Why guitarists USED TO play more in tune! (Microtonal Frets)

Guitarist might find three videos recently posted to classical guitarist and lutist Brandon Acker's YouTube channel interesting. Lutes and early guitars (before around 1800) did not have metal frets. Instead they used pieces of string tied around the neck. They did this because the strings were very expensive, with a set of strings for a lute often costing more than the rest of the lute, and strings were not as robust as more modern strings. With metal frets strings would wear out faster. You could easily end up spending more per year on strings than you had initially spent on your instrument. By making the frets of the same material as the strings they didn't need to change strings as often. Acker and luthier M.E. Brune took a classical guitar Brune was building but had not yet put frets on and played around with putting on tied gut frets and gut strings. In the first video [1] they just go over the history of tied on frets, and do some comparisons with metal frets. With tied on frets it is relatively easy to try tunings other than 12-TET. You can change the position of a fret, or you can add extra frets. You can also add partial frets. Renaissance lutists would often glue on small pieces of string behind or in front of a fret. The fret would give them some particular note from a sharp/flat pair, and the little mini fret, called a tastino, would give them the other note from that pair. The second video [2] explores the tuning possibilities of tied on frets and tastinos. Acke

If anyone wants to hear the practical effects of a 1/4 comma meantone temperament compared to an equal temperament, Brandon Acker gives a wonderful overview on the classical guitar: [VIDEO]

I'd just say I'm playing microtonal music[1][2] and not worry about it. Jokes aside, great read. Always so satisfying when the predictions match experiment. [1]: [LINK] (for the latest craze in microtonal music) [2]: [VIDEO] (for a more informative and historical video)

Lutes and other fretted instruments in western music back in the renaissance used tied on frets. Each fret was a piece of string tied in a loop around the neck. This meant it was relatively easy to change the position of frets if you wanted to try different temperaments. They could also take small pieces of string and glue them on, so at some places on some strings have an extra option, so that say fretting at the tied on fret would give say Db but fretting on the little glued on fret next to that would give C#. That sounds like what that viola da gamba player might have had. Here are a couple of videos where Brandon Acker (guitarist/lutist/etc) and Marshall Brune (luthier) played around with doing this on a modern Spanish style classical guitar. In the first video [1] they take a guitar Brune was building but had not yet had frets put on and tied gut frets on it. In the second [2] Acker explores moving the frets to better tune the guitar for specific pieces, and then explores adding those extra small frets to some notes. [1] [LINK] [VIDEO]

An interesting option for fretted instruments is to build it with 12 regular frets per octave, and then add temporary extra frets if you want to make specific notes more in tune for the key you are in. This was common for lute players in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Lute frets were usually made of the same material as strings and were tied on around the neck, so adding an extra full width fret was not hard. Of course being tied on lute frets were also movable, so they could also reposition the regular 12 frets instead of adding extras. Instead of tying on an extra full width frets another common option was partial frets. They would glue a piece of string or wood under a specific string, to just give an option to play one note with either the regular fret or the more in tone little fret (called a "tastino" (plural is "tastini")). In this video [1] Brandon Acker uses a guitar that his luthier friend was building that had not yet had the frets installed to demonstrate with lute style tied on frets some different 12 tone tunings, then demonstrates using tastini to improve specific notes, such as little fret on the G string a little before the first regular fret so that G♯ and A♭ can be different notes. The tastini he uses in the video are simply pieces of string held on with a piece of tape, so quick and easy to add and remove. [1] [VIDEO]