microtonal guitars

[John Chalmers]
>Bill et al. Mark Rankin can probably sell you a conversion kit for
>magnetically attached interchangeable custom-fretted microtonal
>fretboards, but you would still need a luthier to attach them. They work
>OK as I understand, but they are a bit pricey, or at least used to be.
>Mark lives in Northern California and doesn't have email, alas.

To the best of my knowledge, Mark's current address is:

Mark Rankin
PO Box 201
Alderpoint, CA 95511

As of last November, the kit was $300.

[Glen Peterson]
>Each system carries it's own usage fee.

Excuse me?

-Carl

on 11/27/00 1:41 PM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:

>
> Message: 19
> Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 11:49:42 -0800
> From: "D.Stearns" <STEARNS@CAPECOD.NET>
> Subject: microtonal guitar
>
> Should anyone be interested, the first two revamped MICROTONAL GUITAR
> 2000 shows are now up...
>
> <http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/125/microtonal_guitar_2000_-_1.html
>>
>
> Dante Rosati "Piera"
> Ned Evett "Singing Bowl"
> Mike Watson "Guitar Wars"
> Dan Stearns "Day Walks In"
> Seth Josel playing James Tenney's "Water on the Mountain... Fire in
> Heaven"
>
>
> <http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/125/microtonal_guitar_2000_-_2.html
>>
>
> Dan Stearns "Silvered Alar Rise!"
> Neil Haverstick "Spider Chimes"
> Graham Breed "Celestial Radishes"
> Doug Kolmar "Five Movements for Electric Guitar, No. 5"
> Seth Josel playing Rob Constable's "You Owe Me"
> Wim Hoogewerf playing Joseph Pehrson's "Just In Time"
>
>
> thanks for listening,
>
> --Dan Stearns
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>

Dan,

Thanks for taking the time to post all of this music, I'm finding all of it
quite inspiring, along with Jackies' mp3 URL posted the other day. This
really makes me want a fretless guitar, NOW!!

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth@sethausten.com

Seth Austen wrote,

> Thanks for taking the time to post all of this music, I'm finding
all of it quite inspiring,

Thanks for listening Seth! I hope to get another one up this weekend.

I'm not sure if was you who had asked, but the tuning for James
Tenney's guitar sextet is not a special (microtonal) scordatura tuning
with possible tape speed altering as I had originally guessed, but
rather an arrangement where each standard (i.e., 12-tET) guitar is
tuned an approximate sixth-tone from the other in a -67, -33, 0, +33,
+67, +100 type arrangement... this gives the piece its especially
wide, 'two staff' pianistic spread.

--Dan Stearns

Dan Stearns wrote,

>but
>rather an arrangement where each standard (i.e., 12-tET) guitar is
>tuned an approximate sixth-tone from the other in a -67, -33, 0, +33,
>+67, +100 type arrangement...

Are you sure it isn't twelfth-tones? What would be the point of having pairs
of guitars a semitone apart? I know James Tenney was interested in JI and
its approximation using twelfth-tones (i.e., 72-tET).

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> Are you sure it isn't twelfth-tones? What would be the point of
having pairs of guitars a semitone apart? I know James Tenney was
interested in JI and its approximation using twelfth-tones (i.e.,
72-tET).

Well that's straight from Seth Josel, the guitarist who preformed and
recorded it... here's what he wrote me, "basically all the of the
guitars are tuned in the normal fashion (E,A,D, etc.) though each is
separated by an interval of about 33 cents - that is, guitar 6 is
tuned roughly about -66 cents, guitar 5 is about -33 cents, etc...."

--Dan Stearns

Dan wrote,

>Well that's straight from Seth Josel, the guitarist who preformed and
>recorded it... here's what he wrote me, "basically all the of the
>guitars are tuned in the normal fashion (E,A,D, etc.) though each is
>separated by an interval of about 33 cents - that is, guitar 6 is
>tuned roughly about -66 cents, guitar 5 is about -33 cents, etc...."

Could you ask him specifically if there is one guitar tuned E, A, D, etc.,
and one guitar tuned Eb, Ab, Db, etc., and if the other two pairs are
similarly tuned one fret apart? I know Tenney wrote a piece for 6 harps
tuned a twelfth-tone apart and utilized the JI approximations of 72-tET and
the fact that the 224:225 vanishes in 72-tET . . .

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> Could you ask him specifically if there is one guitar tuned E, A, D,
etc., and one guitar tuned Eb, Ab, Db, etc., and if the other two
pairs are similarly tuned one fret apart?

Well it's really hard to see anything else he could mean from this
description. I would gather from what he wrote that the highest guitar
is F Bb Eb, etc., and the lowest a third of a tone down from
standard... so in lieu of what he wrote, it's really hard for me to
see how anything else would make much sense.

--Dan Stearns

I wrote,

>> Could you ask him specifically if there is one guitar tuned E, A, D,
>>etc., and one guitar tuned Eb, Ab, Db, etc., and if the other two
>>pairs are similarly tuned one fret apart?

Dan Stearns wrote,

>Well it's really hard to see anything else he could mean from this
>description. I would gather from what he wrote that the highest guitar
>is F Bb Eb, etc., and the lowest a third of a tone down from
>standard... so in lieu of what he wrote, it's really hard for me to
>see how anything else would make much sense.

Why do you stubbornly refuse to seek a verification? Well, it turns out Seth
Josel himself implied otherwise:

"In Tenney's work for six guitars, "Water on the
mountain...Fire in heaven", the microtonal field results from the different
tunings of each of the six guitars (each instrument is tuned about 16 and
2/3 cents higher than the previous one)"

at http://members.nbci.com/drew_skyfyre/xe/xgtpg3.html.

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> Why do you stubbornly refuse to seek a verification?

Well it might be stubborn (I am), but I don't think it's unreasonable.
Because unlike yourself I had no reason to suspect otherwise, his word
seemed pretty clear, so I saw no reason to bug someone about something
that seemed clear enough... That's not so unreasonable is it?

> Well, it turns out Seth Josel himself implied otherwise:

"In Tenney's work for six guitars, "Water on the mountain... Fire in
heaven", the microtonal field results from the different tunings of
each of the six guitars (each instrument is tuned about 16 and 2/3
cents higher than the previous one)"

Well that clearly contradicts what he wrote to me... so perhaps your
"suspicions" are indeed correct. In any event, now I have some
reasonable reason to ask for a clarification!

--Dan Stearns

>Well that clearly contradicts what he wrote to me... so perhaps your
>"suspicions" are indeed correct. In any event, now I have some
>reasonable reason to ask for a clarification!

My "suspicions" arose not only from an understanding of what Tenney is after
as a composer and theoretician, but also from clearly hearing "just" thirds
in the piece itself -- while the 36-tET you claimed would have no better
thirds than those of 12-tET.

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> My "suspicions" arose not only from an understanding of what Tenney
is after as a composer and theoretician, but also from clearly hearing
"just" thirds in the piece itself -- while the 36-tET you claimed
would have no better thirds than those of 12-tET.

Well, had you've said that before, that would've been quite different,
and I would've been motivated enough to give a hunk of it another
listen - but you didn't... you said, well you know what you said.

Anyway, I'll ask.

--Dan Stearns