If you got a fretboard inlay marker twixt the nut and 1st fret - then, logically...

[billy logan]

... you'd also put an inlay marker between the 12th and the 13th fret.

File this post in the "That guy doesn't like 1st-fret markers" file. Nut, then marker. Octave fret (12th) then marker? Logically?

Markers are needed at neither the 1st nor the 13th fret. Ime. Is the nut invisible to you? Myself, I can see it there. YMMV.

edited to add: The photo is just from Google Images. The clear graphics are nice and sarcastic though, eh?

 

[metalicaster]

If you're gonna have fancy-looking inlays, you may as well have more of them.

 

[Killing Floor]

I like inlay such as a vine or shark teeth (Ric) or blocks. Dots, don’t care for them at all but most of my instruments have them because they’re standard.

That said, inlays are not for you. Unless you play hunched over they’re out of the line of sight of standing players. That’s why they have side dots.

Those blocks look cool to the audience and they look good when the guitar sits on a stand. Same way you want your car to have a cool grille.

 

[unixfish]

A friend of mine let me play his Les Paul a bit ago. For some reason, the block markers were throwing me off a bit (at first). It's funny how little things like that can throw you.

I agree though - no first or 13th.

 

[cometazzi]

If you're gonna have fancy-looking inlays, you may as well have more of them.

I say we should put them at every fret! Fancytown!

 

[trev333]

I've got one of them on my acoustic..

the only neck I have with block inlays....

 

[USian Pie]

I would call this a first-world problem but that's even insulting to the first world.

 

[billy logan]

Re: photo in post #1 - I'd say the 1st-fret marker steals some visual thunder from? conflicts with? the beautiful truss rod cover.

And I can't think of a more crucial topic in this puzzling world of today in which we find ourselves living in than dots and rectangles and the placement thereof!!!

 

[trapdoor2]

More cowbell!

I've had this one since 2002.

 

[Buckocaster51]

There’s a good chance Mel Bay put it on the order form.

 

[trapdoor2]

I say we should put them at every fret! Fancytown!

I have a couple of 19th Cent. banjos with side dots at every fret. They were originally fretless...but so many dots are muy confusing!

 

[trapdoor2]

Fret markers were developed in the latter part of the 19th C as 'guides' (just like we use them today). However, just like many other things, their positions were developed with agonizing detail regarding music theory of the period...by music teachers and "experts". The Fretted Instrument Guild actually voted on the positions for banjo, mandolin and guitar in the early 1900s ('07?) and many manufacturers followed their recommendations. Toss all that out when "art" shows up, of course. Some manufacturers refused to do a 9th fret dot and some refused the 10th. I have some instruments that avoid the 12th completely and have only a 10th and 14th (or a 9th and a 14th).

Somewhere I have a copy of the 1900s article on deciphering marker positions...here it is...Fret position markers explained Please understand that the 5-string banjo was the top instrument of the period. Guitars were too fragile and too soft voiced to compete until Martin did his thing, etc.

Many fretless instruments had ornate marquetry inlay with positions encoded in the inlay. Usually there would be a big central figure around the 12th but we've found stuff like angel's noses and rose leaves that indicate other useful positions. Sometimes we've done sufficient detective work to find the correct intended bridge placement based on the inlay (mostly banjos, of course).

 

[billy logan]

I checked out Fret position markers explained ... thank you, trapdoor2. In the diagram down at the bottom of the reprint there's no marker at the 1st fret! And the American Guild put a lot of thought into it!

Topic #B) A certain string-bending genius prefers the traditional (Fender) dot pattern because he looks to see how far into a dot to bend a string to reach whatever pitch he's after.

 

[Toto'sDad]

If you're going to put an ugly fret marker on a guitar, it's done too late to preserve the appearance, just go ahead and ruin it as much as you want to.

 

[Bill]

I love my ES-347, which has block markers everywhere, like on a 355.

I actually find it strange that Strats and Teles don’t have a first-position dot.

On the other hand my 12-fret neck, 1927 Martin only has snowflake markers at frets 5, 7, and 9. And it’s the neck I’m never lost on.

 

[WingedWords]

More cowbell!

I've had this one since 2002.

View attachment 997475

Please forgive a little thread drift OP, but @trapdoor2 who made that banjo and did the inlay?

 

[trapdoor2]

Please forgive a little thread drift OP, but @trapdoor2 who made that banjo and did the inlay?

Bob Flesher. http://www.flesherbanjos.com/

 

[Telecaster582]

I like the look with trapezoid and block inlays, not on anything else though

 

[bottlenecker]

I say we should put them at every fret! Fancytown!

I have a banjo with a solid mother-of-toilet seat fretboard. Now that's fancy.

 

[P Thought]

whut