Stewmac is always the best place to find simple things for instrument building. When you need it they have it. Its great the get the right thing you need when you want it.
On my first build I punched dots out of old pickguard material with a leather punch. It was really hard on my hands. These rods work really well. I probably should have used CA glue but I just used the #16 weld-on binding glue. I thought I might have trouble with the black rod melting into the white binding but it came out great. Lots of material left for future builds.
A buck a strip and I get maybe 5 necks out of 1. But value is not really a value unless there is a certain level of quality that goes with it. I've used both sizes and colors, they all fit the stated hole size perfectly, no problem. Drill my holes first, put a drop of medium CA glue on a plastic lid and GO! dip the end a tad in the glue and it lubricates its way to the bottom of the hole. Trim long with a razor, cutters deform the material and then wont go into the next hole without dressing, then sand flat to the freboard. Easy-breezy.
Excellent
You can easily mark 3-4 fingerbords with one rod
Easy to work with, one piece can do 2-3 guitars depending on how long your insert is.
This stuff is very simple to install, but be aware the white is a very bright pure white and will look quite different from mother of pearl (or imitation) fret markers.
Stew-Mac side dot material is easy to work with and yields perfect results.
I got the 1/16 black and it works just fine. I made an error and dipped the tips in my binding cement then placed in my pre-drilled holes. This turned out to be too much cement and sort of melted the thin rod and a few fret markers came out blurry even after scrapping. Next time I'll use a toothpick or just use super glue sparingly from a fine tip to fill the holes.
Not much you can say about a thin rod of plastic! But it works just as it should.
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