Where should fret makers be?

[David "Gitz" O'Corley]

On a fretless do you put the maker right on the mark of the fret or in the middle like a freted one?

[Ryan Rose]

It depends on how you do your fretless. When I do fretless, I still have all the frets mapped out; I just don't put any frets on. In that situation, I'd put the marker in the middle, like normal. If you're leaving the neck blank, except for the markers, then I'd put them right on the mark.

[Ron "Oily" Sprague]

Fret makers should be obscene, and not herd.

Fret markers, on the other hand ( so to speak), should give the player an indication of which fret they're headed for when playing. Trad design places fret markers on the fretboard, behind the actual fret, because that's where one's fingers go, and also often along the side of the fretboard, so the player can see 'em when playing. On a fretless slide build, you can still mark the actual fret locations, or nodes where the slide gives a pure tone, but it's still nice to have some visual indicator for the player to know, even roughly, where 3,5,7,9 and 12 are.

[Seaman Jay]

right on the mark. I mark the natural harmonics (5th,7th and 12th "fret") -- it's easy to pinpoint the places without much measuring and seems to be sufficient.

[David "Gitz" O'Corley]

Thanks for the responses