Rock Maple, used primarily for the bridges of bowed instruments, would work nicely. It's very very hard, and very light in color.
Chris -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Dan Winheld Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 1:24 PM Cc: lute Subject: [LUTE] Re: Best body fret material? 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 > >
