I think it sound really good for a start. So, not a lot of time invested in tuning yet. I did initial crossover point setting, then time alignment on the Bitone, then I did the left, then right channel RTA and then combined, to set the EQ. My initial comments on how they sound, first, I guess I should address what I have done. I will get some better pics tomorrow with my good camera (Nikon D200 for any camera guys/gals.). You just don’t see many Fender guitars these days with anything but pearl or abalone dots on the fingerboards.Some finished pod pictures. The dots are durable, and actually obtain a great patina with age and playing. This is a great way to authentically relic the neck inlays on a vintage style Fender guitar with a rosewood fingerboard. Once all the new inlays are in let them dry over night. You’ll get the knack of sizing up the inlay thickness to the hole it’s going in pretty quickly. You’ll find the job gets easier as you do more and more of them. Once you’ve scraped them flush, use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and some fingerboard oil to smooth out the scraping marks and then do the final fit of the inlays so they are completely flush with the fingerboard.Ħ) Work your way up the neck, fitting each plug inlay individually. You’ll become adept at scraping and striking only the plastic dot after a few tries. Take care not to cut or damage the wood surface. The glue will work itself out from around the inlay after tapping, so be sure to wipe off the excess quickly.ĥ) Using a razor knife, scrape each dot inlay flush with the surface of the rosewood fingerboard. Afterwards, tap a few times with a flat ended punch. After sanding and scraping to fit, place a small drop of wood glue in the bottom of the hole to secure the inlay in place. You want the new inlays to be as close to the top of the fingerboard as possible, but not below that level. Squirt several applications of contact cleaner on the bit for the duration of the cut.Ĥ) You’ll have to sand the plugs to match the depth of the holes on the fingerboard. It’s highly evaporative qualities mean that it will cool a surface to the touch when applied. A good tip here is to use electrical contact cleaner as a coolant. The plastic will deform and shred when cut with a hot bit as opposed to a clean, smooth cut with a cool bit. The trick is to cut slowly so as to not let the bit build up much heat while cutting through the plastic. I have a ¼ inch plug cutter that makes perfect dot-sized inlay plugs for the newly drilled out holes. This usually doesn’t happen if you work slowly and carefully, though.ģ) I use aged Les Paul cream pickguards for my “clay dots” material. Use a small amount of wood glue to reseat the splinter on the fingerboard. If you see a piece of wood lifting, stop immediately and take a small razor knife to cut the edge of the dot away from the splinter. Take care to work slowly and deliberately so that you don’t pull up any splinters of wood from the hole edges. Simply take the dot out and repeat this procedure with the rest of the pearl dot inlays. I prefer to use a drill press to do this because I can preset the stop limiter for the exact depth I need to hit every time without slowing down.Ģ) Remove the drill bit and, using the smooth end, insert the bit into each hole then wiggle it around slightly until you hear and feel the glue crack and release the pearl dot. You can ‘feel’ the bit tug a little as it exits the bottom of the pearl dot. Be careful to drill only through the pearl inlay, and not into the neck itself. So, when I’m creating a neck for an old Stratocaster build I love taking the stock pearl dots out and replacing them with my own version of those fabled “clay dots”!ġ) Using a 1/8 inch bit, drill a small hole through the center of each pearl fingerboard dot. Pearl’s nice, but too fancy for the industrial design look of the Stratocaster in my opinion. I love the look of the slightly off-white dots on a dark rosewood board. If there were several boxes of tiles sitting around, surely he’d have figured out they made great board dots! I am more inclined to believe the leftover floor tile story, simply because Leo was such a frugal man who let nothing go to waste. The stories range from Leo using some leftover asbestos floor tiles, to actually being a plasticized wood filler simply packed into the routed hole on the fingerboard. These off-white, slightly grainy looking inlays have been the stuff of legend, mainly because no one definitely knows what they’re made from. One of the features, and mysteries of vintage Fender guitars, swirls around the iconic “clay dots” that marked rosewood fingerboards on Fender electric guitars from early 1959 through 1965.
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