Clay Dots and other Fender Inlays
Copywrite 10/26/2008 James William Shine,Jr.
Clay dots. Those mystical little circles of brownish tan have been long admired by Fender fanatics. These curious little gems have also sparked myths and debates among the die hard fanatics creating all sorts of urban legends that carry on to this day. On this page I will attempt to address this issue with the research I have collected over many years.
Typical look
First some history. During the mid-late 50's, the Fender company was growing at a rapid rate. Leo Fender's goal was to be able to release a new design every couple of months. This would either be an amplifier or a stringed instrument. This would maintain the image of being cutting edge first attained with the Telecaster, Stratocaster, Precision Bass, and the myriad of amplifier models introduced during the early 50's. Not only did Leo want to introduce new models regularly, but he also began revising models currently in existence. Just like an amplifier circuit would change mid year, Leo would change the specification of a stringed instrument to make it better.
This could be a simple change like the way a guitar was wired, as in the case of the earliest Broadcaster/Telecaster/Esquires that when through many changes over the earliest years, a component change like seen in the values of the earliest Stratocasters, or complete revisions like the major changes made to the Precision Bass in 1957. Leo would keep an eye on the guitars out in service to see how the real world tested them so he could build them better. By 1958 it was obvious the clear finish on the fingerboard of his guitars was not holding up well. Guitars being played nightly would often begin to show wear to the finish within a years time. This was unacceptable to Leo, so he began thinking about using a rosewood fingerboard as they were time tested by most builders up to that time.
Leo's first rosewood fretboard necks were made from standard one piece maple necks with the maple fretboard milled flat and a rosewood board glued to the surface. It was then shaped and fretted exactly as done with the one piece necks. These necks feature the walnut skunk strip on the rear and the "drop" above the nut. The dot inlays in these pre-production necks were made from the white pickguard material used on Strats and Teles stamped with the same die used to cut the black phenolic and vulcanized fibre used through the 50's.
One of the earliest Rosewood board necks. Note the clipped Strat decal on this Jazzmaster
It was decided that the introduction of the rosewood fretboard would come with the Jazzmaster . This would be used as a selling feature to start and eventually they would adapt this feature to the rest of the line as well. By performing a swift change across the board it potentially would have dulled the interest in the new Jazzmaster model. Just before going into production in the fall of 1958, Leo tweaked and fine tuned the neck construction to be manufacture friendly.
The first change made was the installation of the truss rod. Leo realized that there was no need to have that contrasting inlay of wood on the rear of the neck and if it were placed under the fretboard, it would clean up the look of the neck, provide more solid maple mass for more strength, and the walnut plug above the nut could be done away with. So Leo created a jig that routed the truss rod channel in a reverse slope to the maple board necks and routed them from the top. Unknown to many Fender buffs is the fact that the walnut skunk stripe still exists under their rosewood fretboard. Leo also realized he could save time and money by using a white filler for the inlays. It would do away with the need to punch out all those face and side dots. It also was self gap filling.
The filler used was stark white and was slathered in before the fretboard was shaped. The lengthwise lines seen in old clay dots was created by the shaper. Clean rarely played vintage rosewood board models often have clear evidence of these lines up above the nut. The fretboards were smoothed out with various papers to a smooth surface. The dot inlay material was softer than the rosewood, thus the shaper lines ran deeper and went below the level fretboard surface. It is also obvious on many side dots and some face dots that the material was not a solid 1/4" dot inserted into a hole as voids and irregularities in the hole are reflected in the dot. It is not at all rare to see an out of round clay dot. The seam between the dot and the rosewood is also not sharp, but fuzzy as the material created a seamless transition.
The shaper lines are easy to see on this 1959 Musicmaster neck
Okay, so I know what the next question is; "Why are clay dots creamy or brownish on all old Fenders I have seen? You just said they were stark white!". The filler used will naturally tint out to a gray or beige color. I have seen this filler used in other woodworking where it is rarely handled and it changes to a beige color on its surface. Anyone who has had to work on old clay dots knows they lighten up as you sand into them. I have had to replace clay dots in the past and when you drill into one,. it is stark white from the center to the bottom of the hole.
A major factor in how a clay dots color changes is related directly to the rosewood that dot is inlaid in. Super dark Brazilian fretboards of the era are naturally dark and are not darkened from play wear. The wood contains high amounts of pigmented oil. Anyone that has had to strip a vintage neck from this era will know what I am talking about. You get a little stripper on the fretboard seam to the maple neck, the stripper becomes a dark purple/brown color that is as heavy as paint. You can soak the dust from this wood and create a natural pigment that is as strong as any commercial stain.
These oils leach onto the dot during play and stain the dot. The darker the rosewood, the darker the dots will be. This is expected as the higher pigment content finds its way to the dots. The lighter woods have a smaller content and these dots tend to show the basic oxidation and have little rosewood pigment distortion. So if you pay attention, you will see that the super black ebony looking boards tend to have the dark brown dots that are hard to see, dark boards with some grain showing tend to have a tan dot, and light Indian rosewood with lots of visible grain tend to have a beige or sort of gray looking dot.
Lightly aged with little or no rosewood oil staining
These dots also age differently depending on many factors, including people who have acidic sweat. Quite common on some models exposed to lots of play, seams sometimes are created when moisture from the body begins to erode the filler and it separates from the rosewood. Long finger nailed players breaks the filler down and these can range from a "Dished out" appearance, to the filler totally being worn out of their holes. Sometimes the rosewood shrinks over time and the dots are raised above the fretboard surface.
The above neck is from a worn 1964 Jazzmaster I bought around 2000. The guitar only had one owner at this time, a woman who played this in the church band from the day she bought it to the 90's when her arthritis no longer allowed her to play. Her fingernails wore away every single dot in this neck. I had to drill out the remains and replace every single dot along with a refret.
The myths
Originally it was repairmen looking to replicate the look of these dots so they could perform better repairs. Today the desire to know is driven mainly by people looking to capture that look on home assembled aftermarket parts mutts. There has been lots of myths and rumors, but I will try to debunk all of the old ones that have been around a while. An interesting observation I made long ago is that people look for materials that resemble an aged dot and not a fresh brand new dot.
Armstrong Flooring tile- This one is pretty old and in many cases the myth includes mention of the material containing asbestos. The immediate flaw in this one is the fact that the material is not paste but a solid. The patina is similar, but again, to an aged dot. The material is cast this color and is not on the surface.
Forbon/Vulcanized Fibre - Same problem in that it had to be cut and the original material was putty. This material looks nothing like clay dot material.
Modeling clay/Real clay- This stuff is pretty close, but does not age the same way. It does not gain that yellowed surface and does not seem to hold onto the natural fretboard pigments. It also lacks that cool "granular" patina seen on original dots. It is also far less dense and much softer than the original material.
Wood filler- The correct ballpark, but you will not find the correct material at Home Depot. Most all fillers today are formulated differently than back in the 50's. I have tried dozens of different fillers and have not found the modern equivalent. many hobbyists use a tan shade rather than a white shade. Most of these fillers are not as dense as the original material.
Durham's Water Putty (sometimes referred to as Plumbers Putty for some reason)- A great choice for replacing an old clay dot, but this material is also quite different. It is almost the right density, but is beige out of the can. It accepts the rosewood oils nicely. I believe this is the closest cousin to what Fender used, but Fender used a stark white version than a natural wood tone version. Many guitar manufacturers use this material and a giveaway is its smoothness. The Durham's dries with little air bubbles trapped inside and the surface tends to look almost like Pumice. When ageing the color, the larger voids will grab more color and make for larger "particles" in the dot than the original material.
What was it?
I have seen this same material used by an old out of business furniture manufacturer called "Paris Manufacturing" . They used it to create what looked like inlays over screw holes and also when they wanted to create nice hand shaped inlay designs, but didn't want to cut inlays for them. I spoke to an old timer ex-employee that claimed this material was called "Ivorine" and was the consistency of toothpaste. I believe this was merely a trade name, much like Bakelite is to Phenolic. I have heard others claim that similar products were available with similar sounding names. To date I have yet to unearth an old tube of this material. It likely disappeared in the advances in plastics during the 60's.
Pearloid dots
In 1964, likely because the old dots were wearing out and darkening, Leo decided to change to a pearloid dot. The material was purchased from the same manufacturer that supplied the pickguard material. But Leo liked how using the putty sped up production. The answer was to drill a larger hole, approximately 17/64" in diameter, placing in a drop of clear epoxy, then laying the 1/4" dot into the oversized hole. This gave the nice appearance of a pearl inlay with the speed and gap filling properties of the putty. fender used this system right through to the end of the CBS years. You can usually see the epoxy if you look close as it creates a halo ring, or crescent around the dot. Centered dots create the halo, and offset in the hole creates the crescent shape.
In the above shot you can see the rings around the dots.
In 1966 Fender began getting more and more orders for maple fretboard necks. They used the same larger bit to drill the dots out of these necks and used a black epoxy instead of a solid inlay. This system was used straight into the early 80's. This is why CBS era maple board dots look slightly larger than Pre-CBS era.
Block Inlays
Fender used the same pearloid material on these, but it was quite a bit thicker with more "figuring". The manufacturer actually offered many different looks and is why the same place made the chunky Mustang pearloid (known as milk and ice), the mellow silver look of the dots, and the ribbons in the blocks. Often some believe these and the dots were real pearl, but sadly, they were not.
The blocks melted out of this neck in a fire. Note the truss rod anchor and skunk stripe in top cavity.
