Fretted fiddles

Subject: Fretted fiddles
From: Banjovey
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 09:35 PM

Does any-one have any knowledge or experience of fretted fiddles? I'm fairly sure that you couldn't set one up like a mandolin so presumably you'd need to choose what keys you wanted to play in before setting one up.

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 09:56 PM

"I'm fairly sure that you couldn't set one up like a mandolin"

Depends what you mean by "setting up". The normal tuning for a fiddle, (fretted or unfretted) and a mandolin is identical.

Here is a recent thread with the same title as this Fretted Fiddles which you might find worth looking at.

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 06:13 AM

why fret a fiddle?

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 07:46 AM

Captain, I think the more interesting question would be why aren't fiddles fretted? Off the top of my head I can't think of any western stringed instruments that aren't fretted or mechanically fix the length of the string (harp, hurdy-gurdy etc) except the classical fiddle family (violin, viola, cello, double bass).

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: nickp
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 07:48 AM

Hi Banjovey

Andrew from Exeter (his surname escapes me) has done this with some success. He may be coming to Gainsborough (although I don't know fro certain) if so I'm sure he will have it with him.

Nick

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:06 PM

fretted instruments are generally tuned in equal temperament.
the fiddle is unusual in so far as it requires the player to adjust the tuning very quickly as the player plays.
if a fiddle player wishes to play with [for example]with a harpsichord in mean temperament]he/she can,alternatively a fiddle player can also play with a concertinist in equal temperament.once you start fretting the instrument,you are limiting its capabilities.
[IMO]anyone who frets a fiddle does not understand the instrument. if they cant play in tune without frets,they just need to work on their intonation,[imo]frets are not going to solve that problem.DickMiles

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: BTMP
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:40 PM

Some of the older instruments, like the viola de gamba (sp?) had gut frets. A piece of gut was strapped across the fingerboard and tied in place.   -btmp

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 01:10 PM

yes but those frets were movable, so that you could adjust the fret.

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: GUEST,trimrig
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 01:28 PM

There is a detachable fiddle fretboard from Canada web site
www.frettedfiddle.com cost adout £15.00
hope this help's
                   trimrig

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 01:56 PM

There's a link to that on the other thread I linked to above.

As with the fretless banjo.introducing frets does impose a certain limitation, balanced with certain advantages. It shouldn't be treated as a matter of principle, in the way some people treat the question of making use of a capo on a guitar, or an electronic tuner. Let a hundred flowers bloom...

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 04:42 AM

"Let a hundred flowers bloom..."

What a wonderful turn of phrase, and exactly right IMHO.

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 05:57 AM

Chairman Mao, if I recall correctly. He proclaimed a liberalisation of party control, tens of thousands of people took him at his word, spoke what they thought, and were executed or sent to concentration camps. This was shortly before the disastrous Great Leap Forward, which was just before the equally disastrous Cultural Revolution.

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: GUEST,Dazbo
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 06:24 AM

Captain, whilst you are correct in the advantage of being fretless means the player, if skilled enough, can play in any temperament they choose. However, in my experience in the UK most folk musicians play instruments that only play in equal temperament and only a tiny minority have the desire to change their instruments to another. So, for most occassions a fretted fiddle would do fine.

Also a drawback of being fretless is it would be much harder to accurately finger a chord which is why guitars, banjos etc have frets.

Being fretless also gives the advantage of being able to do the "classical" vibrato (again something that is rarely seen in UK folk music.

I'm not advocating that fiddles should have frets but just curious about why they don't

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: GUEST,Sapper heading for Lanark
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 08:09 AM

To be pedantic as well as totally off thread, Mao's slogan was "Let one Thousand Flowers Bloom and one hundred schools of thought contend."
The "Thousand Flowers" campaign was a "come on" to those in the Party who disagreed with Mao to come out into the open. Once they did he launched the Cultural Revolution that led to the deaths of many of them.
Perhaps a (yet another) BS thread to discuss the incongruity of Nazi regalia being looked upon as anti-social, whilst that of the greater murderers, the USSR and PRC, is looked upon as Revolutionary Chic, may be called for!

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 05:40 PM

being fretless,also allows the player to do glissandos.
Being fretlss allows the player to use vibrato,vibrato is used in other music apart from classical,vibrato is used in IRISH AND SCOTTISH MUSIC,generally a smaller voibrato than is used in classical.
Vibrato is not rare in uk folk music,I certainly use it on the concertina for airs,and know others that do also.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: Fretted fiddles
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 10:12 AM

It's a good phrase, and expresses a good attitude for all that - and I strongly suspect that Chairman Mao pinched it from someone else anyway.