I would be grateful for any information on two aspects of the Spanish six (double) course guitar introduced there in the second half of the eighteenth century and which continued to be played into the nineteenth (peak in the 1780/90s): Fretting: - as far as I'm aware all extant instruments of this type have fixed metal frets on the neck but, of course, some could be replacements for earlier tied frets especially for the earliest of these instruments. Is there any evidence for the use of tied frets on these guitars?; Stringing:- overwound strings were employed on early six single string guitars and there's some evidence to support the use of overwound on the lowest courses of the six course Spanish instrument. Is there any evidence for the use of just plain (perhaps loaded) gut strings on the fourth and fifth courses of these instruments? Martyn Hodgson
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