Fingerboard - Frets

Frets

A fingerboard may be fretted, having raised strips of hard material perpendicular to the strings against which the strings are stopped. Frets easily and consistently allow a musician to stop the string in the same place, and they allow for less damping of the vibrations than fingers alone. Frets may be fixed, as on a guitar or mandolin, or movable, as on a lute. Fingerboards may also be unfretted, as they usually are on bowed instruments, where damping is generally not a problem due to the prolonged stimulation of the strings. Unfretted fingerboards allow a musician more control over subtle changes in pitch than fretted boards, but are generally considered harder to master where intonation is concerned. Fingerboards may also be, though uncommon, a hybrid of these two. Such a construction is seen on the sitar, where arched frets attach at the edges of the fingerboard; unfretted strings run below the frets, while fretted ones run above. The frets are sufficiently high that pressing strings against the fingerboard is unnecessary for the frets to stop their vibrations so that the lower strings' sympathetic vibrations are uninterrupted.

Frets may be marked by inlays to make navigation across the fingerboard easier. On 6-string guitars and bass guitars, the markers are typically single smallish dots marking the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th frets, and their octaves higher up the neck, with a double dot or some other variation marking the 12th fret and 24th frets. Variations on the standard dot shape can be used to make a guitar more distinctive. Position markers are sometimes made luminescent (through using paint or replacement with light emitting diodes) to make them more visible on stage. Position markers are also sometimes repeated on the edge of the fretboard for easy viewing.

Over time, frets tend to wear out, resulting in buzzing and "deadness" to the sound of the instrument. This requires a re-fretting job to take place. Not having frets carefully and properly aligned with the fingerboard may result in a severe intonation issue as well as constant detuning. The ultimate way of determining the source of the buzz and detuning problem is to measure the degree to which the frets are level. If you put a straightedge on the neck positioning it so that it is in the "lie" of one of the strings, it would make contact with the top of every fret.

Variation: A variation of the straight fret is the Curved or bent frets that were patented by Andres Thidell of Sweden. The "bending" of the frets allows the plucked strings open pitch to be exactly in tune with that of a fretted note on an entirely different place of the keyboard. In short this system allows the guitar or any other instrument it is used on to play in tune.

This invention has let to several "temperaments" that would otherwise be impossible on a fretted instrument including the Thidell formula 1 as well as the Die Wohltemperirte Gitarr based on what was believed to be J.S. Bach's temperament.