Why were frets historically made of gut rather than bone, wood, metal, or ivory?
With gut frets, it is easy to adjust intonation. But if hide glue were used, bone/wood/metal frets could also be adjusted. In fact, such frets would offer more latitude in adjustment of intonation than gut frets, because they could be curved or segmented. I guess that bone/wood/metal frets would also offer more sustain and more resitance to wear. And they might even be cheaper. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
