Re: micro-guitar-tunings + stuff

>From: William Sethares <sethares@eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu>
>
>Microguitarists,
>
>I've been talking to Glen Peterson and am
>having him build a guitar with magnetic removable
>fingerboards. Now the trick - what fretings
>to use?

Hi Bill et al.

I'm still happily playing my 21TJI guitar (I'm finishing up three new pieces
that I hope to have soundfiles up for in the near future). Its clear that
there is TONS of music to be played with this particular fretting and
tuning, but I've also been thinking about other setups-

My main other desire is to have a guitar in 12TJI in "standard"
string-tuning. That way, I can use my 30 years of familiarity with that
setup instead of starting from scratch again (in terms of where the notes
are). I spend so much time improvising in E/e on my 12TET guitar that I
would have no problem spending many happy hours playing in E/e on a JI
guitar. Just something simple like 1/1 16/15 9/8 6/5 5/4 4/3 ? 3/2 8/5 5/3
(7/4 or 16/9? hmmm. probably 16/9) 15/8. so standard string-tuning would be
1/1 4/3 (7/4 or 16/9) 6/5 3/2 1/1. Of course some frets would be partial to
keep the scale consistent. A/a is another key I'd like to have a fretboard
for in JI in the same standard setup. I also improvise alot in various D
scales using DADGBE tuning, so this would be another nice JI setup.

Another idea would be to use a scale from the harmonic series, maybe 16-32?
You can also fret the neck to JI divisions and leave the string tuning
variable- in fact isn't there a picture of a neck like this on Glen's site?
I wonder what ratios he used?

If I ever win the lottery I'm gonna get about 10 moveable-fret guitars. I
think this is ideal so that you can explore different tunings without having
to move the frets every time. I wonder about the removable fretboard thing.
What kind of tolerances are possible, even with the best craftsmanship? (I'm
sure Glen's craftsmanship is on this level) I imagine it involves several
different materials that have different reactions to heat/humidity over
time, especially since they're not firmly attached to each other, so I
wonder how this will effect the tuning accuracy?

On another note, the tuning list has many different conversations going on
simultaneously. I dont understand why some people seem to be upset about
electrons entering their computer that encode mathematical ideas! Maybe some
who can't understand those postings feel intimidated or jealous, but thats
their problem. I cant understand most of them, nor am I really interested in
most ET issues but if I were to post someting along these lines I would be
glad that others with the sophistication to understand it would read it and
give feedback. If you're not interested, its just some people in another
corner of the room talking about whatever interests them. Whats the big
f%#$@&* deal!?! It doesn't stop anyone from posting whatever else they
want, does it? Neil complained about theoretical posts before leaving but I
didn't see him offering anything else. I guess maybe some people want others
to do their conversing for them, but they want it the way >they< want it.
Strikes me as a little petty and pathetic, but what do I know.

dante