Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols by David Dolata

Author:David Dolata
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Frets

While much of the next couple of chapters involve where to place the frets, here we will pause a moment to consider the frets themselves. Once again, the Burwell Lute Tutor said it best: “The frets must be good and new, and tied very fast.”10 The importance of maintaining your frets in good working order cannot be overemphasized.

Because harder stronger material wears away softer weaker material, gut rather than nylon frets make much more sense for movable frets because every type of string material other than gut itself is harder and stronger than gut. Since it is easier to change frets than strings, especially on the lute, it is always better for the fret material to be softer than the strings. On gut-strung instruments, gut frets are still better than nylon because the harder nylon frets wear away the gut strings forcing them to be changed more frequently than the frets. Frets also wear at different rates at each intersection of fret and string depending on the string material and how often that location is used. As you have probably noticed, the frets get dented or ragged at those intersections, and under copper overspun strings, those intersections turn slightly green as the copper that has worn off the string onto the fret is oxidized.

Van Edwards provides several methods for tying frets, as do purveyors of strings and fret gut; there are also, of course, many internet sources and You-Tube videos that demonstrate the same.11 You will have to change frets more frequently if you use meantone temperaments because moving the frets around and slanting them causes them to expand and lose their elasticity and skate around sooner than does equal temperament—a small price to pay for playing better in tune. In such cases, until the fret can be replaced, little folded bits of paper or matchsticks inserted between the fret and the neck can retighten the fret, and some brave souls even heat the portion of the gut on the back of the neck with a flame from a match or lighter to cause the fret to contract. Worn frets, however, are among the most pernicious causes of tuning problems, even in equal temperament. As the frets wear down, they lose their profile and flatten causing two problems that inevitably result in tuning infelicities. First, as the fret flattens, the string comes into contact with a wider portion of the fret, reducing the precision of the string’s contact point on the fret. In other words, one end of the string is securely fastened at the bridge, while the other at the fret is less so. This causes the tone to suffer, reduces pitch identity, or renders the resultant vibrating portion of the string false.12 Worn frets also cause us to apply greater left-hand finger pressure to compensate for the insecure contact point with the fret, which can easily lead to an unintended rise in pitch and a loss of left-hand dexterity and fluidity. The frets on classical and metal string

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