I think I may have asked this before but I've done more homework this time.
I'm trying to work out how to fret a home-made cittern and I'm having help from a local maker. He's going to re-fret my instrument - my fret placements just didn't work. Embarrassingly, I can't remember what string length I was working to when I made the instrument, but I think it was 50cms. When I made the instrument I just used the guitarists 1/18 rule (or a more precise fraction) to set the fret positions and whether I'd miscalculated or simply sawn the frets in the wrong place (or both) I don't know. But I've got an opportunity to have it put right. Assuming a string length of around 50cms (or a bit different; it has a floating bridge), any ideas on how to work out where to put the frets? I've got very precise instructions form Carpentier's Methode of 1771. But his written instructions and an accompanying diagram differ although it's just one detail, and an important detail. Carpentier is giving instructions for placing frets for an eighteen and a half 'pouce' diapason (= eighteen and a half inch string length). A'pouce' is 25.4mm.There are 12 'lignes' to a pouce. So Carpentier is giving a fretting pattern for an instrument with a string length of 46.99cm. The written instructions for fretting the 'e' chanterelle up to the note b (but Carpentier gives instructions for notes beyond the twelfth fret) translating from lignes to mm are: e-f 29.63mm f-f# 22.2mm f#-g 23.283mm g-g# 21.166mm g#-a 21.6958mm a-a# 21.166mm a#-b 19.579mm The diagram in Carpentier's Methode doesn't mention notes just frets (sillets) - fret 1, fret 2 etc and the numbers (given in 'lignes') match up with the written ones except that he misses out the g-g#. So the fret positions derived from the diagram are: nut - fret 1 29.63mm fret 1-fret 2 22.2mm fret 2-fret3 23.283mm fret 3-fret 4 21.6958mm fret 4-fret 5 21.166mm fret 5-fret 6 19.579mm fret 6- fret 7 19.049mm I wonder if these figures look at all plausible for an instrument with a string length of 46.99cms? And, if they do, which is right! The diagram misses out the g-g# but for the fifth fret (the interval of a fourth) the numbers add up the same for both diagram and written instructions: 117.9478mm. But for the seventh fret (the interval of a fifth) the numbers add up differently. The written instructions would have the seventh fret 158.7198mm from the nut. The diagram would place the seventh fret at 156.603mm from the nut. So a relatively simple question to anyone who knows about fretting is (to repeat): on a cittern with a string length of 46.99cms, which is the more plausible to have the seventh fret at 15.87198cms or 15.6603cms? Many thanks for any guidance or advice. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
