Thank you.

An advantage of not using the full set, and not using them on a guitar as intended, was that I could pick & choose the birds I felt suited, & had room to adjust the angles too.

Here's the set: https://www.inlaystickers.com/products/dove-fret-markers-inlay-sticker-for-guitar-bass

I ordered a set of plain "ocher" MOP dot stickers the other day from the same company. I decided to keep it simple, and the "ocher" should look good with the gold inlays and tuners. They'll be here tomorrow.

It was interesting to notice with my Railboard that doesn't have any stickers on it, how quickly I've already memorized the location of the "C" notes on the bass side up to about the 7th fret.

Gold faux MOP dots!! I'm marking "C"s here.

I wanted to mention that it seems to me to make no difference what note you prefer to mark - A, C, even F. It's just an "orientation" point. You can identify all seven notes surrounding any given note, so it really doesn't matter which one you choose.



Thanks @DavidWS for making me aware of these. They look so much better than the file-folder marking dots I have on the rosewood. I got some "aged" MOP dots to replace the ugly red ones on that instrument.

Agree 100%.

Good view of the glitter inlays on your new Railboard too @SteveS. They 'sizzle' nicely in the light without looking garish. Thanks.

Slick Stick Steve.

PS. @SteveS Is the 'between Rails' texturing on the Railboard beam shallow grooves or shallow ridges? The decals seem to have no issue whichever it is?

The dots didn't seem to have any problem, David - the surface isn't ridged or grooved. It's really more what I'd call "textured" like very fine knurling. This pic shows it pretty well. And no, it's not really that dusty, but when zoomed in as close as I am, everything shows up!!

Thank you Steve. That's by far the best pick I recall seeing of the Railboard surface. It gives me a very good idea of what to expect.

I have Bob's "Chapman Stick" book, but while that does manage to include the Railboard, the pictures are of very early examples which seem to have a plain surface. I'd tried looking on the 'timeline' page at SE to see if it was mentioned & described there as a change, but it's not, so maybe it was standard by the time production started?

I don’t know the history, but I can imagine that a plain flat anodized surface may have not been attractive. Few fretboards are shiny. The Fender maple fretboards are the only ones I can think of that are glossy. So giving the surface some kind of treatment to scatter the light to dull it slightly seems a sensible design decision.

The hi-res pic in 'The Chapman Stick' book seems to show a plain surface, as do some of the pics at SE[1]? As well as 'shininess' I think that a factor in adding the texture may have been to increase the contrast between the flat area and the 'self-coloured' rails?


What ever the reason, I agree it seems like a good move.

[1] e.g. image 6 & maybe 8 in the 'slide show' on http://stick.com/instruments/railboard/, whereas 1 in that set clearly has the textured surface.