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Fret Markers

I'm about to finish up my fretless 3-string guitar and i want to put fret markers on the top of the neck. I'm not the greatest woodworker on the planet, any one have any good suggestions that aren't too difficult? Inlaying another type of wood sounds a little daunting to me. I tried just using a pen but it doesn't look so great. —B

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on March 8, 2010 at 2:06am

I use the medium thick picks, and those are also thin enough to use a 1/8" paper punch on to make markers for the side of the neck, or for "tuning dots".

Alan Roberts said:

steve (Roots) said:

Get a 1/4 inch hand paper hole punch. Find guitar pick (tortise shell looking)Punch holes and use them for fret dots.

I was NOT able to cut through the Fender extra-thick picks with a hand paper hole punch. I used the "nuclear option" and used a plug cutter. Folks, this is a gizmo you should ALL look at. I've used it to cut plugs (little 1/4 inch wide cylinders) out of scrap walnut, cherry, holly, koa, whathaveyou and those make nice fret markers. For the guitar picks, though, I used double-sided tape to secure them to a piece of scrap, wound masking tape around it from side to side then wound it top to bottom, and drilled away.

SAFETY WARNING! You DON'T want to be trying to hold something small and thin on a drill press!!!

I got three plugs out of each pick. Next time, though, I'll paint the back of each tortoise shell plug with gold paint, or cut a 1/4 diameter piece of tin foil backing to reflect more light through the tortoise shell.

Anyone with a drill press can make nice inlay fret markers. Drill shallow hole, add glue and marker (dowel or plug) and sand level. It's that easy. I'm not so sure about brass markers, though. If your marker material is MUCH harder than wood, it's hard to get level.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Gajeski on March 8, 2010 at 9:18am

I've seen a guy on here somewhere that drilled small holes and melted solder into them, then sanded them flush. It looked REALLY cool.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Manno on March 8, 2010 at 11:15am

One idea for fret markers (dots) I have yet to see on here, unless I missed it, are actual cigar bands. I am an avid cigar smoker, and I've been looking for a good cigar that has both a cool box and cigar band. Even if I have to cut off the sides of the band and just use the main graphic, I think that would be a cool look. They just have to be pretty narrow, because once you get up by the 9th fret and higher, you don't have much space to work with.

Another idea is using bullets. The next time my cop brother goes shooting, he's going to grab me a handful of spent shell casings!

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Permalink Reply by Tom Manno on March 8, 2010 at 11:16am

OK that right there is genius, and I'm going to try it on one of my more rustic builds. Score!

Michael Gajeski said:

I've seen a guy on here somewhere that drilled small holes and melted solder into them, then sanded them flush. It looked REALLY cool.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Gajeski on March 8, 2010 at 11:20am

I found it. If you scroll down the page a little bit there are pics.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on March 8, 2010 at 11:57am

One thing I might warn people about would be using some exotic woods like purple heard or cocobolo for inlay work, especially if you have a lighter wood background. Those tropicals have lots of oil in them and it will often stain the lighter wood over time, making it look "blurry." Just my 2 bits.