Not much of an update, but I drilled for the side dots:

I planned to glue them in too tonight, but my tube of CA was toasted, almost empty and what was left came out on all sides but out of the nozzle.

I took my time marking the positions and drilling the holes. It’s hard to line them up perfectly centered on the slightly tapered binding (due to the radius) and if they’re not aligned, it shows rather well . But my patience paid off and I got them lined up pretty nice. The first fret mark isn’t perfect, a bit shallow and a bit wider due to movement of the drill press head when reaching the depth stop, but the rest is just fine. I hope I’m able to camouflage this small imperfection when gluing in the black dots.