitar making classes at Lane College in Eugene, Oregon, and at Bloomington Adult Education in Minnesota.

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        1995-96 EUGENE CLASSES

In 1975 I wrote a book on beginning instrument building.  The name of the book was "Country Instruments, Makin' your own"and it was first published by Oliver Press in 1976 and republished by Van Nostrand Reinhold in 1979.  It has been out of print since 1984.  I should take a little space here to say sorry to those who bought the book.  At that time I was 27 years old and thought I knew all there was to know about instrument construction, politics, women and the cosmos...  I was wrong on all counts! I only hope the book sparked enough interest to get some folks on the road to becoming luthiers.

I've created DePaule Supply as a web based and mail order business.  My sons Sam, Buddy Lee (Buddy Lee passed away on the 31st of August 2019), Sam and I will try to bring you great products at reasonable prices with no minimum order.

We use this web site as our on-line catalog and do not have a printed catalog.  This is done to save money and help keep the cost of our products reasonable for you.

Sam will handle all the US orders from Oregon while I handle all our international order from here in Saigon, Vietnam. In 2011 we split the company into two separate companies sharing the same website. When ordering on-line from our shopping cart the orders will be sent to the right company when you enter your full address. 

At this time we have many of the most popular shell blanks at what we believe are the best prices anywhere for the quality we sell. We offer Paua Abalone* and White Mother of Pearl, Gold Mother of Pearl, Bronze Mother Of Pearl as well as Tahitian Black Mother of Pearl and others.

*Paua Abalone from New Zealand is the most colorful pearl shell known in the world.  All of our blanks are ground from the highest grade and most expensive solid whole shells, we do not deal in laminated shell blank products.  We also have many other kinds of shell blanks from Asia that are not often seen in the west. These will give you many new colors to work with. We have Trochas and other species. See our shell blank page for all the details.

For many years now I have collected drawings* of many old American guitar, banjo and mandolin inlay designs. We hand cut reproductions of these inlay designs. They come to you ready to inlay into your instruments. I am able to bring these to you at very good prices indeed. You should check back from time to time and see what is available.

* I'd like to thank Chuck Erikson (The Duke Of Pearl), John Graven and Randy Woods for most of the drawings we worked from. Some have also come from too many good luthiers to mention or remember at my age.

We have been working hard with computer drawing programs to redraw all of our designs.  The result are perfect working drawings for our cutters to use.

Most of our traditional designs are from banjos, however many luthiers have used these on guitars.  Some of the banjo peghead designs do not work so well on a guitar peg head and none have a rosette.  We have started to take some of the most popular of these and designed matching guitar peg head inlays and matching rosettes in the original style.  The results are very pleasing.

We are also designing many of our own inlays and inlay sets.  This is fun because we also get a chance to be creative.  All of our inlays are hand cut one at a time by the finest craftsmen, No CNC machines are used.

At the beginning of this business I contracted out the work but often the result was not of the quality I wanted.  Other times the first work would be good but after a short time the quality would drop.  After a year of that I knew that the only way to get it done right was to do it our self.  With this in mind, In June of 2002 I went to Viet Nam and spent three months there setting up my own workshop.

Several years ago I started working with one family from Thu Duc, near Sai Gon in Viet Nam.  We set up our own shop, equipped it for processing shells into blanks and cutting those blanks into inlay products.

We have now employed some of the best inlay artists to work in our shop full time.  They are the best and have been supplying us with inlays of outstanding quality.  They just keep getting better all the time.  They are skilled both in the art of inlay as well as the process of making quality blanks from raw shells.  I've supplied them with machines they could not afford before.  With the new equipment we are able to cut and grind our top quality shells into high quality blanks.  We are now importing raw shells into Viet Nam from around the world to process for sale and for cutting our inlays.

Since 2002 I have hired some more inlay cutters I had met who were the best anywhere.  We pay them two to three times the going rate because it is so important to us to have reliable quality.  That means keeping the same artists who know and understand what we need.  They are skilled both in the art of inlay as well as the process of making quality blanks from raw shells.  I've supplied them with machines they could not afford before.  With the new equipment we are able to cut and grind our shells into high quality blanks.  We are now importing raw shells into Viet Nam from around the world to process for sale and for cutting our inlays.

We can now cut logos and custom inlay designs for you in the same price range without minimum orders.  This is if you can supply us with quality working drawings.  The work can only be as good as the drawing.  If you can not supply the working drawings we will do the drawings for you at reasonable rates.

We will always try to meet your needs and will give a refund or exchange on any unused item that do not meet your needs for any reason.

We can answer your calls, questions and take orders from 9:30 AM to 4:PM (Pacific Time Zone) Mon to Fri and 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM on most Saturdays* of each month.  *Now and then I take off a long weekend.

From time to time I will be out of the country working in my Viet Nam office or workshop to develop new products.  During those times my sons (Sam & Buddy) will take care of your orders and I will be in touch by e-mail.

In September of 2011 I gave Sam and Buddy Lee the US side of the business (DePaule Supply) and I took the the Viet Nam side of the business as two seperate companies that share the same web site. All US business is handled by Sam and Buddy while I take care of all other countries luthiers from DePaule Supply VN.

We hope to do business with you soon,

Andy