Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
Obviously I'm all in on the cat's head, Neil_O! (see my avatar). I'll add the option of spades, stars, clubs, diamonds, maple leaves, Fleur de Lis, the Hawaiian bee eater bird, possums, buck deer, various running vines and shamrocks. Yes, I intentionally omitted hearts. Martial symbolism should also be fair game for inlaid fret markers, starting with the crossed rifles of the Infantry. For some inexplicable reason, I lean toward diamonds and envision inlaid MOP diamonds of varying sizes, with the largest (say 3mm) at Fret 10, slightly smaller but doubled at Fret 12, then getting progressively smaller (in succession) from 7 to 5, and from 5 to 3. KohanMike posted a pic of a custom tenor uke with just that sort of fret marker arrangement several years ago.I agree. And the name of a band on the bass drum is quite a long tradition.
I did have a negative reaction when I first saw a video of Albert King (guitarist) with his name on the fretboard. Amazing player with an ugly fretboard. I got used to it, and Stevie Ray Vaughn's initials on his after a while. I had the same reaction to seeing Taimane's name on hers and Jake's name on his, many years later. I'll probably get used to it, but I think for me I don't like a design spanning multiple frets. If I ordered a custom I might request unusual fret markers tho'...like little cat heads or a bearded dragon.