Take a piece of Fretgut--I use Pyramid fretgut--or the right thickness gut string. Create one loop or half hitch near the end Shimmy the knot down to the end of the string, and leave just enough space--a little hole, sort of-- for the other end (later) to go through NB: This is a slip knot, which is what you want. You want it to slip.
Burn the stub end with a soldering iron or match to make a mushroom end. Be carefull. Placing the half-knot on the back of the fingerboard, two thirds of the way "up" (towards the bass side) and run the long end around--(under the strings, DOH!) and through the little space in the knot you left. The inserted string will slide easily through the hole you made, and you want to make that string do a 180 turn eventually. Pressing the knot with the thumb, pull hard upwards. Hold don the fret with the fingers of the same hand on the fingerboard side. The knot will slide and the fret will become tight. The harder you pull, the tighter it gets. Make sure the string is about one fret from where it will end up. Cut the long end, leaving 4mm stub, then burn or heat the end untill it is flush with the knot. Don't burn the knot. Move the fret up I use a lighter, but for finer control use a pencil type soldering iron, available on eBay for $5 There are many other knots you can use, but this one gets the first fret super tight. Also, you don't need to cut the fret till you are done. The harder you pull, the less the knot slides--it is adjustable. dt At 09:01 AM 11/23/2010, you 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
