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RE: King Crimson gives tuning list a thumbs up

🔗"Kris Peck" <kpeck@...>

8/17/1998 7:50:00 PM
>
> When I saw ProjeKct Two a few months ago (Robert Fripp on Les Paul, Trey
> Gunn on Warr guitar, Adrian Belew on drums and a few solo acoustic
> guitar/vocal spots), all three had MIDI hookups and occasionally
> summoned some clearly microtonal soundscapes out of their gear. I think
> the King Crimson album "Thrakattak" has some of that stuff too.

You got to see P2? Lucky you -- I doubt any of these Projeckt shows will
be coming to Minneapolis...

I have wondered about Adrian Belew's disc The Guitar as Orchestra -- it is
all MIDI guitar stuff too. Much of it sounds wildly non-12et, but I wonder
if there is any system to it at all, or just random bending in all
directions.


>What I
> would love to hear is Fripp & Co. strap on some microtonal axes and try
> writing some genuine prog-metal riffs with purer as well as smaller
> intervals -- Fripp is always pushing the boundaries of tonality, so it
> seems like a logical step . . .

I have daydreamed about these possibilities as well. Even more, I would
love to hear the League of Crafty Guitarists playing refretted acoustics.

>I can report that power chords (open
> fifths with distorition) on the 22-tone guitar sound great despite being
> 7 cents [sharp], and any three-or-more-note subset of a "dominant ninth"
> chord (0 7 13 18 26 in 22-tET) sounds really good with distortion, much
> more reminiscent of Jon Catler's JI guitar than of standard 12-tone . .

FYI- I will report more when completed, but... I now have collected all my
supplies and will be refretting my Stratocaster to 22ET in the near future.
New parenthood status is (rightfully) monopolizing most of our time at
home, but one of these Saturday afternoons I'll get a few hours free to
hack away.

How are you tuning the strings on your 22ET guitar?

kp