Dear All: One of my lutes had a flat fingerboard with edging that came to a rather sharp point, and I had trouble getting frets to lie flat, especially those made with larger-diameter gut. They did indeed exhibit some "daylight" at the edges. I had a luthier bevel the edges slightly, and now the frets all lie flat. I don't think nylon works nearly as well as gut for frets, for a veriety of reasons: 1) It stretches less once in place, and so stays tight longer; 2) It is a little "tacky" and stays in place better than the relatively slippery nylon; 3) It bends more readily than nylon, allowing it to lie flat more easily. Depending on the action of your lute, it also may help to graduate the diameters slightly, starting perhaps with 1 mm gut at the first fret and working down to 0.80 or 0.75 mm at the seventh fret. But if the action is a little high, you can use the same diameter throughout. Cheers and good luck, Jim
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/04/28 Mon AM 11:51:02 CDT To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] Tying on frets Hello Lutenists, I need some help. Not with the fret knot itself or the like, but please bear with me: I stripped the fixed metal fret fingerboard from my lute & replaced it with a fretless fingerboard. I am not a luthier, just very careful. I did not bevel or fillet the edges of the fingerboard, at least not yet. I notice that the stress resulting from the nylon fret trying to make the sharp bend is lifting it up near the edge. That is, near the edge of the fingerboard there is a small gap or "daylight" under the fret. It is actually not all that small, big enough so that I can see that it will be a problem. I know this is not a lute building list but you can help me get playing again by looking at your lutes (assuming you are using tie on frets) and telling me if the edges are beveled or filleted, and if so, how much. And here is another question: if you lay a straight edge on your fingerboard, is it straight or crowned? I was careful to get mine really flat but now I wonder. Another related question I have is, nylon or gut for frets? I only have nylon right now. Is this stress effect peculiar to nylon? I would not think so since I notice that wrapped strings lift near the edge as well. Thank You All Very Much, -plh To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
