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Why do most steel string guitars have a fret marker on almost every other fret? I play a Classical with no markers. Are all those markers really necessary?

Thanks,

Ray

Truth is, you really couldn't see the board markers, very well, where they put them on a steel string, anyway, the way you hold a classical.  I have tiny edge dots at 5, 7 & 9, on mine.

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Waddy

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Many of the steel strings shown on the OLF do not have any fret markers. They aren't necessary once you reach a certain level in your playing ability, but they are very helpful to beginning players learning their way around the fretboard.

Ron

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I also think it has just evolved into a decorative thing now.  

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Waddy

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I've played guitar (poorly mind you) for almost 20 years (i'm feeling old) and I still use the fret markers. I don't put them on the face of the fret board mind you, just on the edge. That's where I like em and I still need em

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The guitar is also an accompaniment instrument, singers play it while they sing. On the one hand, that means that the instrument might be secondary and thus they never focus on it like an instrumentalist, but it's also just much harder to concentrate on your playing while you're singing so every little bit goes a long way.

Same thing with the black keys on a piano. They could have made 'em all white and all the same size. Wouldn't affect players at the higher level, but it would make it awfully hard to learn to play the thing.

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Bob Garrish
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I never use markers on any of my guitars, I find them distracting, and anyway when using a capo they become meaningless. If you play enough then you should get to intuitively know the board such that you don't really have to think about it. You know the sort of stuff, imagine the note and the hands automatically play it. Then you can concentrate on the music. A couple of side markers is OK say on 5 and 9 but I don't like the look of pearl on the front.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I've never seen the point of markers on the face of the fingerboard. If you can see them when you're playing, you probably are holding the guitar (any type) incorrectly. However, side markers are really useful to me- I'm a (very) mediocre player.
Anecdote: Sergei deJonge puts side markers (a few) on most of his classicals. I asked him about this and he said that when they got guitars back in the shop for repairs/finish touch-ups, etc they often had bits of tape or dots of 'white-out' on the fingerboard edge. This was from customers who were very skilled, including professional guitarists. Sergei decided he'd rather have his guitars out 'in the world' with proper (small and restrained) fingerboard edge markers.

Cheers
John

I would agree with that.  That's my plan - very small dots at 5. 7 & 9, or like Colin said, 5 & 9.  1mm dots would be just about right.  I figure making them out of bone should be pretty easy, using the dowel making technique.  I may be proven to be wrong, though.  I have never tried it.

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Waddy

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