Fretboard inlays

[B381]

Fretboard inlays. There's so many types...

Dots (Traditional)
Blocks (Reminds me of an SG or Les Paul)
Vines (Artistic - unique)
None (self explanatory)

Thoughts on inlays? Nobody cares?

[MontanaMatt]

I vote for artwork.

[Roger Moss]

I like just the dots for reference points. Too much adornment on the fretboard, though, can be disorienting.

[Jim Garber]

Blocks, nah. Dots or subtle inlays are fine on the front of the fretboard but for utility I find that side dots do the trick. The other is more aesthetics but i suppose it does help some with orienting when you have to switch position.

[MontanaMatt]

Blocks, nah. Dots or subtle inlays are fine on the front of the fretboard but for utility I find that side dots do the trick. The other is more aesthetics but i suppose it does help some with orienting when you have to switch position.

I can't see the surface of my fretboard while playing...
I suppose it's for helping your music partners?

[William Smith]

I love the old late 20's-30's F-5 pearl block inlays as well as the 30's F-7 ,F-10 and F-12 inlay work-way KOOL! Just adds a bit something rather than just a few little fret board dots! IMHO anyway.

[MikeEdgerton]

I could do with or without the fretboard dots. I can't see them but the side dots I do need.

[foldedpath]

Can't see them, I only care about side markers. In the years when I was ordering custom acoustic and electric guitars, they were always with no markers on the fretboard. I just like that look. My current and only mandolin has dots on the fretboard and I might not have bought it with anything fancier.

With one exception...

I once saw a custom Jaroslav Prucha F-style custom mandolin, offered for sale secondhand. The theme was bats, with a fancy bat inlay on the headstock, and all the fretboard markers were flapping bats in different sizes. It was like Dracula's mandolin. If I had been able to afford it at the time, I would have bought it. Always wondered where that one ended up.

[Br1ck]

Without inlay, how is one supposed to know you paid way more for your mandolin than I paid for mine?

Seriously. I like small dots on the fretboard and plant life on the headstock. Twist my arm and I'd take the Ellis at the top of this page.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Pruscha also made a series of banjos with what i'd call ''off the wall'' inlays - bats was one of them.

I really like the Gibson ''Sam Bush'' style block inlays,but my favourite,is the polar opposite - none !. To me it looks like my favorite charcoal grey suit - understated & very smart. Imagine putting white buttons on it !. That's the way i feel about marker 'dots'. Maybe a sliver of MOP or Abalone at the 12th wouldn't be too bad,but i'd mostly go for the side marker dots,& maybe a small inlay at the edge of the fingerboard - think Gretch guitars,but 'smaller',
Ivan;)
PS - From Br1ck - "Twist my arm and I'd take the Ellis at the top of this page." That's the headstock on Tom Ellis's own mandolin,one which i've read is totally outstanding, even within Tom Ellis's awesome build standards.171483

[William Smith]

fret board inlays is almost like tuner buttons, its all what your personal preference is! Plain plastic, different wood, grained ivoried, pearl, Handel style etc...

[Roger Moss]

Can't see them, I only care about side markers.

I think the block inlays on the fretboard are quite fetching, myself.

Also, owing to my, err..., replete nature, I can see the dots on my fretboard quite easily.

[B381]

I know it's a guitar but the Fender Hellcat has just that, cats.

171485

I know these are stickers but I never knew so many existed:

https://www.inlaystickers.com/collections/fret-markers/contemporary

[Timbofood]

If it’s tasteful, it’s cool. I’ve seen some pretty awful “trees of life” that looked more like poison ivy! But, I’ve always been partial to small diamonds (Martin style) on fingerboards but, I have never been able to part with the funds to have much more than the peghead inlay in my avatar. And that was a birthday gift by the artist!
The elegant “Yellow Rose of Texas” is just below the “hanging dot” The Guild.

[mandroid]

I could do with or without the fretboard dots. I can't see them but the side dots I do need.

Yea, 1 thing I did after a few years, many years ago, on my Plain-Jain A nil,
was have a luthier* add side dots .. it had fretboard face dots, from the beginning...


My Showy F is a Lebeda 'jazzica' it has block oyster/abalone/oyster shell inlays ..

When *he built my 4 string Solid body electric , I asked for Gretch style semi circular ones,

on the top edge of the fretboard face to take care of both, face & edge, in one go.









...

[Ray(T)]

Without fretboard inlays, it makes it difficult to work out where to put your capo ;)

[dhergert]

I honestly didn't select my F-9 because of the lack of fretboard markers, but after having it for a number of years, I really prefer it now.

The side markers are essential to me when I look at my left hand, but most of the time I don't look anymore.

[EdHanrahan]

Call me silly, but the maple-on-ebony vine inlay of Taylor's koa guitars, in fact the whole dang guitar, gets me drooling. And the curls of the vine make effective fret markers. Don't own one... yet?

[multidon]

I am quite fond of the small diamonds on my Webers. Simple and elegant.

[Hudmister]

I honestly didn't select my F-9 because of the lack of fretboard markers, but after having it for a number of years, I really prefer it now.

The side markers are essential to me when I look at my left hand, but most of the time I don't look anymore.

Your F-9 has that special look without any inlays. The pickguard is great and the armrest, nice. I wish we all (Café members only)could teleport our mandolins to each other so we could share.

[George R. Lane]

My Yellowstone has some real small inlays and I prefer that to the big dots Gibson uses. I too use the side dots for reference when playing. FYI, I can see a portion of the fretboard as my tummy is a little on the round side.;)

[Ivan Kelsall]

A totally blank fingerboard,alway puts me in mind of the 1926 Chanel ''Little Black Dress'' for women,that was so 'plain' it was stunningly beautiful in it's own right,& it started a trend which is still going today. Mind you,it was mostly the gorgeous ladies that filled the dresses that were looked at eg. Audrey Hepburn for one !,
Ivan:grin:

[AMandolin]

+1 for small diamonds

[Ken]

I don't care that much for a full tree of life fretboard inlay, but for something a little fancier than dots and diamonds, here are a couple that run from the third to the seventh frets. 171497171498
And then instead of blocks.their is the rising moon. 171499
For whatever its worth, I also like dots, and even plain fretboards.

[Folkmusician.com]

I love the look of a clean fingerboard with no inlays. Also tasteful artwork that isn't necessarily useful for position markers.

[Paul Kotapish]

I prefer a bare fingerboard--no inlays at all. I need those side dots for sure, but i never look at inlay for reference and I love the look of a simple, unadorned ebony or rosewood fingerboard.

[allenhopkins]

My "daily" banjo, an old Regal tenor pot with a long "Pete Seeger" neck built by an individual maker in NJ maybe 40 years ago, verges on the garish. Looks like the guy who built the neck, sent away for every pearl inlay Stew-Mac was selling, and stuck them all in the ebony somewhere.

I like inlays, especially ones that are reserved for special instruments; I have a Taylor XX-MC "20th anniversary" guitar that has a very nice commemorative inlay.

If you want to check out what's probably the ultimate in inlay "artistry," William "Grit" Laskin (https://williamlaskin.com) of Toronto may be about as ornate as it gets.

[treidm]

Side Marker Dots Absolutely Needed

1) None [Elegant & Classy] FAVORITE
2) Dots [Simple & Traditional]
______________________________

3) Artistic [Just a little over the top for me]
4) Blocks [Too much like solid body electric guitar & block shape doesn't seem to go with mandolin's body flow]

These are just my personal opinions, nothing else :)

[Paul Hird]

I really like the MOP Buds on my Weber Yellowstone. Very subtle and the detail is beautiful.

[Doc Ivory]

I've always liked the vines, one of mine has them

[Joey Anchors]

I vote for cloud inlays


171554

[darrylicshon]

I've always liked the tree of life (vine) inlay , since Ibanez did it back in the 70's. I have owned 6 Ibanez jem with the tree of life, still have 2. I have one mandolin with it. I'm having a solidbody octave being made with the tree if life inlay. Even bought my other half an ibanez euphoria acoustic with the tree of life, she could have or not the inlay, but she loves the sound of the guitar. So yea I like different inlays

[Seter]

All of my instruments have either simple dots, diamonds, or nothing. All except one, which has bats!

171556

[mandocrucian]

I know these are stickers but I never knew so many existed:

https://www.inlaystickers.com/collections/fret-markers/contemporary

Those Bat decals (red) would look great on a John Cippolina style SG!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BrkH4t7uL._SY300_QL70_.jpghttp://www.johncipollina.com/images/GibsonSG01.jpg

[UsuallyPickin]

Well … pretty comes after tone , touch and cost …. my general feeling is … meh. Although Vassar Clements had a fiddle with a vine inlay on a portion of the neck that I always thought was attractive. R/

[sblock]

How about THIS?!? Hard to beat the classics. My favorite headstock inlay of all time: Gibson Torch and Wire. My favorite fretboard inlay of all time: Tree of Life.

171616

[Jim Garber]

I vote for cloud inlays


171554

Ironically, I have a 1930s Epiphone archtop guitar with those same inlays coming to me in the next week or so.


How about THIS?!? Hard to beat the classics. My favorite headstock inlay of all time: Gibson Torch and Wire. My favorite fretboard inlay of all time: Tree of Life.

171616

There is something quite enchanting about an early torch and wire F-4 and I also love the inlaid "south Jersey" pickguard. I generally prefer the simpler but looking at those makes me happy.

From the same era (more or less) made in Nazareth, PA (2 different style 6 bowlbacks from 1902) I have a feeling that the inlays were never the same on any two of these upper end Martins:

171626 171627

[George R. Lane]

Too much for these old eyes. I m leaning towards no inlays in the fretboard.

[Tina Latina Scott]

Ditto on the block inlays, I love them as well. I recently commissioned and received a custom build A5 from Tom Ellis that's just drop dead gorgeous. Abalone Fleur de lis headstock inlay, abalone fretboard inlays AND.... drum roll please.... special order custom tailpiece engraved by Weldon Lister. One piece quilted maple back and tortoise shell binding rounds it out. Ellis' Facebook posted a few pics and if I can figure out how, I'll post some here as well.

[mtucker]

No dots here. :grin: First pic of a fully appointed F5 from the new batch from OZ. My 5jr. (R) has small fret wire and a flat board. It was two days old in pic, now nearing its first birthday in November.