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]spiffys84...@yahoo.com>
    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]dwinh...@lmi.net> 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:spiffys84...@yahoo.com
    2. mailto:dwinh...@lmi.net
    3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html




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