JI for the Insolvent Guitarist

This is a DIY* method I�ve used to experiment with ratio tunings** that
require fretlets (i.e. individual stops that rest under a single string). As
this is meant to address both the desire to try a lot of differing ratio
scenarios, and an inability to afford anything vaguely resembling a real JI
custom job�

Any guitar costing upwards of 75$ should be immediately and permanently
dislodged from this discussion: tout-de-suite! (I used a 35$ Zim-Gar nylon
string�)

Mini-staples, or staple tots are the rather enfeebled munitions of miniature
staplers. They were also ratio stops on the Zim-Gar.

A couple of forewarnings gleaned from trial and tribulation:

1) You will certainly benefit from some reliable form of pitch reference
(such as a tunable keyboard***). For it has been my experience that the
intonational accuracy of (mathematically precise) string ratios fluctuate
quite a bit more than one might anticipate - especially on inexpensive
guitars.

2) Before you start taking the strings off (or loosening the string
tension) to start tapping in the faux fretlets, you might want to lightly
mark the entire horizontal run of the strings down the fingerboard to best
approximate where the fretlets should sit (as the strings fan out from the
nut to the bridge).

3) To fine-tune and (fine) mark the intervals, I bend a paper clip at the
shoulder and (with the guitar lying on its back) slide the straight section
under the string. This serves the dual purpose of being both [potentially�]
very precise, and ready-made for making a straight line.

4) With the greatest of care (and the most tolerant of temperaments!), the
mini-staples will hammer straight into the fretboard. But as this is
somewhat akin to Kwai Chang walking on rice paper, sooner or later your
probably going to start twisting, buckling, and crumpling them over� With a
combination of luck, will, and practice, attempt to discourage them from
folding towards the headstock or the soundhole� If they have crumpled within
earshot of their destination: Start hammering. This will smooth out (smash
in) any crimps or crinkles.

5) I found that stopping heptads**** and other perhaps less ambitious
tuning scenarios,***** makes the process of pulling them all out and sanding
down the damage (so you can start all over again�), a far less dispiriting
devoir.

Respectfully,
DAN STEARNS

PS Should your fretboard cleave in half and your truss rod roll to the
floor� I reserve the right to deny ever having written any of this.

*Perhaps "Did It Myself" is more appropriate here, as I�m not so sure this
(Neanderthal) method constitutes the soundest advise� Nevertheless: It does
work.

**I�ve also used this to �freely� stop intervals of my own liking. (Tuned by
listening until I found something I deemed �attractive��)

***I also tune the adjacent open string to a unison of the open string I�m
marking ratios for, as it seems to me that I can sometimes �hear� the
interval �better� against a 1/1 of the same (timbre) species. But this is
really a rather limited sort of double-check that won�t help you much in
distinguishing a 15/14 from a 16/15, and as 1/15th or 1/16th the distance
from the nut to the saddle may or may not stop a 15/14 or a 16/15... the use
of a reliable pitch reference is highly desirable.

****The last tuning I used on the (now deceased) Zim-Gar was the main tuning
(1/1, 8/7, 9/7, 7/5, 32/21, 12/7, 27/14, 2/1) I was using to rework an older
arrangement I had done of Lowell Mason�s �Work For the Night is Coming�.
This tuning is featured in the second verse in a sort of polymodal style,
where the guitars take G as the 1/1, and the tenor holds D as the 1/1 (G, A,
B, C#, D, E, F#, G and D, E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D respectfully). The guitar
was tuned:

E @ 12/7 (+ 4/3 =)
A @ 8/7 (+ 4/3 =)
D @ 32/21 (+ 21/16 =)
G @ 1/1 (+ 9/7 =)
B @ 9/7 (+ 4/3 =)
E @ 12/7

*****However it is possible (hit or miss, as sometimes the dips and bends of
the neck coincide with your desires and sometimes they don�t) to place stops
quite close to each other� In fact I�d say as close as your probably apt to
�fret�. (Which is somewhat different than �play�, as on a fretless guitar
you can very subtly roll your finger to achieve wonderfully infinitesimal
gradations of pitch inflection.)