Thinner upper frets are extremely important on viols, for a simple reason that the note half-a-step above the top fret (b flat on the bass viol) is impossible to get to sound well and be in tune with a high fret nearby. Since early lutes did not have the cheating frets on the lute table, and one had to play off the frets, just like the viol players did, this makes perfect sense. AS well as in case of the neck bending in, as they tend to do, the graduated frets help quite a bit. alexander r.
On Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:22:33 +0000 (GMT) Martyn Hodgson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > One interesting thing about Dowland's recommendations are that the > higher frets are much smaller diameter than any I have ever seen used > by modern players - including me. They should enable a lute to be 'set > finer' (ie with minimal string/fingerboard clearance at higher frets) > as recommended than with thicker frets > > MH > - To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
