Thanks all for the great replies. Lilac? That is the most intriguing of
all. Holly and bamboo sound like good candidates also.
Sterling- thanks for reminding me of those amazing frets! I must have
seen them at Cleveland some time ago. A top professional guitar builder
in my neighborhood recommends bone over ivory for strength &
durability- I am considering letting him do my body frets this time around.
Dan
On 10/30/2013 9:23 AM, Eric Hansen wrote:
A few years ago I was visiting luthier Joel Van Lennep, who showed me
his favorite material for fixed (body) frets: lilac. He said he
preferred it because it's very hard, and yet still flexible.
Best to all,
Eric
On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 6:21 AM, Sterling <[1][email protected]>
wrote:
I have body frets on one lute made of an ivory-ebony sandwich and
they sound great up to the 14th fret. Cutting ivory is not easy
though as it tends to shatter. Another lute I have has
holly-ebony-holly frets. I like these flashy frets, but my friend
Bob Hieronimus hates them and prefers that the body frets are almost
invisible.
Sterling
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 29, 2013, at 11:05 PM, Dan Winheld <[2][email protected]> wrote:
> Talk of tastini has gotten me wondering, what is the best material
for body frets? I have been playing a lot of music recently that dances
around in the lute's stratosphere- Melchior Neusidler, Mudarra, Milan's
advanced fantasias, etc. The plain wooden frets I have now- probably
Maple, maybe Boxwood; sound pretty terrible compared to the gut frets.
I am thinking Ebony, some other dense tropical hardwood, bone, or even
some modern synthetic- but only if aesthetically acceptable & sonically
superior. If anyone knows of some magic non-metallic body fret material
I would really like to know.
>
> Part of the problem is the buzzing, unclean sound that results from a
squared off fret- an inevitable result of having to shave them down for
proper clearance after gluing down. Ideally, they should be crowned- or
at least rounded edges for best tone. Tough, fussy job to do even
before installation for the non-luthier DIY amateur.
>
> Thanks all for any enlightenment on this bit of lute pain.
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
Eric Hansen
Librarian & lutenist --
References
1. mailto:[email protected]
2. mailto:[email protected]
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
