Compromises for Tuning and Intonation

[rodzimguitar68]

Guys,

We all struggle with the tuning of our G and B strings, and the whole history of Western music, mathematically equal intervals in an octave, versus the skewed system of bygone eras, when the spacing of the intervals wasn't precisely equal, which made certain key signatures sound dark and dreary, or happy and cheerful and uplifting.

I was changing my strings tonight and intonating my Schecter Hellraiser, with original Floyd (floating) and I came across a forum where guys were analyzing EVH's tunings using Peterson Strope, and getting it down to the "cents" deviation from standard, straight up, on pitch tuning.

Then I came across an article from the 2016 VH tour, where Eddie disclosed the Eb tuning stacked like this

High Eb........ -9 Cents
Bb.................-9 Cents
Gb.................-3 Cents
Db.................-1 Cent
Ab................. 0 Cents
Eb..................0 Cents. (Db Tuna......-4 Cents)

I set up my Axe III for these offsets (except I tune to E standard), and I'm currently trying to get my Floating Floyd to settle down. My guitars are strung at E, with .54 - .11 strings and can hang on my wall and remain in tune forever. So, making these gentle tension adjustments, has my guitar in a tizzy right now. I'm letting it simmer down and settle into this new setup for a couple of hours, before I dial in the intonation with the Axe III providing the above EVH deviations.

I would appreciate anyone on here (I know there are touring musicians, AND the techs for touring musicians, like Def Leppard, and Rush, etc....}, that might have insights that can help an old hack like me.

Thank you!!!!!

 

[unix-guy]

Guys,

We all struggle with the tuning of our G and B strings, and the whole history of Western music, mathematically equal intervals in an octave, versus the skewed system of bygone eras, when the spacing of the intervals wasn't precisely equal, which made certain key signatures sound dark and dreary, or happy and cheerful and uplifting.

I was changing my strings tonight and intonating my Schecter Hellraiser, with original Floyd (floating) and I came across a forum where guys were analyzing EVH's tunings using Peterson Strope, and getting it down to the "cents" deviation from standard, straight up, on pitch tuning.

Then I came across an article from the 2016 VH tour, where Eddie disclosed the Eb tuning stacked like this

High Eb........ -9 Cents
Bb.................-9 Cents
Gb.................-3 Cents
Db.................-1 Cent
Ab................. 0 Cents
Eb..................0 Cents. (Db Tuna......-4 Cents)

I set up my Axe III for these offsets (except I tune to E standard), and I'm currently trying to get my Floating Floyd to settle down. My guitars are strung at E, with .54 - .11 strings and can hang on my wall and remain in tune forever. So, making these gentle tension adjustments, has my guitar in a tizzy right now. I'm letting it simmer down and settle into this new setup for a couple of hours, before I dial in the intonation with the Axe III providing the above EVH deviations.

I would appreciate anyone on here (I know there are touring musicians, AND the techs for touring musicians, like Def Leppard, and Rush, etc....}, that might have insights that can help an old hack like me.

Thank you!!!!!

I'm not sure what you're asking for... I don't see a question

Are you asking for help adjusting intonation?

There is a great tutorial on ibanezrules.com for doing that on Ibanez Edge bridges that works well for me and it's a little contrary to popular approaches I had seen before. It also doesn't require a fancy strobe tuner to get good results. I use and old Boss VU-meter type.

 

[rodzimguitar68]

I see what you mean.

I guess I wanted the tuning validated as something PROS besides EVH are using to help avoid the dissonance sometimes encountered with G and B.

And if not his particular formula, what they are using?

 

[2112]

I'd hazard a guess and say most pro's don't think about temperament, and if they do it would be the old "play a few open chords and tweak it until they all kinda sound in tune". Use your ears.

Temperament is a fascinating subject with some elegant mathematical justifications though and well worth reading about, as well as finding examples to listen to. It's very easy to read about a system and convince yourself it's "right" or "better" without listening to any examples.

Also keep in mind if you tune your guitar to those offsets you might find it hard to jam with your buddies who don't use an offset tuning