Baritone ukuleles - Fret marker placement

I'm pretty much a Baritone guy, and one thing has always bugged me, basically because I don't know why some ukes have a position marker at the 9th fret, while others (most, actually) have a position marker at the 10th fret. I have a Kanile'a, Bushman,and Favilla that all have a position marker at the 9th fret. Most of the more recent ukes I've seen have a position marker at the 10th fret, and I have a few of those as well.

Does anyone have a guess as to why this inconsistent fret marker placement exists? Does it have anything to do with the age of the uke? I know it seems inconsequential, but I've always been curious about the anomaly. Anyone have the answer (or a good guess)? Thanks.

The ukulele standard is the 10th fret. The GUITAR standard is the 9th fret. If your ukulele maker also makes guitars they may have gone with the 9th fret standard.

Kanile'a????

It’s not inconsequential at all! I’ve been playing ukulele for about five years now and STILL get tripped up around the 10th fret because of uke dots vs guitar dots!

Griole said:

Kanile'a????

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Who knows. I'm guessing that they figured that most of their Baritone buyers would be coming from guitars so went with the guitar standard 9th fret placement.

Some have 3, 5 & 7, others only have 5 & 7, no idea why some miss out the 3 either - having 9 or 10, I agree is most annoying, especially when starting out playing.

For some people it is the neck profile, for some it is a radiused fret board. For me, the deal breaker is the lack of a ten spot. I refuse to buy a tenor guitar or a ukulele without one. Why was the tenth fret indicated in the first place? Patently, it is the pentatonic scale, the backbone of western music. Open fret, 3, 5, 7 10 are the notes of the pentatonic scale. On my custom ukulele I have no fret markers because they are worthless as I cannot see them. However I do have side markers demarcating all the pentatonic frets all the way up to the 19th fret.

I have applied rub-on side marker decals to several of my tenors. They last several months of frequent playing, then I use tape to remove the remnants. The tape's adhesive picks it right up. Then I rub on new ones.

I prefer 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 side markers, but I'm fine with 5, 7, 10, 12.

It is quite confusing when there is a marker at the 9th instead of the 10th. Especially if there isn't a 12th. Fortunately, that isn't often the case on tenors.

I don't refer to the front fret markers very often.

As has been pointed out, the standard position marker for guitars is at the 9th fret.
Ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, tiples, bandurias, bouzoukis, . . . seem to have position markers at the 10th fret.
I made my first 5 string banjo into a fretless, but later put a new fretboard on it and , working too quickly, without thinking it out, I put a position marker at the 9th fret. I found it so hard to find my way around, that I filled the hole with rosewood/glue filler and put a dot at the 10th fret.
I have a banjolele that I got for $12, because it had a twisted neck. A friend who is a guitar builder made me a new neck and, you guessed it, he put the dot at the 9th fret.

This is the banjo (Which I call the "Frankenstein Banjo", since it has gone through so many incarnations since I got it in the mid seventies) that I mistakenly put a dot at the 9th fret. This photo was taken after I moved it, but if you squint, you can see where I filled the hole. I gave it to my niece, who is an excellent musician.


This is the banjolele that Dave Fox built the new neck for. It's such a lovely neck that I've decided to live with the 9th fret marker.



Croaky Keith - Some instruments have inlays at the 1st and/or 3rd frets, but these aren't really needed since you don't need position markers when you play in first position. Sometimes they are more for decoration at the lower frets. This is a banjo that I built a few decades ago that has the lower frets inlaid for decoration.

Yes, Kenn - I use the same workaround. It might look weird to the casual observer, but it gets the job done. These rub-on side dot markers are pretty cheap, and there are currently two different sellers offering them. Quite helpful, if you have a nice baritone (like a Mainland) which, unfortunately comes with NO side dot markers. As I stated in my original post, the answer is of little consequence. I'll just chalk it up to one of the mysteries of life. Thanks for all the responses.

all baritone myself...I hate the dot at the 9th fret. i occasionally play a tenor, transposing as I go and the 9th fret just messes me up.
I drilled it out of a Favilla, it's very shallow and replaced it with one at the 10th and some colored wood filler. My Kanilea was too valuable to alter...so I traded it away.
My ukulele purchases are guided by no 9th fret dots...difference between a D and a Db in a rush