Side dots

Ukecaster

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I love everything about my Famous FS-0 soprano...except the dots are too small on the side. Top dots on fretboard are kinda invisible too, but I'll live with those. With old eyes, the side dots are much more important to me, so I got this little set of fretboard dots off eBay, and installed them recently, using the smallest ones, which are still way bigger than the stock tiny side dots. I figured it was better than painting on some Wite Out dots, and I can now see where the heck I am (on the fretboard, I mean ;) ) If they wear away, I've got plenty left.

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I have a homebrew bass uke I made from a cheapo baritone and I went through similar issues. I finally fixed it by getting a sheet of tiny stick on gems from the craft store. They are small enough not to bother my hand and bright enough to see.

Might want to seal them on with super glue.
 
The ones I used are 3D hard plastic, they might fall off but wearing them down would take several lifetimes I bet. They do not stick up much. I think they are made to stick on shoes/purses/etc.

You have a valid point about the next owner, however in my case I doubt that will happen unless I loan it to someone.
 
I feel your pain, brother. I am a "dot-aholic" myself... :)
 
White nail polish works for me. Dries hard and smooth. I'm sure it would/might effect the finish under the dot, but why would someone come along and remove the dot?
 
I have been thinking a lot about this and may try with one of our school's Caramels. Couldn't you put a piece of masking tape down, drill a very shallow hole, and then paint with something...fingernail polish, whatever. Then the side dot would be out of of the way of the player (less likely to wear off) and when you removed the masking tape, only a side dot would be left. What do you think?
 
I've used a dot of nail polish for side dots.

Also when I played classical guitar I used only one dot on the seventh fret. I found too many dots confusing and the one dot served as a point of reference the rest of my movements on the fretboard became developed by kinetics and muscle memory.
 
Well, I tried the drill and fill method...still drying. I don't know if it would recommend it yet...and I may have to add additional layers of polish before the hole is filled and can be made level with the neck. I chose my two least expensive ukuleles to experiment on. I didn't like the idea of a sticker (even if they are nice ones from StewMac or whatever. The challenge, with a hand drill, is how deep to drill. These aren't a loss, whether the experiment works or not.

One of these is my Lanikai Black Concert, which I have already dissected to improve the pick up.
 
Do a search on this site for "side dots" , the drill and fill method is there and many more.:eek:ld:
 
Two of my three ukuleles don't have the side dots. I have a ton of scrapbooking stuff lying around, including the rub-on lettering sets. I used the dots from the "i & j" letters and they work great. I have both black and white letter sets in various sizes, so I can pick what works best. My new Islander tenor has maple binding on the neck so I used the black dots. They seem to be staying on well, and can be easily removed by rubbing them off with a fingernail. They seem to work the same as the side dot sets listed above from stringsbymail. We'll see how they hold up.
 
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