----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Pleijsier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 10:14 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Frets
> Early metal frets were so called bar-frets, this type used by everyone. > Panormo stuck to bar frets for quite some time, C.F. Martin even used them > into the 1930's. > In France the T-fret appeared around 1820. I know exactly what you mean but one would assume that if the heights of bar frets were graduated wouldn't it be logical to expect the same approach to T-frets? In particularly with such fine maker as Lacote, for example, who seemed to follow and apply every possible route of his time's spirit to innovations to his guitars. Did also Sor play his guitars ...? >From the handful of surviving Spanish guitars that I'm aware of, those that have metal bar frets on their fingerboards, date back to c.1760s - 70s. There is also evidence that those metal frets had come as a replacement for inlayed wooden frets. Were those somehow shaped progressively? We'd never know. > BTW, I believe that some ideas expressed by Sor in the chapter "The > Instrument" are based on his early experiences with guitars and are not > quite up to date (1830). Some comments about the "direction of the neck" > seem to refer to saddleless instruments. Well, he obviously knew very well what he was talking about but it's the vagueness of the language that dims the meaning for us. Alexander To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
