I assume you're talking about fluorocarbon. If so, while it's pretty pliable and easy to knot, it's also relatively hard. Its knots can gouge into the wood of a neck with enough slippage over great lengths of time.
Best, Eugene -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of George Arndt Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 5:06 PM To: John Lenti; howard posner; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; George Arndt Subject: [LUTE] Re: Loose frets Hello John and everyone. I use masking tape on the back of my lute neck to hold loose gut frets. It works better than notching the edge of the fingerboard, putting glue on gut fret material, or inserting tiny wedges. Then I switched to salt-water fishing line for strings and found it works just as well for frets. I have double loops frets on my barque lute and single loop frets on my renaissance lutes and arch lute. So far I have only experienced first-frets slipping with fishing line frets. The advantage is fishing line stretches when I hold both ends of the knotted line with pliers to pull both ways with force. I ruined more than a few pieces of wet gut fret material trying to pull a knot. I tie frets one position low and slide them up the neck for added tension. If the knot breaks it costs less then a penny to cut and tie a new fret. I also discovered masking tape works well to deal with loose and sticking pegs. I use a single wrap on pegs and trim the edges of the tape so it does not show outside of the peg box bore hole. I use 3-M blue painter's trim tape with very low tac. It does not leave a residue on the sticky side, it compresses just enough to snug the peg, and the exterior tape surface gives the right friction to turn a tight peg. If you suffer from slipping pegs, hold the peg box close to a bright light and looks for light leaking between a peg and the edge of the bore, when you see this try maksing tape. Then let us all know how it works for you. Thanks, George __________________________________________________________________ From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of John Lenti <johnle...@hotmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 2:13 AM To: howard posner; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] Re: Loose frets I’m a little reluctant to share something that might seem almost immoral, but what the hell, I make my living playing the lute and I tie a lot of frets, so I’ll chip in here: when I go, as I do almost weekly, from my home in Seattle, where the weather is always perfect for gut-strung-and-fretted instruments, to a place like the mountains of Montana or the desert of Tucson and the humidity is 1% and my frets (usually it’s 1, 5, and 6 on my main touring instrument) start slipping and sliding around, and I don’t feel like re-fretting, I tape them down with masking tape. Sent from [1]Mail for Windows 10 __________________________________________________________________ From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of howard posner <howardpos...@ca.rr.com> Sent: Friday, March 9, 2018 9:01:32 AM To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] Re: Loose frets > On Mar 9, 2018, at 8:12 AM, John Mardinly <john.mardi...@asu.edu> wrote: > > My frets never come loose and they have not worn out yet. They are > metal. I want to know how you tied them on in the first place. You must have really strong fingers. To get on or off this list see list information at [2]https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http:%2F%2Fwww.c s.dartmouth.edu%2F~wbc%2Flute-admin%2Findex.html&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cb2e0 482fe1c54b991ec608d585df2c7f%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0 %7C636562115923455431&sdata=IZZ6Zu8XFrfsZCfWdhf7SHgTi7418M8H6c6WDYZPwhA %3D&reserved=0 -- References 1. [1]https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 2. [2]https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://www.cs.da rtmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html&data=02|01||b2e0482fe1c54b991ec6 08d585df2c7f|84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa|1|0|636562115923455431&sd ata=IZZ6Zu8XFrfsZCfWdhf7SHgTi7418M8H6c6WDYZPwhA=&reserved=0 -- References 1. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 2. https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html&data=02|01||b2e0482fe1c54b991ec608d585df2c7f|84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa|1|0|636562115923455431&sdata=IZZ6Zu8XFrfsZCfWdhf7SHgTi7418M8H6c6WDYZPwhA=&reserved=0
