First Frets

First Frets. Now here is a brilliant little invention -- at least in theory! A decal that peels off a backing and is applied to the violin as one piece beginning at the nut as a finger marker for the first position. First Frets are made of clear, one-piece self-adhering vinyl that lays flat on the fingerboard with no tapes. Four differently-colored and mathematically accurate stripes indicate the correct placement of each of the four fingers in first position. No more tapes that slip, stick, and, peel off!

I have been using these First Frets for about a year for violins sized 1/10 through 4/4 and for viola. Unfortunately, I have discovered some problems with the First Frets that are very disappointing. The biggest problem is buzzing. When you stick a decal under the strings against the nut, this reduces the space between the fingerboard and the strings at a point where the distance between them is already almost miniscule, especially in instruments with strings set low for easy action.

The result: buzzing and overall muffling across all strings of the violin. The sound becomes scratchy and choked. This does not happen on all instruments, and seems to be worse on the smaller sizes. But I’ve seen it with full size instruments as well.

I have found something of a solution for this. Beneath the position marking the first finger, the decal material between the first yellow line and the nut is not necessary to the function of the first fret. It is there because lining the decal up with the nut allows the installer to know precisely where to place the decal to have the lines mark the correct pitches. Well, sort of, anyway. Because some instruments don’t quite fit the norm (depending on bridge position) and for these, the decal may well end up not in the right place.

My solution? Trim the decal so that it starts at the first finger (yellow line) and measure using your ear where the yellow line should be placed on the instrument. However, gone is the advantage of easy installation lining the decal up with the nut. But still, even the modified version is an improvement, in my opinion, over ordinary tapes.

But for all of you out their with violins that have had first frets installed: if your violin sounds funny or buzzes, it might be the decal.

Another slight difficulty is that sliding the First Fret decal under the strings without having it stick to the fingerboard in the wrong place somewhere along the way can be rather a challenge. In addition, the strings need to be loosened to some degree in order to apply the decal. Since a student or parent might loosen the strings so much that the bridge falls down, it is probably best for the teacher or violin shop to apply them.

Another version, called Don’t Fret, is a decal applied to almost the entire fingerboard of the violin into about 7th position, with grey stripes to mark the half-steps. I don’t usually use the Don’t Frets because I believe that they encourage bad positioning when the student may lean over and look down the fingerboard in order to “interpret” all the markings (about 15 or so) on the fingerboard rather than developing the ear. From my experience, as soon as a student is able to play in tune reasonably well, these decals should be removed.

Rating: 2 Stars (major deductions for difficult installation and modification required to eliminate buzzing)


First Frets are a reasonable replacement for tapes, if trimmed to avoid contact with the string near the nut.