[linux-audio-user] in tune - stupid thread

[John Check]

On Monday 20 December 2004 01:26 am, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 00:52 -0500, Dave Robillard wrote:
> > On Mon, 2004-20-12 at 01:16 +0100, Christoph Eckert wrote:
> > > > I think this is called "well tempered tuning".
> > >
> > > I know what well tempered tuning is, where it comes from, why
> > > we need it and that most popular instruments are tuned in
> > > this way.
> > >
> > > But what I do not know: Do guitarists tune the six strings in
> > > pure tuning, or do they add some aberration to make them
> > > tempered?
> >
> > Well.. there really is no "pure tuning" - it's something of a trade-off.
> > You can tune your guitar so certain things sounds right, and others not.
> > If you tune the B string to be exactly in tune with the B on the second
> > fret of the A string, then tune the high E to the B string, the high E
> > will be quite a bit sharp of the low E string and things will sound like
> > garbage.  There just isn't a "perfect" tuning (which is kinda
> > frustrating until you learn to deal with it)
>
> Good guitarists compensate for this subconsciously by digging in a
> little harder to make certain notes sharper.  You can play single note
> lines in perfect tune anywhere on the neck this way, even with an out of
> tune guitar.  Same way you can keep playing if one of your strings goes
> flat during a solo, you just bend each note a little.
>
> This does not work well for chords.  This is why you don't hear a lot of
> guitar players hitting major chords and letting them sustain for a long
> time.  It might works for open chords but then further up the neck it

Ah. Now I know why I love open chords. 

> will sound weird.  The few rock players that use major chords with lots
> of distortion (think AC/DC) either don't let them ring out too long
> and/or intonate the guitar so they all sound OK in one position.  But I
> guarantee you those same chords on the 5th fret will sound weird.
>
> Lee