Changing dot inlays

[TheModiesel]

Hello,

This is my first post here - long time lurker. I had the opportunity to purchase this lovely archtop but had some issues, most noticeably a backbow with string tension (even with 12's!) and I believe its due to how the frets were installed, as there appears to be some excessive compression occurring. However, probably not the perfect solution but as there were some rather large frets in place (1.3mm high, 2.7mm wide), there was enough meat to level out the backbow.

In hindsight, I should have just done a refret because the dot inlays originally in place were huge (10mm in diameter) and I wanted to move them back to a more conventional 6mm - so I did, and then regretted it at every stage

I also changed the tuners (there have been at least two sets before on this guitar), truss rod cover, tailpiece ((un)luckily there were existing holes), gave it a fret level/recrown/polish, adjusted the nut slots, sanded the bridge base and now it plays nicely with 11's (1.3mm action + 0.004" relief) with string tension now allowing more front-bow to be added as needed as the truss rod completely loose anymore.

The guitar arrived initially with a lot of scratches and marks throughout so with it being nowhere near mint condition, I don't feel too guilty about this!

[supersoul]

How long did it take you to replace the fret dots?

It looks like a lot of work! But those old dots were huge, it looks a lot better now.

[TheModiesel]

It took about 5 hours over a week or so, I'm sure someone more skilled could do it far quicker though!

[ArchieHollow]

Nicely done. You must be happy that your dot inlays look like they have been there from the start. And you've gotten set up to enjoy playing.
Sidepoint: I had a D'Armond "monkey stick" pickup set-up like yours on my '42 Gretsch New Yorker. Sadly someone stole that pickup back in the '70s