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?
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?
"It doesn't matter how much you invest in your instrument until you invest in you and your ability..."
Kentucky KM-150
Eastman MD-404
Eastman MD-305
Morgan Monroe MFM-300 (passed on to a new player)
Rover RM-75
I vote for artwork.
2007 Weber Custom Elite "old wood"
2017 Ratliff R5 Custom #1148
Several nice old Fiddles
2007 Martin 000-15S 12 fret Auditorium-slot head
Deering Classic Open Back
Too many microphones
BridgerCreekBoys.com
I like just the dots for reference points. Too much adornment on the fretboard, though, can be disorienting.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams
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.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
2007 Weber Custom Elite "old wood"
2017 Ratliff R5 Custom #1148
Several nice old Fiddles
2007 Martin 000-15S 12 fret Auditorium-slot head
Deering Classic Open Back
Too many microphones
BridgerCreekBoys.com
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.
I could do with or without the fretboard dots. I can't see them but the side dots I do need.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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.
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.
Silverangel A
Arches F style kit
1913 Gibson A-1
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.
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
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...
I know it's a guitar but the Fender Hellcat has just that, cats.
I know these are stickers but I never knew so many existed:
https://www.inlaystickers.com/collec...s/contemporary
"It doesn't matter how much you invest in your instrument until you invest in you and your ability..."
Kentucky KM-150
Eastman MD-404
Eastman MD-305
Morgan Monroe MFM-300 (passed on to a new player)
Rover RM-75
If its tasteful, its cool. Ive seen some pretty awful trees of life that looked more like poison ivy! But, Ive 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.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
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.
...
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
Without fretboard inlays, it makes it difficult to work out where to put your capo
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.
-- Don
"Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
"It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."
2002 Gibson F-9
2016 MK LFSTB
1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
[About how I tune my mandolins]
[Our recent arrival]
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?
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
I am quite fond of the small diamonds on my Webers. Simple and elegant.
Don
2016 Weber Custom Bitterroot F
2011 Weber Bitterroot A
1974 Martin Style A
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.
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
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
+1 for small diamonds
" Practice every time you get a chance." - Bill Monroe
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.
And then instead of blocks.their is the rising moon.
For whatever its worth, I also like dots, and even plain fretboards.
Peace
I love the look of a clean fingerboard with no inlays. Also tasteful artwork that isn't necessarily useful for position markers.
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
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