Light said:
Because people like you buy into it and will buy guitars because of it.
I've listened to them, and it is snake oil.
It is not so much that what he is doing isn't based on some degree of truth, it is the idea that what he is selling is IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM NEW OR UNIQUE.
What is his big thing? The nut is in the wrong place.
That's not actually Buzz's 'big thing'.
The 'big thing' is the ratio he's worked out to compensate for the extra pressure you have to use when you're not pressing on the center point of the string. This extra pressure can make the note go sharp.
Well, that would depend on how the guitar is made, but in MOST guitars the compensation he "discovered" is built in as a natural and ineveitable part of making the guitar. Every guitar I've ever built has the nut in the "right" place (acording to his "system"), and I did it without even thinking about it.
So, if my guitar hasn't been built by you, are you saying it could it benefit from having the BF system installed?
So what then; it needs to be tuned slightly off of "legal" pitch, right? Well, that is a natural thing when you are tuning by ear.
Not for everybody or in every situation. From what I understand he's turend it into a science rather than guesswork.
It is only when people try and tune to a electronic tuner that they run into the "problem" he is supposedly fixing.
Not necessarily. How about electronic tuners such as the ones that support the BF system?
PLUS, it only works if you play certain voicings. For the chords I play, it makes the guitar sound awful. And for anyone else who has a unique or personal style of playing chords, it just doesn't work. Ever.
Why are so many people using it these days then? I thought the entire point was that you could play any voicing anywhere on the guitar and it would sound pleasing? I've only heard one guitar with the system installed, but it sounded good to me. The guy was playing Django style gypsy jazz, using a wide variety of chords and voicings.
And many other things will throw you out of tune as well, such as playing hard, or higher action.
But isn't this the type of thing the BF system compensates for?
If you want to get your guitar to play in tune for YOUR style (as opposed to Buzz Fietein's style, which if you've ever heard him play is pretty fucking dull), then you need to learn to tune by ear.
Even if I tune by ear, and really take my time, the first three frets of the B string will be off - especially on my acoustic. Every guitar I've ever played has this problem. If I know I'm going to be playing an open A chord for instance I tune appropriatly, so that the C# doesn't sound sharp. I would much rather not have to do this.
THEN you can worry about what adjustments you need to make to your tuner to get yourself in tune with one.
Basically, it is a solution without a problem, being sold for about 2000 times its value. THAT is the definition of snake oil, if you ask me.
Well - maybe none of the guitars you come into contact with have the problems I encounter, to a greater or lesser extent, on a daily basis.
I haven't had this done to any of my instruments yet - but I'm very interested in trying it out. My friend who has a great ear (you can ping a glass and he'll tell you the frequency of the note) has noticed me pulling and pushing notes into tune (I generally tune the B string a little flat to get around some of the above-mentioned problems) and thinks the BF system would save me the extra effort and allow me to use shapes I currently avoid when playing in certain keys.
Has anybody on this board actually tried the system on one of their own instruments?