re: micro-guitar-MIDI

> From: "McDougall, Darren Scott - MCDDS001"
> <MCDDS001@students.unisa.edu.au>
>
> Before I had my 19-tet five-string bass made, I took a DAT to the
> luthiers shop and recorded all 24 notes of the A-string (the middle
> string) of a bass he had already made. This bass was fretted to
> 12th root of two. Back home I transferred the recording to my
> digital audio workstation then used it to find the exact frequency
> of the 24 notes. I then calculated the error between the expected
> frequency (given the fret placing) and the actual frequency (due to
> increased string tension).

Fascinating! How much error was there in cents and millimeters of fret
placement? How did the 19 tone bass come out? What was the accuracy? What
did the luthier have to change to make it more accurate?

If you sampled a single string on a single bass, you may have measured the
accuracy of the string winding (or wear on the sting) as much as the
fretting job.

You are correct, no guitar plays perfectly in tune. This is much more
important with JI than with equal temperaments, but there is a limit to how
well frets ever play in tune. A player can change the pitch of a note by
fretting it harder or lighter, picking harder or lighter, or fretting right
next to the fret or far away.

I have had this theory that Zappa tuned his guitar a few cents flat and
controlled the exact intonation with finger pressure. Listen to an album of
his solos and see if you hear the same thing.

---
Glen Peterson
Peterson Stringed Instruments
30 Elm Street North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 975-1527
http://www.organicdesign.org/peterson