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Ned is correct about the Feiten system addressing issues with the nut
needing adjustments to help with intonation. He doesn't go into the
more esoteric things that Mr. Buzz claims. Perhaps to avoid being
sued... I don't know enough about zero frets myself to know it they
completely bypass the issues that the Feiten system claims to address.
I've had the nut on my Ovation acoustic altered by a pro, similar to
the Feiten system, yet somewhat different as well. This locks me into
the tuning I use (New Standard Tuning)
as well as my current string gauges. It really does help intonation
when fretting near the nut, and especially with the extra thick strings
I use at the low end (.059).
Unfortunately Mr. Buzz is blowing smoke out his arse when he says that
we need to tune our modified guitars to something other than equal
temperament. Although his system does indeed address some pretty
important intonational issues, he just takes it a bit too far. As I
said quite specifically in my original post, if you make some intervals
sweeter in some keys, they will be more sour in other keys. You just
cannot make the guitar 'more' in tune than equal temperament. There is
no way of getting around this, it's hard science. Well there are ways,
like having 31 frets per octave, or other such schemes... I'm just
trying to keep it in the realm of what we are willing to use here...
Movable frets don't help the problem, they just shift it around in a
similar way that altering the tuning does. It would be possible to
sweeten some keys with movable frets IF we tuned all our strings to
octaves and fifths. Because most tunings go beyond this, movable frets
will sound good on some strings and not so good on others. Sitars have
movable frets, but they tune their strings to octaves and fifths. At
least the strings that are fretted...
For an interesting approach to this whole 'problem of equal
temperament' , check out the Hermode website. This is a tuning-on-the-
fly sort of approach, one that works only with MIDI, and requires
computational skills only available on modern computers. It would be
similar to having frets that instantly adjust themselves as soon as you
play a chord.
http://www.hermode. com/index_ en.html
Ned spoke of a commonly held mistake when he said "The argument about
equal temperament is as old as the hills, but put to bed as far as I'm
concerned by Bach with his wonderful series of compositions called the
Well Tempered Clavier." (I know it's kinda cheeky for me to be
challenging old uncle Ned on something, especially here on this site.
But the view that Bach was talking about Equal Temperament for his Well
Tempered Clavier is pretty much disproven in today's musicological
circles.) Bach was working with a tuning that was close to Equal
Temperament but differed slightly. This gave a slightly different
quality to each key. Some keys had sweeter intervals, some a little
more sour. Still, all were within the realm of passable, or "Wohl
Tempererte". Unfortunately, we don't really know which of the many
'Well Temperaments' Bach used of the many that were available during
his time.
Bradley Lehman has put forward a theory recently which interprets some
of Bach's so-called 'doodles' on his title page to the WTC. He comes up
with a very realistic tuning system based on these doodles. I've
altered my piano to use this tuning and indeed, it works well in all 24
keys. If you didn't know I was using this tuning, you might not be able
to tell, though I am so familiar with the pieces I play, I know
immediately that I'm not in Equal Temperament.
Blues and jazz musicians have been bending individual notes since day
one. Slide guitarists and harp players have the easiest time of it.
Intervals have become known as the 'blues third' (7/6) or the 'blues
seventh'(7/4) , yet they've existed as small number ratios ever since
God invented music and mathematics. Anytime you play with instruments
of non-fixed pitch, you invariably adjust your single notes upwards or
downwards to be more in tune. Oftentimes we do this without being
consciously aware of it. Listen to the recordings of John Martyn (R.I.P.) and you'll hear his voice searching 'in the cracks' of tonality. Many others as well, too numerous to mention.
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