Fret
in music, a small piece of wood or ivory placed upon the finger board of certain stringed instruments, to regulate the pitch of the notes produced. pro By pressing the string down to the finger board behind a fret, only SO much of the so much of the string can be set in vibration as lies between the fret and the bridge. All the . viols contained in a chest had frets, and some of the early forms of the violin were even furnished with them. But not only do they prevent the rapid fingering only of difficult passages, but they also entirely deprive the violin of one of its most charming qualities, that of slurring or portamento, an attempt to produce which will, on a fretted instrument , result in a well-defined chromatic scale .
Another reason for the abandonment of fretted violins was that, in extreme keys, the intervals could not be tempered . In architecture, a fret is an ornament formed by small bands or fillets , intersecting each other at right angles, used in classical architecture. It is susceptible of many modifications, and is still often employed. In heraldry, a fret is a bearing composed of bars crossed and interlaced.