Guitarist might find three videos recently posted to classical guitarist and lutist Brandon Acker's YouTube channel interesting.
Lutes and early guitars (before around 1800) did not have metal frets. Instead they used pieces of string tied around the neck.
They did this because the strings were very expensive, with a set of strings for a lute often costing more than the rest of the lute, and strings were not as robust as more modern strings. With metal frets strings would wear out faster. You could easily end up spending more per year on strings than you had initially spent on your instrument. By making the frets of the same material as the strings they didn't need to change strings as often.
Acker and luthier M.E. Brune took a classical guitar Brune was building but had not yet put frets on and played around with putting on tied gut frets and gut strings. In the first video [1] they just go over the history of tied on frets, and do some comparisons with metal frets.
With tied on frets it is relatively easy to try tunings other than 12-TET. You can change the position of a fret, or you can add extra frets. You can also add partial frets. Renaissance lutists would often glue on small pieces of string behind or in front of a fret. The fret would give them some particular note from a sharp/flat pair, and the little mini fret, called a tastino, would give them the other note from that pair.
The second video [2] explores the tuning possibilities of tied on frets and tastinos. Acker plays a bunch of things in 12-TET and in other tunings more suitable for the particular piece, and also gives some examples of how bad other tunings can sound when you are playing a piece in a key that doesn't fit the key your instrument was tuned for.
The third video [3] is just playing around after the tied on fret experiment is over but the guitar has not yet had its metal frets installed. Acker tries to play it without frets. That turns out the be quite a mixed bag.
Lutes and early guitars (before around 1800) did not have metal frets. Instead they used pieces of string tied around the neck.
They did this because the strings were very expensive, with a set of strings for a lute often costing more than the rest of the lute, and strings were not as robust as more modern strings. With metal frets strings would wear out faster. You could easily end up spending more per year on strings than you had initially spent on your instrument. By making the frets of the same material as the strings they didn't need to change strings as often.
Acker and luthier M.E. Brune took a classical guitar Brune was building but had not yet put frets on and played around with putting on tied gut frets and gut strings. In the first video [1] they just go over the history of tied on frets, and do some comparisons with metal frets.
With tied on frets it is relatively easy to try tunings other than 12-TET. You can change the position of a fret, or you can add extra frets. You can also add partial frets. Renaissance lutists would often glue on small pieces of string behind or in front of a fret. The fret would give them some particular note from a sharp/flat pair, and the little mini fret, called a tastino, would give them the other note from that pair.
The second video [2] explores the tuning possibilities of tied on frets and tastinos. Acker plays a bunch of things in 12-TET and in other tunings more suitable for the particular piece, and also gives some examples of how bad other tunings can sound when you are playing a piece in a key that doesn't fit the key your instrument was tuned for.
The third video [3] is just playing around after the tied on fret experiment is over but the guitar has not yet had its metal frets installed. Acker tries to play it without frets. That turns out the be quite a mixed bag.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--y_vf-Kg-w
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiKCORN-6m8
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIQaRqr5T5U