Purple heart dots?

[Jehle]

I've been thinking about replacing the black plasticy dots on one of my maple fingerboards with purple heart.

First off, it this wise? Removal of the dot is one concern, but could there be a problem using purple heart on the fretboard?

Next, where in the world can you get a purple heart dowel?

Any help or advice appreciated. Thanks.

[LGM Guitars]

you probably won't find a purple heart dowel, but you can buy plug cutters to cut little circles with your drill press. That would be better anyway as you wouldn't want to use an end grain piece for a dot.

The only sucky part with purple heart, is it will turn almost black over not that long a time.

[Brian]

Removing the dot is a breeze since most of the black plastic originals from the factory are really thin compaired to replacement dots like sold from Stew and Luthiers Merc.

If you have a drill press (highly recomended) that is..........

[Jehle]

you probably won't find a purple heart dowel, but you can buy plug cutters to cut little circles with your drill press. That would be better anyway as you wouldn't want to use an end grain piece for a dot.

The only sucky part with purple heart, is it will turn almost black over not that long a time.

Bingo!

I had discovered the plug idea over the weekend. That would make for a nicer dot rather than a dowel. The grain in a dowel is running the wrong way for a fretboard dot. The only problem now is that I can't seem to find plug cutting bits small enough for my taste. I've seen them as small as 1/4", but I would like to have something a little more small than that.

I'm after the dot size on the MusicMan guitars which appear to be much smaller. Anyone have one handy to make a measurement?

On another note...

I've also now seen Red Heart and Yellow Heart woods now too. They appear to be just as hard as their purple cousin. Anyone ever work with these woods before?

I wonder how Yellow Heart would look on an Ebony fretboard? Hmmmm.

I have a serious guitar building bug now.