12 tone ultra plus

What is this?

Like you can build 13-limit chords on each 12-tone degree?

I've completed a piece recently for 12-tet guitar, with a tape part that
often puts 13-limit JI chords on the 12-tet pitch intoned by the guitar.

cb

Basically, yes. Catler's site is pretty elliptical about what the
guitar can actually do, so allow me to elaborate.

The 12-tone Ultra Plus builds up like this:
To every note except Eb, the seventh harmonic is added, via 7
additional frets which are 30 cents lower than their 12-equal
counterparts. This allows for septimal minors and harmonic sevenths
built off of the original 12-tet notes, and septimal majors built
using the "new" notes as tonics. There are lots of additional
intervals possible as well that I am too lazy to list.

THEN:
3 quartertone/11-limit frets are added, between the 12-tone 3rd and
4th frets, the 5th and 6th frets, and 10th and 11th frets. These can
add 11/8's, 11/9's, 11/6's, 16/11's...lots of 11-limit intervals,
though each not each type of interval applies to each note of 12-tet.

THEN:
Add 2 13-limit frets, one between the 12-tone 1st and 2nd frets, and
one between the 8th and 9th frets. These frets are approximately 40
cents sharper than the 12-tet fret below them. These add 13/8's,
13/12's, 16/13's, and others that I haven't bothered to calculate
yet, to the 12-tet notes, though not to all of them.

The only potential drawback of this system is that certain notes only
occur in one place, so chords are position-dependent and scales can
be limited to only one octave. Also, some of the 13-limit chords can
only be formed from certain tonics. This doesn't really bug me,
though, since the possibilities are still pretty extensive. However,
it might not work for you if you want to perform your guitar/tape
piece on one instrument...it all depends on which pitches you use. I
should also note that using different tunings makes certain chords
possible that aren't possible in other tunings (in case that isn't
immediately obvious).

If you're interested, Catler is currently selling Ultra-Plus necks by
themselves for about $550, though you have to drill and bolt them
yourself (not to mention crown the frets). I bought one and paid a
local luthier to $145 to set it up for me, and I think it was well
worth it.

HTH!

-Igliashon

> What is this?
>
> Like you can build 13-limit chords on each 12-tone degree?
>
> I've completed a piece recently for 12-tet guitar, with a tape
part that
> often puts 13-limit JI chords on the 12-tet pitch intoned by the
guitar.
>
>
> cb

cityoftheasleep wrote:

>If you're interested, Catler is currently selling Ultra-Plus necks by >themselves for about $550, though you have to drill and bolt them >yourself (not to mention crown the frets). I bought one and paid a >local luthier to $145 to set it up for me, and I think it was well >worth it.
>
How long have you had it and how does it respond to climatic changes?
It took years from my guitar to settle down. Winters were particularly rough.

Do you know who made the neck?

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, David Beardsley <db@b...>
wrote:
> How long have you had it and how does it respond to climatic
changes?
> It took years from my guitar to settle down. Winters were
particularly
> rough.

I've only had it a few months, so it's tough to say how it will fare
with the changes. It's fine now, but who knows what warmer weather
might do to it?

> Do you know who made the neck?

I would assume the same luthier that does Freenote's fretboards,
though I know the neck itself was definitely not a G&L blank. It
is "raw" (no finish), and has no skunk stripe. Looks a lot like a
small-time job.