10th fret inlay mark

Jazzaferri · March 2015

I find the 12th fret useful in long jumps up the neck.

Practicing with eyes closed helps with the rest.

Bones · March 2015

I agree with Al about the front markers. I can't really see them unless I hold the guitar at a slight angle and I also have guitars with no front markers and it is no impact at all. Side markers are helpful but never noticed much problem changing between guitars with 9 or 10th fret markers for some odd reason so I'm not sure how much I really use them. Maybe just having the 12th fret and 7th fret markers is enough? Be an interesting experiment to black out the 9 or 10 marker (whatever you have) and try it that way for a while.

Al Watsky · March 2015

I like the marker at 9
I've always used it to reference Ab on my B string.
I've been playing for around 50 years.
In fact some how the markers are more a reference to the B string than any other.
I'm not advancing that as a rule mind you , thats just how I've related to it ever since I began reading on the guitar.
I think in the days I was self taught I was using the markers for the usual 6th and 5 string locations, but later as I needed to read at sight I found my mind cataloguing the notes on the B string in relation to the side dots.(Perhaps at that time I was not so clear about note placement on the B string) In fact most everything I do on guitar is related to the second 3 string group. 2-3-4. Most of my thinking of triads and movable forms is focused on that string group.
I have no idea what this has to do with the 9-10 controversy except that this thread has made me think of this.
I was being trained I suppose you would say as a Jazz musician and was always being called on to play in flat keys. Some how or another after having learned the fingerboard rather completely it became more important to know what was happening on that pesky B string which is off the grid , having been tuned to a 3rd rather than a 4th.
Later when I began classical studies, which I pursued for well over a decade the whole dot thing was out the window.
We had no dots.
When I completed my classical studies and began working as a freelance musician the dots became very necessary again.
Improvisers love dots. Readers love dots.
Dot dot dot. Its all about dots.
I've for ages always "loved" knowing where Ab on my B string was and golly its right there under that dot on the 9th fret.
Not to say that the Ab wouldn't be in the same location if the dot were at that 10th fret.
I'm not Francophilic enough to give a darn about Mario's preferences of marker placement.
All this just for conversational purposes mind you , I've no axe to grind !
I don't think there is a "correct" placement of the markers.

Jazzaferri · March 2015

As a fair bit of my guitar experience was on a classical guitar with no markers I concur with Al's comment that there is no logically correct placement..just a habituated one. I wish that all of my guitars had only side dots at 5 7 12 17 and 19.

Al Watsky · March 2015

One thing to consider is that there are 5 notes at any marked position on a guitar . Not just the notes on the E and A string. The position markers are in effect for all strings not just some.

klaatu · March 2015

kevingcox wrote: »

Take them both off all your instruments and voila, clear sailing. You will get used to it.

... or close your eyes. A lot cheaper!

pickitjohn · March 2015

seems if anyone needs any markers it would be Violin and String players and they don't except those just starting.
I have used white fingernail polish to make a side dot on my Patenotte 260.
Can't really see the ones on my fretboard anyway, no matter how FANCY they are.