Buzz Feiten 2

All-
I just got off the phone with a luthier who learned the Buzz
Feiten system from Buzz, and currently modifies guitars to aaccomodate
the system. He tells me that Buzz figured out the system by ear and that
the patent does not tell the whole story. Further, he states that the
luthier who helped Buzz implement the physical modification of the
fingerboard is responsible for some of the misinformation and misuse of
the terms meantone and well temperament appearing in the ads and interviews.
I am told that the nut is shifted and angled, the strings are tuned
slightly differently from 12TET and the bridge compensation is tuned
differently from standard practice. My luthier contact, who is familiar with
the history of tuning and temperaments says that the method really does
reduce out of tuneness, especially when a modified guitar plays with a
piano. This seems to indicate that there is some stretching. I still
don't know the lowdown skinny on what it does "really", but it would be
interesting to find out in more detail and do an analysis.
Was my previous post a little harsh on Buzz? Perhaps. I was
incensed by the misinformation in the literature I had read, but
apparently the patent does not tell the whole story, and the ads a
distorted story. I am told that Buzz is innocent of the promulgation of
buzzwords, and I aploogize for any blame I may have thrown his way.

John Starrett
http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret