For me, the simplest knot is just to do one loop in one end of the gut, pulling it into a rather small loop, and bring the other end of the gut over the fingerboard and under the strings - from treble to bass - and through the loop. Keeping the gut at least one fret above where you eventually want it, pull that end tight with pliers, trying to get the loop fairly close to the edge of the fingerboard. Usually, it will hold tight but you may need to keep a finger on it to keep it from slipping while you cut off the extra gut and then burn both ends with a soldering gun. Then slide the fret down into position.
With really stiff gut, the loop may not tighten sufficiently simply from pulling the other end, so two pair of pliers may be need, pulling on both ends. Certainly, care is needed with soldering gun. But with a little practice the procedure will seem less daunting. There are no doubt some on line sites that illustrate this procedure, or describe it better than I did. Good luck. On Nov 23, 2010, at 12:01 PM, Suzanne Angevine wrote: > My lute has needed some new frets for a longish time, and I've been putting > it off. Got the fret gut maybe 6 months ago. Well, I decided I must do it. > I looked at all the different knots people suggest, and decided what to try. > But the first attempt went badly enough to justify my fear and putting it off. > > Here are my questions from that attempt. How do you get any sort of knot to > tighten up with such a stiff, unpliable material? Should the place where the > knot is going to be be worked to loosen it first? > > And how do you really get that nice melted lump on the ends? I read that a > soldering iron is safer than matches or a lighter, and that is what we tried. > But in all cases (iron or lighter) the gut seems more likely to burn or char > than melt into a nice lump. Its clear that these knots really only hold well > because the lump won't go through the knot, so the quality of the lump seems > important. Any tips on getting a nice, melted lump instead of a rough, > charred end? > > Thanks in advance. > > Suzanne > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
