fret inlays

Because dots are easier to do in mass production - all you need is a drill bit to cut the recess. Since trapezoids have corners, they require hand finishing of the recess - and machine work is cheaper than manual labor (even in China and Indonesia)

Thanks for your reply. Ya, I read that too. From a user/player perspective, any differences?

None at all if they're used as fret markers. But if they're fancier, yeah - I knew a guy who played a custom build by Dana Bougeois with an elaborate ivy leaf fretboard inlay. Once when we jammed we switched guitars, and he had a lot of trouble following me - because he couldn't tell where my hands were going.

It didn't make any difference to me which guitar he used when I followed him, because I play all day for a living - so I follow with my ears more than my eyes. But if you need the visual reinforcement, you want to play with people who have traditional markers, whatever the shape.

Thanks for your reply. Ya, I read that too. From a user/player perspective, any differences?

I bend strings a lot. I love trapezoids, but not the sound they make if you bend hard and scrape the string across it.

Wood sort of muffles that infrequently-made and unusual sound. But the sound, and it may be also the feel (if we hear the music instead) of the pearl inlay getting scratched seems a bit gross to me, like a screech or something, or that sound of scraping fingers on a chalkboard, whatever exactly that is? :lol: I like the bright tone of trapezoids on acoustics, but that's an elusive and possibly subjective sound as well - and better, yet harder to explain if with ebony fretboard. :shock: