Side Dot Markers

[Hal Robertson]

Maybe this has been posted before or it's just common knowledge and I'm a doofus. Regardless...

I've been using airsoft pellets for fretboard dots for a while. Minimal hassle, cheap and fairly consistent results. But the side dots are my nemesis. I know I could just buy the material and be done with it, but I'm either too cheap or just too hardcore DIY or... something. Mental block on these.

The other day, I spotted a CBG with screwheads woodburned into the fretboard. Thought that was pretty neat so I tried it last night. Didn't get the results I was looking for, but the light bulb went on. Why couldn't I just bolt a nail into my soldering iron and burn side dots.

Well, you can! It's not a proper woodburning set, but I cut the head off a nail, ground it flat and screwed it into my HF 30w soldering iron. Results! Also made some nice test dots with the actual nail head too. This may be my new go-to for dark markers.

Now, if you could only burn white...

[Rob Todd]

When I have used rivets to feed the strings through I save the pins that the rivets were on. These have nice round heads. I trim them off at about 1/4" and nail them into the side of the neck as markers.

[Fomhorach]

Nice idea. I do something similar with tiny little nails. Same size as the nails used with corner protectors. For fret markers I've been using the rivet heads.