Guitar Tuning and Temperament Primer (revised)

I liked mutt. I didn't mind that he was a curmudgeonly old bastard when it came to guitars. He had his thoughts and opinions and stood by them. And he didn't tolerate idiots. Nothing wrong with that. I don't tolerate idiots either, and this place attracts them like flies.
 
did you guys ever see any of his gits?

He wouldn't post about them online and told me he just wanted to be sure boards and his business stayed separate.

But he sent me some pics of some of the jazz boxes he'd built and OMFG!!!

Absolutely got to be among the top tier luthiers.
Beautiful work .... really gorgeous.
 
did you guys ever see any of his gits?

He wouldn't post about them online and told me he just wanted to be sure boards and his business stayed separate.

But he sent me some pics of some of the jazz boxes he'd built and OMFG!!!

Absolutely got to be among the top tier luthiers.
Beautiful work .... really gorgeous.

Agreed. I never played one, but I've seen his builds photo-documented from beginning to end, and goddamn his guitars were spectacular.
 
Agreed. I never played one, but I've seen his builds photo-documented from beginning to end, and goddamn his guitars were spectacular.

He gave me some advice on how to choose a Luthier for my custom build and only said good things about Ben Crowe and Crimson. I did ask him to quote for building my guitar but he never got back to me - I think he was moving his workshop at the time though.
 
Yeah, that thread with the LP style (?) with old fashioned floating tail piece - looked amazing & the photographic journey was excellent.
 
...and this is the ignorant bullshit that had no place here to start with..

Like I said this thread is for people who have discovered that "real world" shit aint quite what they thought it should be. Not for some one who thinks it don't matter a toss. Tell you what next time some one asks the question I'll tell you said it don't matter.:laughings:

I agree as far as what you state as this threads purpose. That said, I believe it takes a great amount of arrogance to equate "little relevance" with "Don't matter a toss". ..Just sayin.
 
I agree as far as what you state as this threads purpose. That said, I believe it takes a great amount of arrogance to equate "little relevance" with "Don't matter a toss". ..Just sayin.

Call it a hunch, but I don't believe you'll be hearing from him anytime soon. :)

However, I can award you a prize. That is - you've won necro-post of the week! Congrats! You can claim your prize 2 years ago.
 
Guitar tuning and temperament primer.

Much has been said on this board and others about the reality behind getting your guitar in tune and what can and can’t be achieved. Recently the subject came up and I was asked if any of the threads on the subject were worthy of being stickied. My sig a few links to some useful info on the subject but often people don’t have the time or inclination to wade through them.

This thread is an attempt to present that information and try to put it into terms that the average guitar player can understand and relate to. This content is taken both from my notes and handouts which are aimed at degree level students and those links I referred to.

I’ll start simple and elaborate if anyone wants a more in depth understanding.


So what’s the deal with guitar tuning?

A common problem many guitar players encounter as they improve and start to listen carefully to what they are playing is that many of the chords they play just don’t sound properly in tune. They will adjust one of the notes in that chord to compensate only to find that other chords are now out of wack. A frustrating problem and the first thing many will do is look to the intonation on their guitar as the source of the problem. Although the intonation needs to be right and should be set correctly it isn’t the root cause of the problem and will not cure it.

Why is this?

So what is the problem? Basically in a nutshell the musical system of dividing the octave into 12 equal divisions that we use today is not perfect. The only intervals that will be perfect are the octave and unisons. Let’s take a quick look at some of the science behind tuning. If we take a vibrating string it has a frequency that is dependent on the mass per unit length of the string, the tension in the string and the string length. To keep things simple for now we shall concentrate on the string length as this is what is important to us.
We shall give the string length a value of 1. It has a fixed frequency at that length. Now we shall divide the string exactly in half and now the frequency is exactly an octave higher in pitch and where the 12th fret is on your guitar. For now assume we haven’t changed the tension in the string. The octave can be described as 2:1 as a ratio.

To bypass some of the more mundane maths for the moment accept that the ratio above is true. Pythagoras, way back when, discovered that the other notes that form perfect intervals can also be expressed as ratios of divisions of a string in the same way.

They are the octave is 2:1, the fifth 3:2, the fourth 4:3, the major third 5:4, the minor third 6:5, the major sixth 5:3, the minor sixth 8:5, the whole tone 9:8. Dividing the string according to these ratios produces pure intervals without beats.

In other words you need to divide the string using the ratios above to sound as perfect intervals. As an example to sound a perfect fifth we would need to fret the string exactly one third of the string length. We divide the string into three and stop it one third of the way along. A ratio of 3:2
The other perfect intervals follow the same rules. For the fourth divide in to four and stop one quarter of the way along or a ratio of 4:3.

Why don’t we position frets to give perfect intervals?

OK that’s the theory. So why doesn’t it apply to the guitar? Simply if we did that then you would be able to sound a perfect fifth in one position and in relation to just one key note. Try and play the same interval starting on another note and it would be way off. We get round this by tinkering with the intervals by sharpening or flattening them by small amounts to bring things back into line

The problem lies in the fact that by dividing the string into 12 equal intervals as we do today the ratios and as a result the intervals are not perfect. Each one is compromised to fit as closely as possible to give a system that can play “almost” in tune in every key. This tuning system is known as 12 note equal temperament or 12ET. Essentially to avoid having some perfect intervals and some imperfect and to facilitate playing in more than one key signature the notes of the scale are adjusted or “tempered” by varying degrees to even out the inaccuracies.

12ET is a good system and it works but it isn’t perfect. With the exception of the octave and the unison all the intervals on your guitar are off perfect by different amounts. It is unavoidable.

So what can we do about it?

In short there isn’t much you can do to change the tuning system we use but you can do two things to help the situation. First, you have to understand and accept that 12ET is a compromise designed to allow you to play equally “out of tune” in all keys. Secondly you can tune you guitar with reference to a single note to avoid further compounding these compromises by transferring them from string to string.

A method of tuning the guitar to play well in 12ET,

I make no apologies for cribbing this instruction directly from an article in the GAL Journal published some years ago. There are quite a few methods of tempering your guitar when tuning but this one is about the best I have come across. Essentially you are trying to tune all strings with reference to a single note at either the unison or octave. Try it

Tune the 1st and 6th strings: The E, open 1st string, should be in pure unison with the harmonic of the E, 6th string at the fifth fret.

Tune the 4th string: Play a harmonic on the (in tune) 6th string at the 12th fret, adjust the 4th string until the E on the second fret is in pure unison.

Tune the 2nd string: Play a harmonic on the (in tune) 4th string at twelve. As this sounds, adjust the 2nd string until D at the 3rd fret is in pure unison.

Tune the 3rd string: Play a harmonic on the (in tune) 4th string at twelve and as this sounds, adjust the 3rd string until D at the 7th fret is in pure unison. Your done now check it.

Double check: Play a harmonic on the (now tuned) G string at twelve, and as this tone sounds, play G on the 1st string at three. The two tones should be in pure unison. If they are not, you've done it wrong or the instrument doesn't fret in tune at seven. Go back to the beginning and carefully check each step up to this point. If the tones are still faulty, then readjust the 3rd string until the harmonic at twelve is in unison with the 1st at three. Do not tamper with the 1st and 4th strings because it is the 3rd string you are trying to bring in tune. When you have the 1st, 6th, 4th, 2nd and 3rd strings in tune, in that order, continue with the remaining 5th string.

Tune the 5th string: Play the A on the (in tune) 3rd string, at the 2nd fret. Listen to this pitch carefully and now adjust the 5th string until the harmonic at twelve is in pure unison. When the foregoing steps are followed correctly, the strings will be tuned perfectly to equal temperament. No further tuning adjustments will help you now.;).

That’s all for now! Any questions?

That’s a very basic nuts and bolts introduction to temperament and tuning when applied to the guitar. As I started by saying, I hope to expand on any and all of this if you folks want me to. In the meantime if you have any questions or if any of it is unclear please ask away and I’ll do my best to fill in the gaps or explain it better.

The links I have had in my sig for ever are listed below for any that may want to read up on them. They all relate to the subject and are good sources of information on the subject.

=> => Equal Temperament & Guitar Tuning.<= <=
=> => How to tune your guitar - Correctly...<= <=
=> => An excellent in depth look at musical temperaments.<= <=
I have found that this harmonix tuning works well on my 12-string too.
 
Adventures in tuning -

Last year, I had a hard time with my AmpliTube's built-in tuner when I had La Bella flats on my bass - it just wouldn't settle down. The bass tuned up OK, but the indicator kept wavering to and fro like -10/+10. When I switched back to Fender rounds it settled down and worked great. Much more stable indicator.

Several days ago I began a new project song. One of the first things I did was to check the tuning on my Strat - it had been sitting idle for several weeks. Normally, I would just use my trusty old Korg chromatic tuner, but I've been trying to use my AmpliTube's built-in tuner more and more, so... the Strat's strings were all sharp and I retuned them - the AmpliTube tuner was rock steady but when upwinding the strings they kept jumping too sharp. Taking them down and up again, they went too sharp again. I had to actually detune them to get them under 2-3%.

I noticed something unusual while beginning today's work on a new project. I plug my Strat into the Korg chromatic tuner just to see where it was and.. every string was rock steady holding @0 - no wavering at all. Now I'd been playing the guitar for several days on that first AmpliTube tuning .. and the strings haven't budged one %. The unusual thing about this is.. that Korg tuner has never.. NEVER behaved this way in the past. So it must be the Strat. But even before I started using the AmpliTube tuner, the Strat's readings on the Korg always wavered some - especially the B string. Maybe just a coincidence?

I wouldn't normally detune strings to get them in tune. Maybe when I did do it this time it's responsible for the strings holding their tuning after playing and sitting. I know it's not recommended to detune to pitch when tuning as it lessens the tension that's supposed to hold it in position, but my situation seems to give the opposite result.

I dunno.. whatever works, right?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top