Fret Gut
Fret Gut is made of beef gut (bovine serosa) for tying frets onto historical instrument necks, such as lutes and viols, and comes in the standard (48", 120cm) length. How many frets you will get out of each length depends on how wide the neck of your instrument is, and whether you are using double or single frets. Frets may be purchased individually or in a pack.
We offer three packs of fret Gut:
- Viol Fret Pack - Contains seven gauges: 1.20mm, 1.15mm, 1.10mm, 1.05mm, 1.00mm, .95mm, and .90mm
- Renaissance Lute Fret Pack - Contains eight gauges: 1.00mm, .95mm, .90mm, .85mm, .80mm, .75mm, .70mm, and .65mm
- Baroque Lute Fret Pack - Contains contains ten gauges: 1.20mm, 1.15mm, 1.10mm, 1.05mm, 1.00mm, .95mm, .90mm, .85mm, .80mm, and .75mm
The usual custom for gauging frets is to have the thickest fret be the first fret — the one nearest the nut — and then have each subsequent fret decrease by 0.05mm. Using this system, the first fret on a lute would be 1.00mm, the second fret 0.95mm, the third fret 0.90mm, and so on. On most lutes the thinnest size of fret that is practical is 0.65mm, so depending on the number of tied frets required by your instrument, you may need to use one, two, or three of the 0.65 frets to complete the fretting.