Fret board Inlays

[Carl.B]

I was just curious what everyone's preference was.

1.Dots - I personally seem to gravitate towards just plain dot's or nothing at all except dot's on the side. I would love a simple ebony board no inlays just dot's on the side.

2. Crowns - Only on LP single and Double cut style guitars and the neck must be bound otherwise it looks half assed to me. Never on S-body they just don't look right.

3. Boomers - Love boomers why other guitar builders don't offer these is beyond me.

4. Shark-fins - Hate them

5. Birds - WTF Paul sorry you build beautiful guitars but from 10 feet away it looks like you went to Walmart and put stickers on your fret board stick to moons.

6.Vine of Life - Again WTF

I am sure I missed other's but I think I covered the majority of them. Agree or disagree.

Carl B

[Thundersteel]

1. Dots--hate 'em. To me, they look dull, plain and ordinary. When I see guitars with AAAAAAA flame/quilt tops, and then with dot necks, it seems like a mismatch. When a builder charges a couple thousand dollars or more for a guitar, it had better have more than just dots; otherwise, i feel like I'm being cheated. Plain fretboards are almost as bad.

2. Agree.

3. I don't understand the fascination with boomers. I always thought they were an advertisement for Nike.

4. I don't mind the fins.

5. Never cared for PRS, so it's a non-issue for me.

6. I like the vine, but it be too gaudy if overdone.

[killerteddybear]

My 2 cents:

Side dots only on bass guitars.

Side dots and face dots on six string guitars. I have a Larrivee OM-03 with tiny face dots on the ebony board, they're perfect!

All the other marker options, no thanks.

[DBraz]

Do you know what? I like all of them depending on the guitar.

Boomers are awesome, reverse boomers are equally awesome and well suited to shredders imo.

Dots? Hard to beat on a bound board super strat for me but then I'd say they wouldn't work well on a Les Paul shape.

Crowns? Classic and traditional.

PRS Birds? Love them on PRS's traditional shape which they compliment nicely.

LED's? Everyone needs some wow in their guitar life!

Shark fins = 80's shred for me.

Diamonds and clouds also = BC Rich to me.

Dragons, vine's of life etc can look great on the right guitar done properly.

[BubbaVO]

Dots.

[diablo175]

It really does depend on the guitar. Much of this perspective is admittedly influenced by already and long- established precedents.

Dots- Something iconic about black dots on a nice maple board and yet they can look boring and dull on others. Make dots varying sizes and 'bouncing' and then ya got something!

Birds? Whatever.

Bats? Kinda the same but slightly cooler by virtue of the fact that they're bats- more imposing.

Sharkies? Again, iconic and aggressive. On the appropriate, shreddy type ax.

ESP serrated shark fins? YUCK. A bad decision on how to improve on the Jackson/Charvel fin.

Boomers? Honestly, I don't find them all that impressive save for the fact that they're unique and usually denote RAWK. They would look awkward and ill-suited on a jazz box or a more conservative ax.

Crowns? Like 'em (more so than dots) but only on certain guitars.

Vines? They're nice- on Jems. On anything else, they look artificially ostentatious and haughty.

Clouds- YUCK! There's no guitar out there that is enhanced for having those on it.

Diamonds? They're about a slight step above dots, just a touch more pizzazz and if done right, on the appropriate guitars, they're fine.

Stars? Meh. I just never thought that highly of Richie Sambora's playing.

Ouija Star and Crescent? Unique and kinda cool but only on a ESP KH model.

Skulls- Kinda cool on metal axes. Stupid looking on a Tele or a 335.

[G Man]

I'm good with Dots, I have a Martin OM-21 with smaller dots that I really like. Crowns are cool, but as mentioned, must be bound. Victories are nice as well. I also dig the thumbnail inlays on Gretsch guitars. Plain board is sexy, but must have dots on the side.

[anotherfreak]

Well,

I hate Vic's.....

[HAMERMAN]

Boomers are my favorite.

Pyramids are a close second but must be on a Jem (or Jem clone), I don't have anything with them but at some point would like to build or modify a neck for one of my Ibanez's.

Love the idea of LED's (alone or in combination with the above) but have never actually played a guitar that had them.

I like the DNA inlays also but again only on a Jem or Jem clone

Unfortunately all of these things are pretty scarce in the left handed world so I count myself lucky to have two Chap's with boomers (1 normal, 1 reverse).

Edited to add that part of my attraction to any of the above is that they are out of the ordinary so I am glad the vast majority of guitars come with dots! :-)

[django49]

There are many options that I do like, including the "fancier" ones like birds and "fish" if they are not overdone. But some of my favorite guitars are "understated" with simple (but abalone) dots (esp on ebony) or even none at all (esp if there is an exceptional piece of wood for the fingerboard).

[Ting Ho Dung]

I like 'em naked with side dots. Though Django's pictures are very tasteful.

Hate the birds

Don't care for Victories

Love Boomers

Can take or leave Crowns / Blocks, Fins

Would never own the Vine

[it's me HHB]

I wish my Monaco had crowns, the only negative thing I can say about it, I don't hate the victory inlay but I dont love em either

[hamerhead]

Tumbling boomers look great.

Crowns are classy.

Dots are functional.

The 30th has a single Vic at the 12th and baby vees for the rest. That works really well.

[sixesandsevens]

Side dots only.

[Studio Custom]

I don't like the way victory inlays look off center, otherwise I'm ok with most options depending on the guitar.

[django49]

One thing that is funny about playing with a "nude" board......When you start playing something and other people LOOK to get a clue as to where to join in......If you are not playing "cowboy chords", it takes them a bit longer to figure it out.

[Bloozguy]

I've always been rather partial to these:

And no, the strings weren't that crusty. They were actually brand new. Just crappy lighting and even crappier photographic skills

[crunchee]

"Punisher" skulls...but I know of only one Hamer Standard that's got 'em...  

Crowns for LPs (blocks on LP Customs), and nothing but dots for Fenders...anything else on those looks kinda 'off'.  Otherwise, I'm usually up for whatever, within reason.

[sixesandsevens]

21 minutes ago, crunchee said:

"Punisher" skulls...but I know of only one Hamer Standard that's got 'em...  

Crowns for LPs (blocks on LP Customs), and nothing but dots for Fenders...anything else on those looks kinda 'off'.  Otherwise, I'm usually up for whatever, within reason.

I'll grant you that the Punisher pulls them off nicely.

[Carl.B]

2 hours ago, Bloozguy said:

I've always been rather partial to these:

And no, the strings weren't that crusty. They were actually brand new. Just crappy lighting and even crappier photographic skills

I kind of like those, shaken not stirred.

 

[tbonesullivan]

YES! Dargie Delite First run! Love those inlays. Nothing like Green guitars that "don't sell".  The Dargie Delite second run had that awesome green/gold flip flop color though. But, the martini inlays were gone.

In general, I like dots. I like the feel of wood under my fingers, not the inlays as much. The less inlay there is, the better the feel is, imho.

I also do agree if you are gonna have crowns, you need binding. But you can have binding with dots as well, and it still looks nice.

[polara]

I don't spend a lot of time looking at them and don't care much. I like to put prism stickers on the side of the neck though 'os you never know when some goober running lights will go for Dramatic Low Lighting when you're trying to find a chord at the 9th fret while singing.

 

Guess I'm an exception in that i think the birds on PRS guitars look "right" on them for some reason. 

[mc2]

Depends on the axe.......

 

Dots.... are fine on many things for vntage vbe; offset dots are a cool spin

Crowns....OK but always bugs me when there is no first fret crown because the neck looks shorter.

                Prefer Gibby Blocks!!

Boomers....A stroke of genius!!  Tumblng bomers way cool but to be used on rare occasion.

Sharkfins....Glorius as crushed pearl on 60s Rickenbackers.

                  The ONLY Jackson Sharkfns that looked killer was the ones on Ronni Crooks' Snakeskin Chaparral.

Birds....eh

Vine of Life....Rubics Cube of inlays

Lines/bars....I like some of the thick bar/line inlays that go all the way across the fretboard, like

                   they used on some older Hofner jazz style guitars.

 

[dhuber]

17 hours ago, Carl.B said:

1.Dots - (Okay I can take them or leave them.  I don't mind them on my Strat and Tele.)

2. Crowns - Only on LP single and Double cut style guitars and the neck must be bound otherwise it looks half assed to me. Never on         S-body they just don't look right. (It should be a world wide law that all 24-3/4" set neck guitar fret boards be inlayed by crowns)

3. Boomers - Love boomers why other guitar builders don't offer these is beyond me. (never did anything for me, but I can see the appeal for you hard rockers)

4. Shark-fins - Hate them (agree)

5. Birds - WTF Paul sorry you build beautiful guitars but from 10 feet away it looks like you went to Walmart and put stickers on your fret     board stick to moons.(Agree 100%, I'm not sure I'm real thrilled with the quarter moons on my DGT either.)

6.Vine of Life - Again WTF (Agree)

Quote

7 Gibson square inlays - (I don't like them at all give me crowns)

8 Victory's I really liked them at first, but now it's just too much for me.  If they had just stuck one Victory inlay in the 1st fret or 12th fret that would be acceptable.  I do like the Hamer neck binding, headstock binding and the newer Hamer logo headstock inlay.  Great topic, thanks for posting this.

 

 

[jettster]

Boomers or Dots.