ednaplate Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but does anyone know the reason frets are marked the way they are i.e.. dots on the third, fifth, seventh fret etc? Obviously the 12th fret is the octave of the open string but is there are a theory behind it that I haven't quite got yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I would hazard a guess that these points are where you can pick the harmonics. That is the equal subdivisions of the string. 12th halves the string, 5th quarters the string, etc. I know you can pick harmonics in other places like the fourth fret and just past the third. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Some more explanations here which expand on what he said above. http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/1900/position-of-white-dots-in-guitar-fretboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz39 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Well - if you think about it; navigation. 1st Fret doesn't need one, but placing them at 3, 5, 7 and 9 means you can navigate easily up the neck. Double dots at 12 and remember it's 3 fret gap either side... easy enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 5, 7 and 12 are the big ones, being 4th, 5th and 8ve (the most important intervals in western music, that go right back to the ancient Greeks and before the diatonic scale as we know it today was even invented). 3 is the most logical stopover at that end of the fretboard, likewise 9 in the middle of the board (although I've seen instruments that had a dot at fret 10 instead of 9 - which actually makes some sense as it breaks up the mid board in the same way as 3 breaks up the bottom end). Above 12 the pattern just repeats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colgraff Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 (edited) I dimly remember having this explained to me in great detail by a music historian. There is no official standardisation of fret markers and a great many variations were used by different manufacturers. W have arrived at the current configuration because it is generally considered to be aesthetically pleasing (neither too many nor too few markers) while having enough markers to make finding the correct fret simple. Just one example; to my eye, Brian May's fretboard looks cluttered, despite being easier to identify frets. Edited February 11, 2016 by colgraff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 It's just convention. I regularly jam with a guy who has a guitar with dots on the fifth, seventh, tenth and twelfth frets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 [quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1455303345' post='2978084'] It's just convention. I regularly jam with a guy who has a guitar with dots on the fifth, seventh, tenth and twelfth frets. [/quote] Back in the 70s I think the old Eko Ranger acoustics had dots at the 10th fret rather than the 9th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1455317137' post='2978224'] Back in the 70s I think the old Eko Ranger acoustics had dots at the 10th fret rather than the 9th. [/quote] My first electric (a noname from the Freeman catalogue of the time - late 1960s) had a marker at the 10th fret as well. I don't doubt many variations exist, but I'd be surprised to find any that didn't have markings at 12, 7 and 5 for the reason I gave in my previous post. Octave, fifth and fourth are historically the three most important intervals in the scale: to have any marking system that doesn't use them strikes me as simply perverse, and of extremely dubious value given what they're there for in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colgraff Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1455321761' post='2978254'] My first electric (a noname from the Freeman catalogue of the time - late 1960s). [/quote] Ah, Freemans. Bradford's answer to Savile Row! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ednaplate Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 Thanks for the replies and for the link. It would appear that the dots are only relevant for open string keys rather than for any other key, unless of course I still have more to understand and learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 [quote name='ednaplate' timestamp='1455461467' post='2979266'] It would appear that the dots are only relevant for open string keys rather than for any other key... [/quote] Not really. The dots are placed relative to the open strings yes, but if you're going to have them at all then it's the obvious way to do it. They're just waypoint markers though and are probably best thought of as simply telling you which fret you're on at any given time. You may be overthinking it a bit, and you certainly shouldn't be relying on them as much as you seem to be - ask any double bass player! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I had a Warwick Fortress with a fret mark at 1. Not really much point to it, cause if you cant find the 1st fret, I don`t think there is much hope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I've seen guitars with frets just at 5, 7 and 12 before now. Having said that, most of those were firewood posing as something more interesting. Classical guitars don't have them at all of course, and neither does my Takamine acoustic. (They generally have little side markers though.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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