New side dots ready...maybe.

I drilled the old dots out by hand with a 3/32" bit. I was warned by Stringplucker at Reranch, that the softness and oils in the red pencil might cause a problem when expose to solvents and thinners. I used shellac to test the reaction. It bled just a hair onto the binding, but it was too much to hide. A friend recommended using lawn-trimming line. "What an idea!" I thought to myself. The only color avialable in the right size was orange. Red was too thick and I didn't want to sand it and have it come out in anything but a circle. I chopped the line using a chisel, by rolling the chisel on the line. When I cut the line, with cutters, it caused the lne to warp and go oval on me. The chisel worked great. I tested the fit and used Crazy Glue. I didn't need epoxy as the holes were just right and there was no need for any coloring to fill in the gaps. I think this stuff is stable and strong enough to withstand the finishing materials. I think the orange matched the guitar better than the red, as a matter of fact. It might be what I use on all my future guitars...as I have about 50' of this stuff. Let's see how this goes first.

Shellac for a test view.

I'm back after several months. Looks like most of the cold and dampness is past, so I can start again. I went to England for a couple of weeks for Christmas. Sometimes you just need a break, even from guitar building. Right now, as the guitar stands, I am just about ready to grain fill. I will once again, set up the guitar with the strings and get all the fixes acomplished. I made a pickup ring out of purpleheart, but when I gave the guitar a light coat of blonde shellac, I thought it too nice to cover with a large pickup ring. The shellac was just a preview of what it might look like. I thought of a light red or green stain. Not too sure. I will mount the pickup without a ring, just like you see. I just put the knob for the photo and really liked the chrome look. I was going to use a gold speed knob. You'll notice where the bridge and tuners will sit is a bit lower. That's because I went with a two-degree neck angle instead of a three-degree. Every bridge is different. As I never used this brand of bridge, I asked about this bridge in the Project Guitar site. It was no help. All the responses were: "measure it and find out." No sh%t! I wanted real world measurements. For future use, when using the Schaller roller bridge, use three-degree minimum if the fingerboard is glued to a flush neck. The truss rod cover is a good match.