Official Luthiers Forum!

I building an acoustic bass with a fretless finger board that I sloted and filled the slots with black fiber. Given that it is fretless, are the side dots still placed in the middle between the slots like a fretted guitar or are the side dots placed closer to where the notes should be. I just want to make sure that a player will find them where they are expected.

My first thought is to put them right on the harmonic line. Where the 3, 5, 7 9 12 ... frets will go.

Thanks for any insight.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I've built and played them both ways.
Guess it depends on whether you are building it for a client.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I would think they should go in between where the frets would be.
It would confuse me if they were on the harmonics,
but most things confuse me anyway.
If I was making a fretless, I would put small markers where the frets would be,
on the face of the fretboard.

Thanks,

I ended up with small side markers just where the frets would go for 3, 5, 7, 9, 12. That will at least help me.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I've been itching to build a fretless bass. Years ago I defretted my Curbow bass and then about a year ago I refretted it. I played it longer without frets and I miss it.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I have not played a guitar fretless. The guitar I am building is a very large acoustic bass from Mark Stanley plans.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Most people put the side dots on the fretlines at 1-3-5-7-9-12-15-17-19-21 etc. I put fretlines for every fret and dots in the listed sequence, or triangular markers depending on the build and the customer. BTW this acoustic looks awesome