Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on May 11, 2015 at 9:48am

I have used sharpie on a few earely builds, but it eventualy wears off. A friend used his woodburner and it looks great. I was thinking about useing a utility knife to score the lines, painting over and lightly sanding the excess, though i haven't tried that yet.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on May 11, 2015 at 10:17am

I would expect that anything painted or drawn will wear off eventually. Wood burning does look nice.
I think the idea John has with using a score and applying paint is a good compromise.
If you top finish after marking, it should hold up better, too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on May 11, 2015 at 10:22am

Yes there is a third option, inlay them.
It's about the easiest inlay you can ever do (well it's a toss up against dots) I've used a broken band saw blade for it, looks great. Contrasting veneer is cheap too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matteo R on May 12, 2015 at 1:36am

As the other guys say, inlaid frets is a great option. You can gently cut the fret slots with a thin saw, then fill them with something like coloured plaster (to make high contrast with your fretboard, you can use any dye). When it dries, sand off the excess, it will look great.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by john mackay on May 12, 2015 at 4:30am

tooth picks is also good.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TN Twang on May 14, 2015 at 7:35am

Ya' need flat wire, use (the flat half of) bobby pins.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on May 12, 2015 at 5:23am

I've used a Sharpie just for something quick and dirty, but like the others have said, it does wear off eventually.

My favorite is an inlaid wood I used on the Little Purple Suitcase Bass. I cut slots as if I were going to do frets, then inserted a piece of veneer, cracked it off and sanded it flat. I'm sure there was some glue involved too. At any rate, they look great.

http://skeesix.com/blog/2009/07/little-purple-travel-bass/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Goldsmithexile on May 13, 2015 at 4:48am

All the diddley bows I made up until now have all had masking tape fingerboards and felt tip frets, more really for ease of experimentation with fret positions. They dont need to be super precision exact for my purposes anyway. They do wear off a bit, but by the time that happens you should know how to feel the character of the guitar by then I should have thought?

Anyway, on my next one which is going to have 2 pickups (one for a bass string and the other for 2 other strings), I am going to use wooden dots made from dark brown teak (recycled from old outdoor furnitures) set into a lighter coloured birch or beech neck (old table legs). I have a plug cutter and a bit that is the exact size to suit it. The other thing I might try at some stage is plugs made of antelope horn or rams horn, which both come up very smooth and glossy if you polish it with metal polish.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Uncle John on May 13, 2015 at 9:07am

Any way you want.   I often just put markers at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th on a slider.   I've never done the tooth pick thing, but have used flat bobby pins.  They were not mine.   And I sure got a lot of superglue stuck to my fingers.   I've cut in the frets and used a colored pencil to mark em.   Takes us back to do what you want.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 13, 2015 at 11:31am

On my last build, I wanted a slider, but also wanted distinct fret markers. I've tried sharpies of different colors, but they do fade quickly. Finally, I decided to use 0.030 piano wire. I had a piece laying around and thought it would make nice markers if I cut slots then tapped it flush with the fret board.

I used my fret saw to cut slots, but instead of installing frets, I tapped the piano wire into the slot and flush. Once finished, I used a block sander to polish the tops of the piano wire so it was very easy to see.

I worked very well. Is visible and if you want to finger a note, the piano wire provides a hard spot to press the string against.

There are a lot of options for fret markers. This is just one of them.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TN Twang on May 14, 2015 at 7:33am

Neat idea! Fretless with a hard spot to facilitate fingering...

Damn, now I've gotta' build another one. Maybe with buried nails instead of piano wire...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Swamp Music Simon on May 13, 2015 at 3:44pm

I have built a couple of fretless cigar box guitars.  I love rocking the slide and works great on fretless.  I make my note indicator marks on the side of the neck.  Rather than right on the fret board.  I find the notes easier to see when they are on the side, but that's just me.  I just use a sharpie myself to make the dots, and the lines as well.  Sometimes I'll use a pen to make the lines instead.  I have found the marks stay on the neck for sometime because there are no string(s) rubbing on the markings.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page