Dear Rebecca, I would like to sum it up as follows: a lute with metal frets would be no longer a lute, instead it would be another instrument. Of course music can be played on it, but every insider would know that the instrument is different from what it had to be. BTW, somebody made a 'lute' with metal frets and mechanical pegs, you can find it somewhere on the web: I find it_very_ugly...
And then there are those german 'Wandervogel-lauten' from the 'Wandervogel' movement at the turn of the century, that where in more than one aspect precedents of modern folk and ethnic musicians... (It would be interesting to study the parallelism between then (romantics (in every language!) interested in the Middle Age, William Morris and the Art&Crafts, etc), and nowadays. The same happens with a hard varnish: using it would be also a mistake, but not as big as the one with the metal frets, of course. I have a question for you: why do you doubt? :-) saludos from Barcelona, Manolo Laguillo -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
