Placement of Flush Frets - Banjo Sightings Database

[Rob MacKillop]

I guess this is aimed mainly at Greg and George, but I'd be delighted if others joined in.

 

The wonderful Banjo Sightings Database http://www.banjodatabase.org/ has - almost - all the info I could wish for, but I feel we could do with an academic appreciation of the placement of flush frets, as I get the feeling there may be a few surprises there.

 

One of the instruments I have played and recorded in the past is the mid-17th century 'diatonic' cittern, which was characterised by having partial fretting. Some of the frets were 'missing', some only covered two or three strings, some extended over the width of the fretboard. Clearly there were favoured keys, like the 'natural' keys of the banjo, and folks' appreciation of micro intervals was developed enough to feel the need to remove those notes which would have offended their ears.

 

Here is an acdemic essay by a leading fretted-instrument academic, which should outline the importance fret placement is, and by extension how it should or might be of interest to banjo players and, especially, makers:

 

citternfretpatterns[1].pdf

 

We are well aware of the split fret found on some banjos when raised frets were introduced - which gives some indication of the subtleties involved in fret placement. I have a hunch that an analysis of flush-fret positions would yield interesting results. I'm sure there was more sublety involved than the 'Rule of the 18'.

 

BTW, Greg, I am interested in the Stichter banjo, for which you have supplied the following info:

 

The banjo was built circa November 26th 1848. The head was installed August 13th, 1852.

 

Very accurate dates! Please expound :-)

 

And, should you be interested, here is an mp3 file of a piece called The Isle of Rea from my CD, 'The Flowers Of The Forest', played on a reconstruction of a diatonic cittern from circa 1650. The manuscript is from my home town of Dundee. rea.mp3

[Jim Dalton]

Yes Tim
Tiff for the 1st set, PDF for the 2nd 

I'm on the commuter rail's wifi on my iPod and all the images are fine-Greg's and both sets of mine.

Tim Twiss said:

Looks like it was a TIF file?

[Tim Twiss]

Might be tif is a problem for non Mac users.

[Jim Dalton]

Trying again with jpegs this time

Buckley fingerboard:

The Dobson Fingerboard:

The Dobson Cover:

Please tell me if this works.

[Tim Twiss]

Yes, it works.

[Rob MacKillop]

Now we are all happy. Looks like Buckley has a partial 10th. Now why would that be?

[Jim Dalton]

Regarding Buckley's 10th fret:

He adapted his diagram from the earlier Rice book:

Rice's other images -- including the cover -- seem to show a tapering of the 7th through 10th frets, similar to the kind of thing later shown in Dobson:

If I recall, neither Rice nor Buckley mention it.