Fret Markers / Fret Dots

[Beerad12]

General question about guitar fret markers. I was playing my 2017 SG special today and noticed that the fret markers in the binding start at the first fret. I then look at all my other Gibsons, an LP STD, LP TRAD, Midtown Std, Firebird V, & Reissue Explorer. All of these have fret markers starting at the third fret. So my question is, is there some sort of purpose / reason for the difference in fret marker locations? Does it differ between lesser priced models and the higher end models or is it just random from model to model? Just curious. Thanks for any insight on this.

 

Beerad

[Megafrog]

I think it depends on the designer's tastes.

[L5Larry]

Never contemplated this before, but now I'm curious.

 

I checked my remaining four Gibson guitars, and the tally of first fret side dot markers is.....

 

L5 - 1st

L7 - 1st

Les Paul Standard - 1st

ES345 - 3rd

 

Interestingly enough, an old Silvertone archtop I rebuilt had no side markers, so I added them. To me, the side markers are actually used for playing, and the fingerboard inlays are just for bling. Again, without contemplation, I guess I installed them where I figured I needed them. It seems I skipped frets 1 & 3 and started the side markers at the 5th fret and ended with a double-dot at 12. In retrospect, it's looks like I just mimicked the fingerboard markers which were at 5,7,9,12.

 

On a side note: Most classical guitars have no markers at all (side or fingerboard), and I've seen high-end archtops with only a fingerboard marker at the 12th fret. I also recently learned from working on a Fender fretless bass neck that the side markers on a fretless are at the actual location of the non-existent fret, not the center between the frets as on a fretted instrument.

 

On another other-side note: Who decided, and why, are the middle fingerboard markings at 7 & 9 (B & C#), instead of 8 & 10 (C & D), since the "western scale" is based around the note "C".