In my last post I mentioned dots on the neck of a guitar and that got me to thinking, "I wonder when they actually began putting dots on the neck of a guitar or did they actually always have them?"

Here's the earliest picture, as this guy describes it, of the earliest known 6 string guitar (I'm paraphrasing).

http://www.theguitarmuseum.com/gm/exhibits.html (select the Fabricatore guitar).

Now I'm wondering when they first started using frets?

"The desire for fame is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise."
Cornelius Tacitus