First Impressions : 31ED2 G&L arrives

Heres a ramble after about five days with my new guitar. microtonal
guitarists feel free to jump in and offer advice!

...its crowded, strings too light (probably 009, 010 at most),
some fret-buzz and fret-out on bending (but why bend...). Any
suggestions on good gauges from other utone guitarists
welcome and if fret-buzz is not supposed to be part of the
landscape I'll raise my action.

Nice tone with and without amp (I expected this). I got the
ASAT with the big square pickups which aren't really P90 but are
still big warm single coils.

Playing it is like playing my fretless BUT I can stop on
in-tune notes any time I want.

Early playing treats the new notes more like getting the big
box of crayons after using the little box for many years, five
flavors of third and seventh!

Whats good : 4:5:6:7 chords everywhere (who cares if I use F and
E# in the same measure), small leading tones (who cares if its
the opposite of meantone), scale 4455445 (I sound like a
local now)... 5265256 and modes... blues (with real flat sevens
on the chords and neutral thirds and sevenths for the melodys)...
all the nifty new chromatic-stuff (minor third divisible by 4,
major third by 5... five whole tones is a real 7/4)...

chords are hard, (but yes, they are in tune) but Im always a bit
more into melody so, I'll get there... Bebop is hard and I lose
my way a lot (the neck seems to be incredibly long even though its
the same scale as my main axe, its just an illusion and disorientation
losing my way between all these frets).

There are choices to be made when presented with new
notes on old tunes (is this B7 -> Em really Cb7 -> Fbm ?)

Got a bit of practicing to do, ad for Mar 21 gig says I play
"7 string and microtonal guitars".

Gas and a half!

Bob Valentine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert C Valentine" <BVAL@IIL.INTEL.COM>

> Heres a ramble after about five days with my new guitar. microtonal
> guitarists feel free to jump in and offer advice!
>
> ...its crowded, strings too light (probably 009, 010 at most),
> some fret-buzz and fret-out on bending (but why bend...). Any
> suggestions on good gauges from other utone guitarists
> welcome and if fret-buzz is not supposed to be part of the
> landscape I'll raise my action.

You could raise your action a wee bit, but I'd recommend
having an experienced luthier set up the guitar. It sounds like
the neck needs some adjustment. The guitar is relatively new
and in the first few years of it's life after fretting, the neck is still
getting used to having close to 60 frets. Here in NJ there are extremes
to the climate (hot & humid to cold & dry) that cause problems.
I had my JI guitar last set up in April or May of 2001 and it's
holding fairly steady. There's one specific spot where it buzzes
sometimes, generally when ever there's a drastic change in the weather
but overall, it's fine.

> Nice tone with and without amp (I expected this). I got the
> ASAT with the big square pickups which aren't really P90 but are
> still big warm single coils.

If I remember correctly: Swamp ash body?

> Playing it is like playing my fretless BUT I can stop on
> in-tune notes any time I want.

Oh yes! Playing any other guitar only complements
your work on this guitar.

> Gas and a half!

Your comments make me want one, I've tried Jon Catlers
31tet classical a few times. Interesting...

* David Beardsley
* http://biink.com
* http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

On 2/24/02 9:15 AM, "Robert C Valentine" <BVAL@IIL.INTEL.COM> wrote:

> chords are hard, (but yes, they are in tune) but Im always a bit
> more into melody so, I'll get there... Bebop is hard and I lose
> my way a lot (the neck seems to be incredibly long even though its
> the same scale as my main axe, its just an illusion and disorientation
> losing my way between all these frets).

That first couple of moments with a new temperament in the fretting hand
seems to get lost in history pretty easily with me.

I actually got that way with my first 19. After like 17 years of playing in
12, that one extra note made my hands look huge and such.

Markings. Markings. Markings.

On 2/24/02 1:27 PM, "David Beardsley" <davidbeardsley@biink.com> wrote:

>> Playing it is like playing my fretless BUT I can stop on
>> in-tune notes any time I want.
>
> Oh yes! Playing any other guitar only complements
> your work on this guitar.

Very much agreed. The cross reference is good for your fingers. One thing
I noticed after awhile, I'd wind up playing something more and more out,
more and more squawky for any one particular temperament, only to find out I
really wanted to play in a different one, and in translating what I was
doing to another, found it a normal structure all over again. Use, perturb,
adjust.

Always felt abyssmal looking "up" the numbers. Like 19 is so much higher
than 12, 31 is SO much higher than 19 - you can get that feeling. Then one
day I was playing 94 for a long time and *then* went *down* to 31 and it was
a completely different sense of application. There was already a more dense
emotional pad built up by having played so high, so the reactions to any one
note were a little bit different etc.

The more you play higher temperaments, the easier you'll find it and by the
time you get back down you can fly all over the place. Corollary? If you
keep playing lower temperaments, by the time you get back up there, you have
more ideas, more to do scale wise etc. And so on.

How's that for a positive attitude builder.

"Shoot high, aim low." ;X

m

> From: "David Beardsley" <davidbeardsley@biink.com>
> Subject: Re: First Impressions : 31ED2 G&L arrives
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert C Valentine" <BVAL@IIL.INTEL.COM>
>
> > ...its crowded, strings too light (probably 009, 010 at most),
> > some fret-buzz and fret-out on bending (but why bend...). Any
> > suggestions on good gauges from other utone guitarists
> > welcome and if fret-buzz is not supposed to be part of the
> > landscape I'll raise my action.
>
> You could raise your action a wee bit, but I'd recommend
> having an experienced luthier set up the guitar. It sounds like
> the neck needs some adjustment. The guitar is relatively new
> and in the first few years of it's life after fretting, the neck is still
> getting used to having close to 60 frets.

Thanks David. I should probably have posted over in microtones and
MakeMicro but... Before I raise the action I'm going to try a larger
string gauge, which may make things better (or worse) but I'm still
very much in the early experiment stage regarding tone, playing style
etc...

>
> > Nice tone with and without amp (I expected this). I got the
> > ASAT with the big square pickups which aren't really P90 but are
> > still big warm single coils.
>
> If I remember correctly: Swamp ash body?
>

Yes. I ordered an S-3, which had three of the "P90-ish" pickups but
it was discontinued, so its just got two. I didn't get a maple cap
or an f-hole, I wanted a big slab of swamp ash. It really does sound
nice. I can't remember if there is an option on the fretboard, I got
rosewood with the flattest radius and it feels and sounds great.

I may have a minor electrical mod done at some point. There is a
4-way switch on some telecaster models that puts the pickups in
series in the fourth position for a "fat middle position tone". Couple
this with a push/pull pot to put the bridge pickup out of phase and
then that fourth position tone will be a rather "fat squack".

>
> Your comments make me want one, I've tried Jon Catlers
> 31tet classical a few times. Interesting...
>

I'm still groping with "how" to approach learning it, in so many ways
its like going back to the beginning. So I think for the next week or
so it will really be like the stuff I did when learning my modes years
ago, pick a position, pick a mode, improvise (which probably will get
into some middle ground between just playing the color tones and expressing
the mode), shift position, continue... Next day, new key, new mode...
Also single string playing, two string playing, etc... Basically all
the excercises in Mick Goodricks book...

In the middle of one of these modal things it is really tempting to
get a few strings ringing together and just folk-pick a pretty voicing,
very nice morning music. But theres crunch in there too...

Thanks for your comments.

> From: "Orphon Soul, Inc." <tuning@orphonsoul.com>
> Subject: Re: First Impressions : 31ED2 G&L arrives
>
> On 2/24/02 9:15 AM, "Robert C Valentine" <BVAL@IIL.INTEL.COM> wrote:
>
> > chords are hard, (but yes, they are in tune) but Im always a bit
> > more into melody so, I'll get there... Bebop is hard and I lose
> > my way a lot (the neck seems to be incredibly long even though its
> > the same scale as my main axe, its just an illusion and disorientation
> > losing my way between all these frets).
>
> That first couple of moments with a new temperament in the fretting hand
> seems to get lost in history pretty easily with me.
>
> I actually got that way with my first 19. After like 17 years of playing in
> 12, that one extra note made my hands look huge and such.
>
> Markings. Markings. Markings.
>

Yes. I don't look at the fingerboard when I play in 12 (unless what I'm
playing is significantly shifted from what I had been hearing in my head),
so looking and then seeing a zillion frets (yeah, giant hands) is
disorienting. Its a strange process "up five frets from index finger? use
pinky... hey! thats only a major second I should be going to my middle
finger!" If I don't look, my hands do there normal things and things make
sense, for about three notes....

thanks,

Bob Valentine

--- In tuning@y..., Robert C Valentine <BVAL@I...> wrote:
>
> Heres a ramble after about five days with my new guitar. microtonal
> guitarists feel free to jump in and offer advice!
>
> ...its crowded, strings too light (probably 009, 010 at most),
> some fret-buzz and fret-out on bending (but why bend...). Any
> suggestions on good gauges from other utone guitarists
> welcome and if fret-buzz is not supposed to be part of the
> landscape I'll raise my action.

maybe a good professional setup is your answer. there should be no
need to raise the action.