How to remove the vintage black dots out of a Neck?

HI guys,

Thanks in Advance.

I don't have the money right now just to buy a new neck for my B -Bender and I am not one to want the black dots on my neck I want to put some nice blue or Abalone dot inlays in my neck .. Question I did some research but I have not found a good resource how do I get these out without like catching it on fire with a dremel? I want to remove them just put in some abalone inlays or something that is different I do not plan to stray away from Dot's as this will be my first venture into removing inlays..

Any help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanx

:)

I did this last year. I just drilled a small hole through the centre and gently levered them out with an awl. You need to have a plan B ready though. On my project (with a First Act neck) the cavity under the dots was around 5mm deep and I found I couldn't find an easy way of fitting the replacement black abalone dots.

Full story at http://damacleod.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/jazzmaster-fretboard-markers-and-control-cavity/ and http://damacleod.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/finishing-the-jazzmaster-fret-markers/

The method I used worked well. I just slowly screwed in a very small diameter screw and tap sideways on the screw until it comes loose, then pull it out. I removed all eight inlays this way with no problems.

Similar to Jeremy Palmer above, I drilled a small diameter hole in the centre of the inlay, screwed in a small screw then levered the dot out by wiggling the screw from side to side, up and down.

Ha, re-reading your post, I imagine you have a maple fretboard so, you will have to remove the lacquer first or it will shatter across the board and end up looking a real mess. Of course, after installing the new dots, you would then need to re-lacquer the board.

Could be a very time consuming process.

Before you remove the markers you may want to consider the requirements for a properly executed replacement of the marker.

There is some good advice here
http://www.archive.agileguitarforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=35421

Take pictures, report back:lol:

Lost_N_Austin