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sharpies are overrated , on wood they can/will smudge etc .. and also wear out / off .
a cd oil marker works great and most brands do not smudge , and will last longer .
and probably forever as side markers .
Used sharpies myself but as others say they can smudge. They don't fade with me because I spray lacquer over the whole thing at the end, but it can make the line run if you use too much. Burning them in is awesome but you are at the mercy of the grain in the wood sometimes so they can look a bit wobbly, I use a t-square to make as straight a line as possible.
I cut notches as if I were going to mount frets--but without worrying too much about their size. Sometimes I open the tops of the notches a little with a small wood file/rasp. Then woodburn down the bottom of the notch with a fine-tipped burner. Afterwards use a flat sanding block to polish the surface and remove (most of) my sloppy burning scars.
Is a fretless slider! My twist is to leave the area under the strings bare, no markings. On the top of the neck, I measure and make the fret positions. I these drill 1/16th inch holes at these positions and tap in polished brass round top brads. The audence can't see these and visually is a great effect, They wonder how you can hit the notes! When playing, you can see the fret markers and play of of them. Its comfortable because your posture is better not leaning over the neck to see the face of the neck to see the "frets", and the brads create a small tactile bump you can feel when playing.
You can also lightly saw the fret in. When you oil it or stain it the color is darker at the cut. I think of it as practice for real fretted instruments.
I started out with that premise, but I was disappointed that the stain didn't make dark enough marks in the cuts--hence the migration to Sharpies, touch-up pens, and, eventually, to wood burning. I DO like to use the shallow cuts to keep the lines straight.
I also cavil at the notion of "real" fretted instruments. I see frets much as I see the Bermuda Grass in my neighbor's yard. It looks nice (part of the time), but it's really an invasive species that I choose to avoid.
NOTE: I've found a selective herbicide that kills the Bermuda when it spreads onto my property, but it appears that frets cannot be eliminated so easily.
Selective herbicide that kills Bermuda but not Fescue? What What Please?
Scott's springtime fertilizer with selective herbicide lists bermuda among the noxious weeds that it kills. Worked for me, but I have a deep shade lawn where bermuda doesn't thrive anyway. Otherwise, plant kudzu; it'll choke out the bermuda--guaranteed.
i inlayed fretlines with strips of veneer. advise against it, shedloads of work.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/p18-04-13-08-07-01-1?context=user
Looks nice, but clearly not a quick-and-dirty solution for a low-skill woodworker like me.
On one of my early builds, I was using a saw and chisel to thin down the neck for the head. I made one of my cuts too deep, so I pounded in a piece of brass wire to make it look decorative... but if you're going to the effort of cutting fret markers, why not just fret it?
I'm still struggling with the historical (and esthetic) appropriateness of commercial fret wire.
On the one hand, we can see that Sears & Roebuck offered sets of 18 "German silver" frets for sale around the beginning of the 20th Century. Middle class "craftsmen" would have been able to purchase these, but I doubt that the poor and disenfranchised used Sears catalogs except in their outhouses.
On the other hand, primitive 19th Century American instruments in museums either have no frets or use cleated nails, staples, or wires wrapped around the neck. Even earlier European examples show knotted wet rawhide around the neck where it apparently tightened and hardened to form frets.
NOTE: My latest build was notched as described, but then I glued in pieces of 18-gauge electric fence wire to form what I hope are usable frets. It embodies the spirit of using fencing material, but, of course, electric fences are a TOTAL anachronism! Go figure...
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