Inlay on
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
s or similar
fretA fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
ted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard
inlayInlay is a decorative technique of inserting pieces of contrasting, often coloured materials into depressions in a base object to form patterns or pictures that normally are flush with the matrix. In a wood matrix, inlays commonly use wood veneers, but other materials like shells, mother-of-pearl,...
techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboard,
headstockHeadstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
—typically the manufacturer's logo— and around the soundhole of acoustic guitars. Only positional markers on the fretboard or side of
neckThe neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...
serve any function other than decoration.
Inlay on
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
s or similar
fretA fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
ted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard
inlayInlay is a decorative technique of inserting pieces of contrasting, often coloured materials into depressions in a base object to form patterns or pictures that normally are flush with the matrix. In a wood matrix, inlays commonly use wood veneers, but other materials like shells, mother-of-pearl,...
techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboard,
headstockHeadstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
—typically the manufacturer's logo— and around the soundhole of acoustic guitars. Only positional markers on the fretboard or side of
neckThe neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...
serve any function other than decoration.
NacreNacre , also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent....
("mother of pearl"), plastic and wood are the materials most often used as inlay.
Some very limited edition high-end or custom-made guitars have artistic inlay designs that span the entire front (or even the back) of the guitar. These designs use a variety of different materials and are created using techniques borrowed from furniture making. While these designs are often just very elaborate decorations, they are sometimes works of art that even depict a particular theme or a scene. Although these guitars are often constructed from the most exclusive materials, they are generally considered to be collector's items and not intended to be played. Large guitar manufacturers often issue these guitars to celebrate a significant historical milestone.
Fretboard
Fretboard inlays are not only decorative, but also mark certain frets. They are most commonly shaped like dots (circles), diamond (
rhombusIn geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.In general, a polygon whose...
),
parallelogramIn geometry, a parallelogram is a quadrilateral with two sets of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length, and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are equal...
s,
isosceles trapezoidAn isosceles trapezoid is a quadrilateral with a line of symmetry bisecting one pair of opposite sides, making it automatically a trapezoid. Two opposite sides are parallel, the two other sides are of equal length. The diagonals are of equal length. An isosceles trapezoid's base angles are...
s,
shark finShark Fin is the peak has the triangular shape of a shark fin when viewed from the south....
s or rectangles. Circular markers are the easiest and least expensive to produce, because drilling circular indentations and cutting circular inlays (from sheets or rods) require the least time and resources. They are typically of a color contrasting the color of the fretboard, in other words black for a light colored fretboard such as maple or white for fretboard of a darker wood such as rosewood or ebony.
Many manufacturers use a distinct shape for their fret markers to create a brand identity set themselves apart from competitors.
GibsonThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
uses isosceles trapezoids while Fender uses dots, but others include lightning bolts, letters and numbers.
Smaller dots are also usually inlaid into the upper edge of the fretboard or the neck so as to be more visible to the player who views the instrument from the side.
LEDLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s or
optical fiberAn optical fiber is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers...
can be employed to illuminate the markers. This is mostly employed by players who perform in front of live audiences where the lighting is either insufficient or constantly changing.
Schemes
On guitars, there are two popular fretboard inlay schemes:
- The most popular (1) involves single inlays on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, double inlays on the 12th, single inlays on the 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st, and if present, double inlays on the 24th. Advantages of such scheme include its symmetry about the 12th fret and symmetry of every half (0-12 and 12-24) about the 7th and 19th frets. However, playing these frets, for example, on the E string would yield the notes E, G, A, B, C# that barely make a complete musical mode
Mode is a term from Western music theory having three definitions :# the rhythmic relationship between long and short values in the late medieval period;...
by themselves.
- A less popular scheme (2) involves inlays on 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 22nd and 24th frets. Playing these frets on the E string yields the notes E, G, A, B, D that fit perfectly into the E minor pentatonic scale. Such a scheme is very close to the coloring of a piano
The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
's keys and is of some use on classical guitars.
Headstock, neck and pickguard
Beyond the fretboard inlay, the headstock and
sound holeA sound hole is an opening in the upper sounding board of a stringed musical instrument.The sound holes can have different shapes: round in flat-top guitars, f-holes in instruments from the violin or viol families and in arched-top guitars, rosettes in lutes. Mandolins may have round or oval holes....
are also commonly inlaid. The manufacturer's logo is commonly inlaid into the headstock and pickguard, if present. Sometimes a small design such as a bird or other character or an abstract shape also accompanies the logo. The sound hole designs found on
acoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible....
s vary from simple concentric circles to delicate fretwork. Many high-end guitars have more elaborate decorative inlay schemes. Often the edges of the guitar around the
neckThe neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...
and body and down the middle of the back are inlaid.
Because some electric guitars (like the
Fender TelecasterThe Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
and
StratocasterThe Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top horn for balance while standing...
) do not have a separate fretboard under which they can fit a
truss rodA truss rod is a guitar part used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature , of the neck. Usually it is a steel rod that runs inside the neck and has a bolt that can be used to adjust its tension...
they fit it in the back of the neck and cover it with a strip of dark wood. The has popularly become known as a "skunk stripe" and while it is not inlay some makers use inlay to simulate it.
Soundhole
The edge of the soundboard around the soundhole of an acoustic guitar is almost always decorated with a
rosetteA rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity. Appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece...
inlay.
Binding
Binding on acoustic guitars serve to protect the edges of the wood from impact and moisture damage. After the back, front and sides are joined a small ledge is cut out on the edge which is then inlaid before finishing the guitar. On solid-body electric guitars it serves only a cosmetic purpose. Fretboards are sometimes also "bound".
Purfling
Purfling is similar to binding, but differs in that it is offset a small distance from the edge surface and for purely cosmetic purposes. It is typically found found around the edges of the front, back and soundholes of violins.