The Steel Guitar Forum

Why do steel guitar manufacturers out silver colored fret markers on their guitars? Its like they didn't do any field research. These fret markers disapear under colored lights and also reflect light into your eyes when you are playing. Companies like Emmons, Carter, and Sho-Bud know this and always stuck to white contrast fret markers on black fret boards. It seems really stupid to put reflective silver on a fret board. One more reason I wouldn't purchase one of those guitars (among others).

Emmons used to (and may still) use or offer chrome fretboards. If I remember right, Buddy Emmons said that one of the big things that impressed him when Ron Lashley showed him the first Emmons prototype was the contrast between the black and chrome.

I'd say manufacturers do it for the looks. No matter what they do on the fretboards, something will wash out certain parts under the right conditions. I remember playing a Sho-Bud a long time ago on a dark stage with all red lights. All of the red on my fretboards completely disappeared!

Emmons has chrome fretboards...I love the looks. I play under lots(read LOTS), of lights....moving and otherwise. I've never had any trouble seeing where I'm at, and they are not so reflective that it bothers me at all. I think painted frets look cheap. I definitely have to go with Buddy on this.....chrome looks classy.
The only time lights bother me at all, is when the back-line overheads are low(because of venue), and then the drummer and I braise in our own juices.......whew! We are on 4 foot risers just off either side of center stage. The bass player always thinks he smells ham cookin'.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jeff Peterson on 21 August 2002 at 04:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

Here's the lowdown on the chrome Emmons fretboards . The modern ones have a flat or matte black background, so that even if the frets reflect, there's your fret. Really an improvement, IMHO> The older fretboards had shiny black as the main color and those were problematic in certain light schemes, since the glare from the black and the glare from the chrome teneded to be, well... glaring.

Trust me, I play those old guitars currently, and if the fretboard is totally trashed, I'll gladly put on a new one and consider it an improvement. If the old board is in good shape, I'll just leave it and bear with the glare (which is only rarely occasional, anyway.)

Seems like I just wrote a lot about a little, but there's mah .02.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Then what is it that I've got on my new old mid 70's p/p 12 string? The fretboard is matte black w/ white frets and colored atomics. Was chrome an option? A specific period?

Changing or modifying a fretboard is such a simple task! It would be really foolish to pass on an otherwise great guitar because of such a minor detail.

Don't you think?

I think Emmons went to white frets sometime in the late 60's, and stayed that way until the LeGrande III era, when they started the new era of chrome frets on the LG3's. Or somewheres like that there. I think you can get either the white frets or chrome frets now, both with the non-glare black.

A 70's guitar would almost certainly have white fret markers.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

I prefer raised fretboards so there will be a bit of shadow when the lights wash out the top of the guitar. Once, when I was playing my Emmons at the Palomino, we opened with an uptempo number and when it was time for my solo, the spotlight turned the entire top of the guitar white, Ray Charles could have played it, I died.

I ordered my LeGrande III with chrome fretboards for an extra $10.00 and have replaced the white fretted boards on my other guitars with chrome. My old '67 P/P has the gloss black background with chrome frets and the turquiose atom markers where the new ones have blue and those are my favorite of all. I much prefer the chrome.
I guesss that is why Emmons Guitar Co. offers a choice. If any one has a good set of chrome Emmons fretboards they wish to trade for black and white ones I would be happy to oblige.
Jerry

Jon, I have 2 p/p s12's, both have the chrome and they are 8-10 years apart, my buddies little girl took my tuning allen wrench and started to remove the atoms (now isn't that special), she trashed my fretboard, it's still on there, but looks bad, so now I have to try and find a new chrome one, actually 2, she got the second guitar a month later, I would rather have the scratched chrome than white, just something I got use to, I'm with those who like the chrome, BTW I have some chrome plated parts for some old Triumph motorcycles if any bikers out there

Anti-nuke, eh? Yeah, what a darling. Thanks for the info. Thanks Herb.
One can expect that this ain't the last of my p/p questions.

My '67 Cassmobile has the chrome frets with gloss black, and on rare occasions there is the glare that Herb talks about, but I think it looks cool so who cares?

Then again, when I was looking for a P/P I wanted one old enough to have the decal on the front... so my opinion may be somewhat irelevant.

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Thats why I belong to this forum. To listen to other people's opinions and maybe discover
that I need to re-think mine.