I bought the 12str because I wanted more range. The frets standing out colour-wise is a sort of fringe benefit.

When I play my rail-board, the solution is to not look. You will have a bit of time where you sound terrible, and miss a bunch of notes, but do anything to avoid having to look!

Sight-reading practice helps also...

Dude, I feel your pain. I am pretty new to Stick, but I am a multi instrumentalist, and in particular a guitarist, who was humbled by the Stick. My mistake? Lots of them. I misjudged the instrument, and severely underestimated the complexity of what it was i wanted to achieve. Two handed independence is a serious challenge!

Every song I attempted was "too difficult" and it seemed like complete noobs were playing circles around me... VERY frustrating...

There were some pretty drastic steps I took to rectify the situation for myself and get myself "on the path"... I'd be happy to share if you like, let me know...

lol And it IS maddening, isn't it? The Stick has so much potential... It's just waiting for all of that potential to be unlocked...

I'm hitting a bit over day 250 with my first Stick (wooden Rosewood 10-string), and day 137 on the Railboard. Learning was easier on the Rosewood, because I stickered and taped it all up, and because the frets are just easier to see. Maybe someone from Stick Enterprises can chime in on this, but it's a very common complaint or issue that beginning Stickists find it hard to see the frets on the Railboards. Some Stickists play their Railboards and Sticks with their eyes closed entirely (Rodrigo comes to mind as the master of the no-look awesome Stickist and he has barely played a year!).

There's certainly something technologically or design wise that Emmett and company could do differently on the Railboards to make the frets more visible (and learning it more accessible to a beginner). But as someone who is finally starting to get out of the "newb" category and actually get to rocking on the Stick, I'm fine with my Railboard--yet I want to put Sticker bling on it anyway, and the frets ARE still hard to see sometimes with out the right light. But I put a light right on it and problem is mostly solved.

So, I'm not sure what I'm saying--I'm not asking for a re-design, and the new shiny coatings probably just make the visibility issue even worse (but look so frickin' awesome!!!!). Maybe these third-party sticker mods are the way to go on the Railboards, if violin tape won't Stick. And finger nail polish won't Stick. Hopefully the Stickers will Stick!

I love my Railboard soundwise. But that's plugged in as well (acoustically, non-amped: the wooden one wins hands down no contest). They're really different creatures altogether. But as has been said a few times, it'll take some patience. But it's very much worth it! (would be my counter to that).

I'm curious as to how you get along in this issue (and apparently others judging by the comments and interest in this topic). Again, best of luck!

I think I may be looking for a second stick..
Luckily, I got this as a trade and put no cash into it.
Maybe once I have a better grasp on it I will be less reliant on visuals.

But as somewhat of a reality check. I have been playing bass for a very long time. Fretted and fretless. In all sort of conditions, day/ night, dark stages, etc. And, the point of this stick was to set it up in DBR. Which it now is.
So the "treble" side is now, in fact, a bass. Same tuning as I have been dealing with for a very long time. And the lack of visual reference is really stumping me.

what about a contrasting metallic marker on the frets to emulate the coloring of metal frets on wood? sure, the "permanent" marker will wear off, but its cheap, and should last a while. It wont change the geometry of the instrument either.

That may be worth a try. The violin tape WAS helpful. That said it really just did not stick and after a minute or two it was already moving around..

Has anyone tried mounting a little battery operated light on one end of their instrument pointing along the fretboard? That would highlight the rails and would move with you! Might be a cool effect too, especially with a coloured filter on the light! Just a thought, maybe a dumb one... I've seen videos where people have mounted a camera on the headstock so.. similar idea..

Hi Sean;
I have a maroon Railboard that, like your plum one, has the markers the same color. What I did was simple, and cost effective. I used metallic markers to fill in the bowl markers with a Sharpie silver metallic marker. See this Amazon link for the colors:
http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Metallic- ... e+metallic
I also tried the Krylon silver leafing marker pen, and both are about the same in results, he Krylon was a few bucks more expensive. The results are good, you can use rubbing alcohol to clean up any mistakes, and I believe you can totally remove it altogether if you wished with alcohol.
I am going to use the markers to add lines to the markers as well, using some frog tape to help it come out neat, but will practice on a scrap piece of aluminum first. You can also draw dots, or any other visual wherever you like.
The other product I am going to try is some glow in the dark paint, the kind used on gunsights.
The one I purchased, also from Amazon is linked below:
http://www.amazon.com/ORIGINAL-Super-Ph ... detailpage
It dries like a plastic, and also can be removed by peeling off the metal. Use clear nail polish to get it to be more permanent, yet still able to be removed via nail polish remover.
Your other option is to send your instrument back to stick enterprises and have the Maestro himself put the drill bit to it to remove the anodizing and let the natural aluminum to shine through. Yep, that's how it is done. I live close to SE, and left the maroon on the markers after talking to Emmett about it, figuring I could have the luxury of playing with different options first. I know that sending the instrument would mean down time from playing, as well as expense, so try the markers first, and let me know how it works for yourself.
Play hard, practice often.

Just thought about this with regard to the inlay stickers.....the RB surface is kind of grooved, peaks and valleys so to speak, due to the machine process. The inlay stickers may not work on this surface....

Keep us posted Sinker...

Cheers,
Sticky Fingers