20 Dec
2004
20 Dec
'04
1:02 a.m.
mchristoph.eckert(a)t-online.de (Christoph Eckert) writes:
B flat is not exactly the same note as A sharp, BTW...
depends in what key you are in :)
I have been playing a guitar for over 20 years and I never heard of
Feiten tuning system, although all the names that poped out in the
linked article sound very familiar. But I'm probaly way behind
because I jumped from blues stright to classical guitar and then
stright to computer music... I guess I've got some gaps to fill.
In any case, there is a touch of misinformation and/or
misinterpretation of history in that article that someone provided
earlier
(http://www.buzzfeiten.com/Articles/Guitar_Shop/guitar_shop.html).
First of all pythagoras did not get his math wrong. He was right on.
And he could not have miscalculated the fret distances because fretted
instruments were invented a couple centuries after his death, if not
later. In the occident at least. There are perhaps older instruments
in the oriental cultures but have nothing to do with Pythagoras.
Also, I fail to see how a 12TET system can sound perfectly in tune. I
mean, the whole idea of equal temperament is to make concessions in
intonation as a tradeoff for having all, or most, intervals sound the
same in all keys.
As it's been pointed out, the 12TET tuning system is incompatible with
overtone series of a vibrating string so even the Feiten tuning must
be out of tune. Probably differently and perhaps the differences are
actually appealing to some players but still out of tune.
I hope that some day the digital technology will bring us a just
intonation guitar that will retune itself depending on which key
you're playing in :) But by then, I will probably go back to acoustic
instruments (providing I'm still alive). For now, I have modified one
of my instruments to do just intonation and it's alot of fun. And I
don't play tonal music so modulations to different keys are of no
consequence to me :)
cheers,
./MiS