Fret
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A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full wi
The neck of a guitar showing the nut (in the background, coloured white) and first four frets
Frets tied on to the neck of a saz; note microtonal frets between semitones.
China. Pipa with frets, Middle Tang Dynasty era (618–907 A.D.), from the Yulin Caves, cave 15
France, Utrecht Psalter, c. 850. During the Carolingian Renaissance an Anglo Saxon artist drew an image of a cythara with frets.
Lute
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A lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
Fret
…Some think that fanned frets might be more ergonomic. Fanned frets first appeared on the 16th-century Orpharion, a variant of the cittern, tuned like a lute. John Starrett revived the idea in the late seventies on his innovative instrument, the Starrboard. Rickenbacker employed a slanted fret, but it was…
Renaissance lute in 2013
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting depicting players with long-necked lutes, 18th Dynasty (c. 1350 BC).
Hellenistic banquet scene from 1st century A.D., Hadda, Gandhara. Lute player with short-necked lute, far right.
Lute in Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century-320)