To dot or not

dbox

Hello!

I'm ordering a guitar from a luthier and I'm thinking about going without any fretboard inlays/dots. I just like the optics of the clean black fingerboard like on a classical guitar. I would keep the fret markers on the upper side of the neck though.

While it's obviously a matter of taste, I wanted to gather opinions about potential downsides of going without the dots. One aspect I could think of is that while playing with other people, perhaps it's harder for them to figure out what you are playing (eg the chord). Is that something to take into consideration, or am I overly paranoid?

I read somewhere here in a discussion about 9th vs 10th fret markers that @Bob Holo built his guitars without inlays for a while, but it seems he went back to the dots again - curious as to why.

Thanks!

Bones

I just use the small side dots. Don't notice any issues playing it that way and I also like the way the all black fretboard looks.

Russell Letson

Outward-facing markers make it much easier for other players to read your hands. As long as I've been playing (and that's a long time), I still find those cues useful. Side markers are good, too, especially for those of us who switch between 12- and 14-fret necks.

pdg

Another option is very small fretboard dots -- quite elegant. Jerome Duffell sometimes uses them, and some Favinos have them.

Scoredog

when occasionally teaching it is easier for the student to see what I am doing if there is a dot. The other side is maybe you want it to look more mysterious. From a playing standpoint "for me" side dots are good enough.

wim

Django's Selmer is actually the opposite of what you suggested - it had the dots on the front, but not the smaller ones on the side of the neck.

It's really personal preference. Perhaps you can try without first, it will be much easier to add inlays afterwards than to decide you want them removed :)

Personally, I like the look of the dots, the guitar seems a little naked without them. They're like the buttons on a freshly pressed shirt.

guitarmike

If it’s harder for the other players to figure out what you are playing is not a bad thing. It would help them to develop

their ears.

Twang

I like to see no dots on a lot of guitars. I think it looks minimalist and classy. I don’t feel the same with selmers though. This is because a selmer is such a unique design already and even the original dots look cool and original. Different sizes, single dot at the octave and those oversized dots look cool. I wouldn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have them.

If I was breaking with a lot of traditions though I’d choose no front facing dots. E.g. 14 fret d hole with a cedar top.

what’s worse for me is when makers choose to dot the necks up like a modern guitar. Why so many dots? Most classical players only need a dot at 5, a dot at 7 and use the body to tell them where 12 is.

billyshakes

The only thing that gets me is 9 vs 10 on the dots. The rest, I can work with. My old classical guitar had only the side dots but no fretboard dots. @Twang as you say, the body join is always (almost) the 12th fret for a classical guitar. My guess is that if many are coming over from electric guitar and/or acoustic guitars with similar dot layouts, it is the sight picture they are used to playing with. The nice thing about all the great luthiers in our genre is that each player can feel free to get something that expresses their own relationship with the guitar when they go the build route.

To me, something like this design is very beautiful to look at and appreciate as art. But, I don't know if I could get used to playing with it. I'd probably think more about how great it looks and mess up something.

Lango-Django

Then you probably wouldnt like to play a guitar by this guy...

https://www.amazon.ca/Guitarmakers-Canvas-Inlay-Grit-Laskin/dp/0879307560

billyshakes

I absolutely appreciate his art, and my playing would do no justice to his beautiful handiwork. That said, I did check out his website gallery and noted this particular image....

Also...several months ago I was looking at some of those sticker inlays you can put on the fretboard. I thought it would be cool to take that photo of Django in profile smoking. He is usually facing left, so you'd have to flip the image and put him on your upper bout. Then have the smoke swirls float up the fretboard similar to the tree of life design on my previous post. I'd do it to my Altamira just to liven it up a bit....