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True Temperament


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Forgive me for having mentioned this issue in the past but i cannot find answer to some certain questions....i would be very grateful if you help me answer..

1)Where can i find the template for 25,5 " scale.....does it depend on string gauge also???

2)the frets are normal or fixed and i must buy them....if they are normal how can i bend them??

3)fret re crowing ..?how can i do it?

4)i have no CNC just dremmel...should i forget it??

and generally any video /photos showing this procedure ,...i confess i did not kow anything about it!

thanks in advance!!

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Forgive me for having mentioned this issue in the past but i cannot find answer to some certain questions....i would be very grateful if you help me answer..

1)Where can i find the template for 25,5 " scale.....does it depend on string gauge also???

2)the frets are normal or fixed and i must buy them....if they are normal how can i bend them??

3)fret re crowing ..?how can i do it?

4)i have no CNC just dremmel...should i forget it??

and generally any video /photos showing this procedure ,...i confess i did not kow anything about it!

thanks in advance!!

I applaud your initiative, but 1) its illegal to just copy this system for yourself, you would need to purchase a license to use it. 2) The frets are made to exact specifications, theres no way you can bend a fretwire accurately 3) They have a specialty course for lutheirs to repair frets 4) Its not a "jig" you can buy, they have done their math, and use a special cnc program to do the frets

You should forget it, sorry. Its both overly complicated and not morally right to do this, so I would recommend barking up another tree.

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Its only illegal if you do it then sell it. You would be perfectly in your rights to make one for yourself.

That kinda depends. You have all sorts of pit falls with this stuff.

If you do get a set of frets & install them, you can not say the guitar has the true temp system installed. Rather only that YOU have installed true temp frets.

Trust me on this one. I built a guitar for myself a while ago, Took it down to a local dealer to get a case for it & let the guys there check it out as they loved my stuff. One of the guys shows it to a distrabuter / Rep for one of the major brands they stock as it was based on one of their guitars. The Rep was seriously impressed. So much so in fact that I was contacted by their fookin legal team with a cease & decist order.

The problem was that when the guy in the shop handed it to the Rep, he said "Check out this $&@, its an exact replica - just like the ones your guys produced" But I never corrected him, I never said it was NOT a $&@.

& now I can not make them anymore.

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As I understand it, true temperament is also something that is a little different for each scale you intend to play, so I personally don't think it is a good idea for a guitar, but that is just me.

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so , if i decide to do for me one...the frets are normal and bent by hand,or special???

and i i magine noone has a template for a scale...right?

No you can not get a template for their install. You can buy the frets in a pack as far as I know. But I do not know the exact placement of each fret from the nut. All I know for sure is that the standard division of 17.817 thing is out the door here.

But to be honest I dont see the point. The wole point of all of these compensated nut / saddle / fret systems is to prevent your guitar going out of tune when playing. But as soon as you fret a string you screw it all up anyway. Action, string guage, finger pressure, fret wear, finger technique all have a factor to play here. so all of these systems are pointless as far as I am concerned.

But Give it a go, Id be interested in the outcome. as im sure most of the other builders on here would

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I have to say I can not see the link that people are talking about but I do know a fair amount about temperament.

Real true or perfect temperament is next to impossible on a fretted instrument. In perfect temperament there are twenty pitches in an octave rather than twelve. The space difference to place say a C# and a Db fret, particularly in the upper frets, makes the idea of placing and fingering these frets absurd.

Not only that but yields few benefits. It only works for music that stays distinctly in a key and only if you are playing with other instruments that also have perfect temperament. If you play with instruments that have even temperament, you will be sharp or flat most of the time. Also, the efforts you make to gain this control will often be negated by new or old strings, wood movement from the weather etc. People have tried to make systems that work on fretted instruments for a few hundred years and they have never caught on.

If you want a guitar that plays in perfect temperament, make a fretless.

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I have talked a bit to the TT guys. The frets are cast or sintered. They are not bent. The fret slots are curved like the frets. If you are a licensed TT installer you buy the frets from them and install them (its a franchise). If not you need to send the guitar to them to get the fretboard exchanged or get a new neck. AFAIK the frets are not for sale as is, but I can be wrong here.

A new TT neck costs in the range of 800$ and up. Warmoth makes the necks. I once saw the price +1200$ to make a new fretboard and install it on an existing neck.

I prefer and advocated Earvana. Why? Have a look at the Earvana nut and imagine "straightening" the nut and at the same time streching the contact points of the frets with it while keeping the 12'th fret straight. What would that look like? Pretty close to some TT versions. And the cost is a 35$ and you can adjust it yourself for new string gaugers, new string action and such. There are other systems that address intonation problems, like buzz feiten. Cheeper than TT, much more expensive than Earvana, but more or less variation on the same theme. I know Perry (Ormsby, Rhodes on this forum) have a personalized version that he once promised to tell me about but never got around to do (if you are listening I would still be interested...) and there are other systems were you gradually add thin slivers of bone to an existing nut to achieve more or less the same thing. Cant find it right now, but try Google for size...

The main thing is, if the guitar seems badly intonated to you even though it is 100% in tune and perfectly intonated on the 12'th fret you should consider one of the above alternatives. All of them will improve overall intonation. Non of them will solve all problems. If you don't go down the path of "true" true temperament and that means exactly what Workingman has described, you can only play with other true temperament instruments and you can only play in one single key. You need a different guitar for each key, including semi notes. Lots of guitars. And forget the idea of changing key mid songs.

Trivia: Johan Sebastian Bach were so exited over the newly invented "well-tempered Clavier" that he wrote a series of 24 pieces, called das wohltemperierte klavier, each piece in an individual key just to celebrate the fact that this was playable on the same instrument. Or something like that.

EDIT: I just checked. Custom jobs starting at 2000$. Outch. Cant find anything about frets being sold to non-certified installers.

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