fret board position markers

pt66

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Can anyone tell me what the proper placement is for ukulele position markers is? Guitars have a dot at the 9th fret, mandolin at the 10th. Does it mater what size? I am currently building an octave ukulele (tuned a full octave lower then a tenor). I was thinking 9th like guitar but I see a lot of soprano ukulele with the 10th.
 
If it a ukulele-type instrument likely to be played by people with other ukuleles, then my advice is to go for the ukulele norm of 10th fret. I opted for a 9th fret marker on my first ukulele (against my tutors advice) and have regretted it ever since. For me it makes switching ukuleles too confusing, because I do play up at that end of the board and rely on fret markers.

I have also experienced the reverse as I once owned a vintage Regal Le Domino archtop guitar, which since Le Domino were principally a ukulele maker, had a 10th fret dot. Confused - you bet.
 
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It is confusing....I have some with the dot at 9th and some at 10th.
 
Some European guitars have the dot on the 10th instead of the 9th.

ON ukes I put it in the 10th fret but if i know they are guitar players i ask if they would prefer it on the 9th.
 
I added side fret markers on a couple of ukuleles a number of years ago and keeping in line with my guitar roots. I placed them on the 9th fret.

I have read some musical rationale for the 10th over 9th for a ukulele, but that rationale didn't really make sense in light of guitar 9th fret side markers. My personal opinion was that it was a way to differentiate a ukulele from a guitar. But, as Beau has pointed out, some European guitars use the 10th, making the possibility that an instrument originating in Portugal may traditionally had the markers on the 10th. It is more likely that that is just wishful thinking on my part and there is no real reason. Who knows, the real reason could have been a mistake on the first ukulele side markers.

Since then all of the ukuleles I have bought had side markers at the 10th fret. One day I will probably add a marker at the 10th on those 2 ukuleles, resulting in 9th and 10th markers. From a visual perspective of having a marker 2 frets below the 12th, it may make sense, or may just clutter up the side of the fretboard.

John
 
I wish they would put the side ones where the fret is and not in the middle between the two frets. :eek:ld:

I'm just wondering why you say this? Since your finger goes between the frets when playing, the typical dot location between the frets seems like it would give the best target position to me.
 
I'm just wondering why you say this? Since your finger goes between the frets when playing, the typical dot location between the frets seems like it would give the best target position to me.

my guess is that it's a tomatoes/tomahtoes type of thing. i would go for the optimal target position same as you. people process information in different ways.
 
I'm a Martin soprano fan , and one of my favorites is the SO . It has no fretmarkers , no side markers , 12 frets and to make it easier for me to figure where I am I put a
side marker on the 5th fret . It's working fine for me. I wanted the least amount of markers.
 
I got a pretty strong negative reaction from uke players when I placed the marker at the 9th fret on the first few ukes I built. Now I actually kind of like the overall dot symmetry better with it on the 10th.
Another way to look at it is the marker follows function approach. Frets 5, 7 and 12 are the only ones that relate to the wave length if the string. The 5th fret is at the 4th fundamental where the string vibrates in four sections when you briefly touch it at the 5th fret. The 7th is at the third fundamental where it vibrates in three sections, and the 12th is where it vibrates in two sections. Frets 3, 9 or 10 are only reference points and if you play guitar you’re probably used to 9, if you play ukulele you’re used to 10, but everyone agrees on 3.
 
I'm mainly a guitar player, but to me the 9th makes more sense. That way you have a marker every 2 frets except when you get to the 12th, which has a 3 fret gap either side. That just seems neater and more logical in my opinion.
 
In case anyone is still reading this. (why marker on 10 and not 9).
The most likely reason is not related to harmonics, which is one of the main reasons why instruments use markers.

I propose the answer is simpler. The primary positioning of markers is related to spatial memory and how to jump around the fretboard between notes.
Here is an image of the ukulele neck showing the jumps between finger postions for root notes on all strings.
(GCEA, ADF#B and DGBE tunings all have the same shape (unlike on the Guitar where tunings can vary widely))

UT_Neck%2BGCEA.png


I have drawn the fretboard on both sides and the line that connects each subsequent note down(up) the fretboard. In my diagram its on the A string.

The first "+1 Root" diagram indicates how to navigate down to the next occurence of the same note if you are on a note on a string. Follow the line
E.g. to get from any note on the 4th string(in this case G) - go down 3 frets and across 2 strings.

The "+2 Root" diagram shows you how to jump down two notes. You can see how the +5 and +7 distances are critical.
You can use the visual references of the fretboard markers to spatially move from where you are now, down +5 or +7.

The "+3 Root" jump shows that +10 is the distance for the 4th(G) string. Its as far as you jump in one octave. Of course the +1 loops into the next octave from here.

Try this method to play all over the fretboard instead of just at the top. Of course you'll need to adjust your fingering to the shape for that string and chord. For diagrams on all of this check out https://ukulelethoughts.blogspot.co.nz/
I contend there is no good reason to stay with only a few memorised chords when you need to remember only a few specific spatial shapes and offsets to play all notes anywhere on the neck...
 

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I put the marker at the tenth fret because, with the usual tuning (top string is an "a") the note at the tenth fret is a "g." At the ninth fret, it is an "f#."
 
Neon, Thanks for the Chart.
I have a very early Martin soprano that has markers at 5,7,9
Apparently they only used this for a couple of years(1918-1919)
 
Horses for courses. If your playing chords up the neck then the 7th fret and 9th fret dots work. Take a guitar Dmaj chord (ukulele Gmaj chord) 0,2,3,2. Slide the 232 triad up to 787 and you have the 4th maj chord of the scale . Slide it up to 9,10,9 and you have the 5th maj chord of the scale. Whether you slide the bass note up the board is optional. It works just fine leaving it open. You could slide other chord shapes up the board like this too although you probably have to just play a triad or ensure that you slide a full bar chord up the neck.

Sometimes when I'm picking a melody line then its the 10th fret that I want to fret at.

Anthony
 
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