Who Invented Frets?

The history of the fret is as mysterious as that of stringed instruments. Images of fretted instruments have been found on pottery from Acadian culture dating from 1500 B.C., and in artwork from ancient Egypt and the Roman era. But it’s still unknown exactly who – or which culture – first placed frets on stringed instruments.

Though guitarists know what a fret is, they may not be familiar with its function. In essence, the fret provides a raised ridge that effectively alters the string length by a predetermined amount. This allows even the least technically proficient players to accurately raise or lower the pitch. (By comparison, players of fretless string instruments must practice a great deal to play their instruments with perfect intonation.) The frets are arranged on a guitar’s fretboard according to a mathematical formula related to the scale of the neck, with each fret representing a semitone – or single-step – change in pitch.

Early frets were probably made from the same animal gut used for strings, with each fret looped and knotted onto the neck at chosen intervals. Metal frets were developed as the guitar evolved from an instrument akin to a medieval lute to the more recognizable “Spanish” form it now resembles. Modern “nickel-silver” fret wire came about in response to the advent of steel strings, which easily wore down the old soft-metal frets.

Viewed in cross section, fret wire is mushroom-shaped and consists of a tang (the thin ridge that fits into a slot on the fretboard) and a crown (the bulbous strip visible on the fretboard surface). Crowns are made in a variety of sizes and profiles, including vintage (thin and tall), modern (wide and short) and jumbo (broad and tall). The fret style affects an instrument’s feel and performance, so it’s no coincidence that vintage purists prefer small wire while high-tech shredders generally opt for jumbo frets, which facilitate faster playing. 

Modern variations on the fret can be seen on the Parker Fly, which employs tangles, stainless-steel frets bonded to synthetic fingerboards, and in Yamaha’s new Fretwave system, which uses kinked frets for tempered tuning.

Source:  Guitar World, March 2002 Issue