The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c13.s1.12

c13.s1.12

The principle followed seemed to be to find the position of the frets 1 and 23, giving the fifth of the open string and the octave of that fifth, by ear only, the shape and heights of the frets being assumed. The height of the first fret was, of course, as great as possible, and the last as low as possible to avoid jars. In this case the fifth is good, but the octave of it, or higher C, is too sharp by a trifle of 20 cents (one cent = the hundredth of an equal semitone, so that an octave has 1,200 cents and a comma 22 cents). The length of string for lower C was 608 mm., and that for higher c, 316·5 mm., which is much more than half the former or 304 mm., and yet the note is too sharp, so great is the distance of this string, 12½ mm., from the last fret.