Fingboard position markers.

[JackStraw]

Hello everyone. I'm in the process of building a weedwacker upright and have a question about position markers on upright basses. I know many (or most) don't have markers at all, but i've seen some with markers along the side. I'm not at all familiar with playing on a 40" scale (or fretless for that matter) so i plan to put marker inlays into the fingerboard. However, if i'm going to do it... i want to do it like a professional luthier would.

On a fretted instrument i would put them directly between the frets, but on a fretless instrument i'm guessing they go exactly where the fret would be. Is that correct? Also, at what intervals is typical? On a fretted guitar i would normally do 3-5-7-9-12, then repeat. Is it the same for an upright bass?

Thanks in advance,
-Jack

[Stefan Harms]

I am not a professional luthier -- they will probably tell you not put on any markings :)

For little children, I put coloured pieces of tape: Now put your finger on the Green, now the Blue! See how that sounds like the 'Blues'?
Ok, here we go: Green, Blue, Red, rest, green, blue, red, rest, and again...

Some EUBs put markings by drilling 90 degree into the fingerboard between the E and A (bottom two) strings, filled with a metal or a plastic rod. NS design has a nice look, imho. People coming from the fretted world like them. I don't.

I think the left hand and your ear are connected. Intonation is determined by the key you are playing. Try it out for yourself: Take a pencil, and mark on your fingerboard where F# sounds perfect in the key of G major. Next you play the E minor scale, and you mark where G flat sounds nice and sad. Mark the spot. What is going on? The two pencil marks are not the same! Yet it is the same note on the well tempered piano! You tell me which one you are going to mark permanently on your beautiful ebony plank?

Here is a better idea: Why don't you mark the back of your neck with various tactile Braille markers for various positions? Surely that might be more useful, just like the Eb or D necks have their use.

[Ken Smith]

Hello everyone. I'm in the process of building a weedwacker upright and have a question about position markers on upright basses. I know many (or most) don't have markers at all, but i've seen some with markers along the side. I'm not at all familiar with playing on a 40" scale (or fretless for that matter) so i plan to put marker inlays into the fingerboard. However, if i'm going to do it... i want to do it like a professional luthier would.

On a fretted instrument i would put them directly between the frets, but on a fretless instrument i'm guessing they go exactly where the fret would be. Is that correct? Also, at what intervals is typical? On a fretted guitar i would normally do 3-5-7-9-12, then repeat. Is it the same for an upright bass?

Thanks in advance,
-Jack

Humm.. well.. The Markers in the lower positions are usually there for beginner/school students. This is a learning aide like training wheels on a bicycle. In the upper positions this is clearly not the markings for beginners. Professional Classical Solo Bassists like Edgar Meyer use them for quick-find intonation points.

I don't know the exact notes he has them placed on but I have seen them on a few basses by others as well.

Looking at the top/thinnest strings I think the notes/positions they are placed for beginners at are Bb/2nd pos., C/3rd pos. and D/4th pos. if you consider the placement of the first finger at each note. Using other fingers would have different position names. For the second octave it would by the G/octave and then the same notes as just mentioned.

Unlike the Bass Guitar, only a few positions are marked. The marker IS the Note point on the DB unlike on a fretted BG placement. If you are playing quickly on the DB or the BG for that matter, you don't have all that much time to look at markers. They are at most peripheral guides and not something to stare at like a train on the tracks. More like a Car on the road at best.

Intonation with fingering and position shifts come with practice over time, hopefully.

Arnold has installed Dots on Basses for clients before. Maybe just ask him directly where he marks them!