Mother of Pearl (mop) eye candy - bad stuff?

For me, the headstock is where you put any real bling, not that I want any, but I'm OK with a sound hole rosette & a bit of binding.

I don't really like the over done fret markers that you see on some ukes, either, though I do have one, because that's how Kala make it, my acacia concert.
 
Many of the ukes I am talking about have large, elaborate mop designs both front and back. Must cover about 15% of the wood. It's the wood that gives a uke its timbre, right? So why dampen it with a lot of nacre?

By the way, the designs are quite intricate and beautiful -- nacre glows with several colors. It must take someone a lot of time to do them. Might it not be better if they instead spent that same time on fine tuning the uke's set up & so forth? Ah well, everyone to his/her own taste, de sho ka? :)
 
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Many of the ukes I am talking about have large, elaborate mop designs both front and back. Must cover about 15% of the wood. It's the wood that gives a uke its timbre, right? So why dampen it with a lot of nacre?

I have had similar thoughts about soundboard inlays. It is impossible to prove scientifically, but it makes intuitive sense that an extensive soundboard inlay might change or possibly impede soundboard function.

The very existence of soundboard inlays suggests that their actual impact is probably not prohibitive to sound quality. On my instrument, to minimize theoretical negatives, I would not want to have more than a tasteful rosette.
 
In cooking, seasoning is to enhance the flavor and not overpower the base ingredient without the person eating recognizing
The seasonings as the Ingredient
 
Whether or not one likes this form of artwork, the important question, in my mind, has got to be "Is all this mother of pearl salvaged from waste food production (mussel shells or wherever), or is the environment being unnecessarily exploited just to provide a bit of bling to those who feel they need to stand out in a crowd?"

I'm assuming here that you all know where true mother-of-pearl comes from.
 
Had a Harmony concert that sported MOTS (Mother of Toilet Seat) head stock and fret board. The fret board was thin so the frets were set through the MOTS and into the neck, as was common in prewar ukuleles. Had simple black dots at the 5th 7th & 10th frets. Sold or passed it on sometime ago as it wasn't up to the sound or performance of a Martin, but did look nice.
 
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