True Temperament

[Mike Sulzer]

Check this out!

http://www.truetemperament.com/main.php

This appears to be about both intination and temperment. The idea comes in at least four forms for different temperments. One of them is the standard equal temperment. If you check the pictures, you see that the frets for this are not very much perturbed from straight. But I do not see any reason to do this; if you are not happy with normal bridge compensation, you can do nut compensation as well. There are some articles on that somewhere.

As for the other temperments, if that is what you want for a particular kind of music, then do it.

[axemannate]

Ive heard that Steve Vai is going to have this on his guitars now.

I've been thinking about this. If you are planning to play with an orchestra, and can afford a guitar that only sounds good in a few keys, it seems reasonable to get one that is tuned and tempered to fit in with the orchestra. Segovia would probably have loved this, and I'd like the idea of using it on a classical guitar.

And even thought we're not talking about a classical guitar here, Billy Joel's, Elton John's, Alicia Keys' pianos are tempered. Perhaps we've finally reached the point where technology will allow this to be done for a guitar.

Then again, a piano isn't locked into a specific temperment, and "equal temperment" may not be the best sound for say J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier" pieces. It's sure not what Bach was composing on/in.

Todd

edit: Just notice they offer different temperments, including one for that ^ exact collection, so I sent an email asking if they'd consider selling just a fretted fingerboard for a classical guitar.

Just look at yngwie malmsteens DVD with a japanese orchestra. It sounds amazing and he's using a plain jane strat.

[Lotza_Noize]

Check this out!

http://www.truetemperament.com/main.php

As for the other temperments, if that is what you want for a particular kind of music, then do it.

Well yea. My 3rd project I wanted a good clean and clear sound. I don't want any distortion (at least not much). I wanted to have a 6 or 7 string neck and a 12 string neck to be temperemented to a true note. So if I wanted to play classical with it I can. Never thought of it in that way. But why not.

[Guest AlexVDL]

.

[fryovanni]

Alex is offering a little reality check . Remember how the notes are fretted, strings do change over time and so on and so forth.

This is a great series of articles by Doolin-link

Erik, have you read this-Link

Peace,Rich

[erikbojerik]

Tweeking a piano tuning for tempermental changes is no big deal, because there's only one key you can hit for any given note.

On a guitar there are several places you can play any given note, and for that reason alone any one kind of bent-fret system will work for only a limited set of circumstances. Those particular fretboards are for the guys who spend most of their time playing campfire chords and insist on in-phase 3rds.

Thanks Rich! I had read Mike Doolin's stuff, but had not seen that last article from the GAL (I really must get on the stick and join up....).

[djhollowman]

[Odin]

Here you can see it explained by the maestro himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4d88wV7yXQ

[aidlook]

Cool....although someone should probably tell him slash beat him to the acoustic/electric ..

Edited November 2, 2007 by aidlook

[soapbarstrat]

Darn shame that he used his entire endorsement check to pay for those sunglasses.

[DC Ross]

...Now looking at someone like David Gilmour...

I was thinking of Gilmour and his 3 1/2 step bends when I saw that fretboard. They claim that those crazy frets won't affect bends, but how could they not? If you bend past the 'transition point' of the frets between strings, you'd have to hear a noticable bump, or maybe choke the note entirely depending on the difference between the fret positions.

[Digideus]

Now looking at someone like David Gilmour or The Edge....

Haha, The Edge! Reminds me of this video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EDuK46ZqFM

[aidlook]

...Now looking at someone like David Gilmour...

I was thinking of Gilmour and his 3 1/2 step bends when I saw that fretboard. They claim that those crazy frets won't affect bends, but how could they not? If you bend past the 'transition point' of the frets between strings, you'd have to hear a noticable bump, or maybe choke the note entirely depending on the difference between the fret positions.

I'played one (not one of the extreme ones) and actually it didn't really affect bends. I thought it was going to, but it didn't. And also I wouldn't believe Vai would want them if he couldn't do bends...

[David Schwab]

From my experience, every neck is unique, hence why we have adjustable bridges to fine tune the intonation.

That's not really why the bridge is adjustable. Commercial fingerboards are slotted on CNC machines. And before that, gang saws where used, where there is a saw blade for each fret slot. Even when you slot by hand you are generally using a table saw, or keyed miter box and a template to locate each fret slot.

So unless someone is using a ruler and making a mark with a pencil and sawing the slot freehand, we can safely assume the board is pretty dead on, and the frets are in the correct locations. I can buy five fingerboards and they will all be the same.

The reason for compensation at the bridge is two fold. Firstly, when you fret a string, you are bending it down toward the fret. And just as bending the string sideways while playing, it will sharpen the pitch of the note. The higher up the neck you go, the more of a distance the string must stretch, and the notes get sharper still. Low action requires less compensation than high action.

The other reason is that at the fixed ends of the string, it is much stiffer than in the middle. A stiff string acts more like a rod, and the harmonics tend to be sharp. This is also a problem on pianos, and they use "stretch tuning" to make the notes sound in tune across the keyboard.

So we compensate for these things by making the string longer than it's theoretical scale length.

Another trend is to do this at the nut end, which helps with the first couple of fretted notes, which can tend to be sharp. This is also from the string being stiff, and from having a nut that's cut too high.

I often use zero frets to eliminate that problem.

But getting back to the topic. Equal temperament is intrinsically out of tune on certain intervals. But it allows us to transpose from one key to another, and all keys sound the same. As I pointed out, pianos are de-tuned from equal temperament to make them sound more in tune. The fretboard you see on that site is attempting to do the same thing.

The true temperament system is a compromise of equal and just intonation systems. So it makes the intervals more in tune on the guitar.

[gibsonsg26]

i really dug there meantone blues neck untill i read its designed to not be used with any other instruments that are not in the meantone temper thatd kinda screw a band over