Fret markers

[Moonray]

Markers are important to me for quick [instantaneous] decision making.

I must have them on any guitar I play, although there are some classical guitar
people I know that treat the use of side dots as some kind of weakness.


Screw them, I improvise as well as play CG repertoire and the folks who play primarily standard rep
don't know first hand about the nature of demands made on an improvisor.

Then there's the question of dots/inlays, on the fingerboard itself.....for those that teach particularly on screens, I feel they
are selling their students short if the actual positions being played are not clearly visible.

There are some well known, and very good, instructors who use their dot/inlay free guitars on screen and it
bugs the hell outa me ....when they charge good money for their lessons.
Are they trying to conceal something...or have they forgotten what it's like to be a student looking on?

After all, teach has his dots on the side of the neck....is there some subtle oneupmanship happening here? He's cool .....so can't
you keep up?

I feel pretty strongly about this as you may have noticed.....how many piano tutorials have you seen where the keyboard is
not in clear view?
....and the keyboard is inherently color-coded .....unlike our instrument that is just a beast to navigate.

OK....now I feel better.

[pauln]

[Alter]

Any guitar without markers on the fretboard is a guaranteed disaster for me when playing live. Not in a major way, but I'll usually miss a note or two maybe once per gig because of it (which is majorly embarrassing.. ).

I can play without looking, often do in reading gigs, but having used mostly fenders and gibsons for years has conditioned me to look on the fretboard for quick position reference unfortunately. I should get around to changing that but playing all different sorts of guitars doesn't help. I even have guitars without any kind of markings, where I draw them myself on the side of the neck.

Gibson style inlays are my favorite to look at and to use, except on fender style guitars of course where it's dots.

[Zina]

Ideally each fretboard position would have a marker on a central hinge; then you could turn them around at will. Good for capo users. And for vindictive bandmembers who can then change the marker sequence to a mean message in Morse code to the guitarist and make him flub solos.

[Alter]

The only style where any kind of fret markets definitely doesn't work is flamenco, because so much of it is open position playing using a capo on different frets all the time..

[Dennis D]

One from 1937, one from 2020.........Do they still look good ?

I'd say so ! mho, of course...........

[fasteddie]

For me I like markers. Now my personal taste is Fenders need to have dot markers. Gibsons need to have block or trapezoid markers. For whatever reason I think Fenders’ look weird with blocks and Gibsons look weird with dots.

[StringNavigator]

On a dark stage, side markers don't help so much. I appreciate the blocks, there. I imagine that guitarists who sing must depend on them most of all. Or if you have to vamp for the talent who are making an entrance/encore on a darkened stage.

The idea is an old one. Ancient guitars display some remarkable inlay work on their fingerboards.

I have an ES-135 with dots on rosewood. I always felt it should have blocks, like in 1956, but it has some character by looking sparse. Mind you, the luthier at Twelfth Fret in Toronto had to smooth down the fret wire ends. Gibson forgets about stuff like that, now. Perhaps they went cheap on the markers.

:: ::
:: ::

[Mecena]

Regular black dots on maple fingerboard.
I just wish that dots were tiny tiny bit more bigger.
But I love black dots on "white-ish" maple fingerboard.
Just tiny tiny bit more bigger.

[Boogaloo]

I was a guitar major in university. Classical guitar no fret markers. No side markers. You learn very fast where each note is.

[GuyBoden]

Side half moon thumb nails?

Stick on temp side dots?

[pingu]

Abalone can be nice
L7 frame pictures are lovely too

[RJVB]

Any suggestion for aftermarket fretboard (= not side) marker dots that have a decent longevity and that ? I thought Alba make them but turns out that (nowadays) they only make side markers.

I already have those but if anything they confuse me esp. when playing harmonics. I was off by 1 fret too often until I caved and punched a couple of markers out of an ivory-coloured sticker and stuck them on.