Unmarked fretboards are king

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wrong-answers-only
  • Start date Start date
I've not owned a guitar with a blank board I don't think. I have had a couple guitars that might as well have had no inlays, being that they were so hard to see. But I agree with the sentiment that side markers are the important ones.
 
Agree, plain fretboards have a certain classy silk look to them; besides my first old Spanish classical guitar, I think the only electric I've had like this for long was this old 80's Schecter mutt:

2PrLVGx.jpeg


Always found those to be somewhat less "intuitive" to play for some reason though, even if I learnt to play on classical guitar; I guess I've been mainly playing electrics with board inlays for so long now that I got used to seeing something there.
 
I love no positioning markers on the fretboard, a lot of my customs are nekked...but I love a fancy custom inlay going across the board. The stuff Ken Lawrence does is superb.
 
VonBonfire said:
It's easier to have your stage name inlaid in mother of pearl on a guitar with a blank fretboard. You are pretty much a guitar kimg if you do that.
Click to expand...
Hmm, perhaps I should have my stage name put on my guitar's fret marker areas that are blank :unsure:
 
Side Markers for sure, but anything besides 1950's plain ass round Dots..
 
I have 2 Carvin 7 strings with no markers on them! I was reluctant to get a board with no markers because I thought it would mess me up, but it never did. I realized that whenever I play, I always look at the markers on the side not the board.
 
Last edited:
These two plus a number of ERGs without them

1750286548011.jpeg


My Husband has these two really cool LPs with black inlays that you can't see except at certain angles.

1750287226853.jpeg
 
VonBonfire said:
Beautiful. Are those top two guitars ebony boards? Only asking because when I used to hit a big exotic wood place in St. Pete they had some blond ebony with black matrix in it like that but I have never seen it on a guitar.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, the fretboards are pale moon ebony. Might be the same as blonde ebony or at least very similar.

The duvell elite has a birds eye maple board
 
PiggySmallz said:
Thanks! Yes, the fretboards are pale moon ebony. Might be the same as blonde ebony or at least very similar.

The duvell elite has a birds eye maple board
Click to expand...
Yeah those look amazing and not only because of the blond ebony, but also the pink and purple quilt. If Paul Reed Smith saw those guitars he would probably fly into a jealous rage. :LOL:
 
VonBonfire said:
Yeah those look amazing and not only because of the blond ebony, but also the pink and purple quilt. If Paul Reed Smith saw those guitars he would probably fly into a jealous rage. :LOL:
Click to expand...

The purple one is a PRS Custom 24. The spec was originally supposed to be built by a buddy of mine from high school who owned Equilibrium guitars. I was really excited to reconnect with him after many years and see he was living our dream building guitars and touring. He told me a quick story about how Herman Lee from Dragonforce brought one of his guitars with him to PRS when he was building a private stock and Paul loved the neck on it.

My buddy Dave went on tour to tech for Animals as Leaders who were supporting Dream Theater. He got to play on stage at Madison Square Garden, we used to talk about it in middle school and high school. A few days later on an off day he passed away at a concert from a heart issue.

The guitar was originally specd to honor a family member who passed away but in that moment, I still felt it needed to see the light of day and it made sense to close the chapter by having it built by PRS. The guitar was a bit of a compromise as they wouldn't build me a custom 22 because they aren't in production. There were a couple of other details that I wasn't pleased with considering the prices of them but it was important that this guitar was brought to life. Its a bit bitter sweet for me everytime I pick it up.
 
MetalThrasher said:
Meant to say... Those are sick, all of them! I have a seven string Mayo and this does not help wanting to get another one!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Tried one due to gas one day and really liked them. Ordered a couple of others and have been really happy with them. Ive been slowly selling off some PRS with the intention of replacing them with a mayos and ESPs. Not a single quality or playability issue with any of the mayos I've ordered or played. You should add another one.
 
PiggySmallz said:
Thanks! Tried one due to gas one day and really liked them. Ordered a couple of others and have been really happy with them. Ive been slowly selling off some PRS with the intention of replacing them with a mayos and ESPs. Not a single quality or playability issue with any of the mayos I've ordered or played. You should add another one.
Click to expand...
Believe me, I know. The one I have I got a good deal on it! Still debating on changing the holy diver pickup in it for a C nail bomb. I may do it this week to see how I like it. BTW, sorry for the derail.
 
Yeah I kind of like the idea of unmarked fretboards as long as there are side dots that I can use. When people can't see what frets your hands are on it makes it harder for other people to cop your licks. I have a friend I jam with a lot and he get's a kick out of copying my riffs and licks while we are jamming. It was impressive at first, but got annoying after awhile. I started using my nylon string guitars and I got a laugh out of seeing the confusion on his face at not being able to copy my licks.

I have felt the other side of this too though. There was this amazing jazz guitarist who played a archtop without no fretboard markers. He was trying to show me some ideas and concepts on his guitar, telling me something about using augmented major over a tonic chord. I was flipping out because I couldn't figure out what he was trying to show me. I still got no freakin' idea what augmented major is.😆

20250517_170644.jpg
Resized_20220604_162227.jpeg
20220312_164703 (1).jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top