For side dots I wanted something bigger for old eyes to see and dark red rather than the standard 1/16" diameter and black or white store bought side dots. So I was looking at a couple of heavy fender pics and came up with an idea. I drilled a 1/2" hole in a chunk of wood but not all the way through. I took and cut a piece of old bandsaw blade from my sawmill and laid flat over the hole in the wood and clamped everything down nice and tight to the drill press. I took a 1/8" drill bit and popped a hole in the piece of bandsaw blade. I then removed the 1/8" drill bit and flattened the blunt (not cutter) end of the bit with my bench grinder. I put the drill bit back in the drill press upside down and used my drill press as a punch press to punch out 1/8" diameter dots from a few picks. Much to my surprise it worked like a champ when I un clamped everything there were perfect little 1/8" dots in the 1/2" hole I drilled in the wood. Moments like these are rare for me but when they happen, they do happen
I'm pretty confident I could use this technique to punch out diameter dots like maybe fret board markers if I needed to.
Anyways I thought maybe someone may want to try the idea...
Here are a few more side profile pics and a closer one of the 1/8" fender pick side dots. The bass has amazing balance on a chunk of mahogany
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
. I also really appreciated reading about neck tilt as mentioned the new builder FAQs, this bass has a little less than a 2 degree tilt.
Thanks again for the replies.
Experience is a strange thing - You get it right after you needed it.