squiggly frets

Vio

Vio

Experienced
Found recently the "Precise Temperament" by Robert Edward Grant.
Bad thing is it works "precise" on 432 and not 440...
Good thing is intervals are precise mathematically speaking compared to just/equal ones.
Playability would probably be better than TrueTemperament since the deviation of the squiggly frets are not as large as in TT.
What are your thoughts on this?

1721934383251.png vs 1721934412099.png

Piano tuned in Precise temperament
 
While I'm sure this is good for some, for me, it's just a non-starter. There are too many things that affect temperament on instruments with fixed pitch like frets or pianos. To my ears, the video sounded out of tune. Pitch on guitars is affected by string gauge, fret size including how much wear there is, action that can be affected by environment like temperature and humidity, less-than-perfect bridge adjustments, and, maybe most of all, technique. Sometimes, I play harder and sometimes, I play softer, that applies to both hands. What I've learned is that I can compensate for all of that with technique. If a chord sounds out of tune, I can bend it just a little, or otherwise adjust how I'm playing. Maybe that's why I like scalloped necks, but I digress. To me, playing guitar is not an exact science, it's the expression of emotion and that's not always perfect. Of course, that's just the way I feel and it's perfectly fine to take a completely different approach.
 
I tried a Kritz electric guitar ages ago (2003-ish?) that had squiggly frets like that. It didn't bathe my ears in purely-intonated bliss, and even more so, bending strings was really f!?king weird on the thing. Since that's part of the point of electric guitars, that was a non-starter for me!
 
I'm certainly no music theory expert, but don't mathematically precise intervals only work in one key at a time?

Isn't it the same case with "sweetened" string tunings, where the offsets will sound better in some keys but worse in others?
 
Last edited:
mr_fender said:
I'm certainly no music theory expert, but don't mathematically precise intervals only work in one key at a time?

Isn't it the same case with "sweetened" string tunings, where the offsets will sound better in some keys but worse in others?
Click to expand...
This is what irks me.
They are never clear on this.
Are they favouring certain keys or are they simply factoring in inconsistencies that guitars have?
 
unix-guy said:
I'm pretty sure @Andy Eagle mentioned something about the True Temperament guitars having issues in certain keys...
Click to expand...
Nothing is perfect. Tension in harmony is dissonance and will all have different ears . I think people need to decide if they think Eric Johnson is out of tune and go from there. I personally am perfectly happy on a standard guitar intonated on all fretted notes using a Turbo Tuner. Is it perfect? no but true temperament isn't either .
 
mr_fender said:
I'm certainly no music theory expert, but don't mathematically precise intervals only work in one key at a time?

Isn't it the same case with "sweetened" string tunings, where the offsets will sound better in some keys but worse in others?
Click to expand...
This is definitely NOT the case. Here's a short description of the results, for the full explanation you can read the document linked in this post.

1722003746662.png

RWGrant-PreciseTemperament
 
Andy Eagle said:
Tension in harmony is dissonance
Click to expand...
This is it in a nutshell. The music I love most and always immediately catches my ear is that which can use dissonance in a way to achieve the greatest range of expression and bring it back home (or not) in some way that ultimately energizes the spirit.

In the past year I entered back into the hardware Keyboard/synthesizer world in a serious way since the early 1990’s and early 2000’s. Back in that period I never really used electronic keyboard forums where most the members are pure keyboard/piano players. Also I didn’t seriously consider, as an electric guitar player the dilemma that keyboard players have in regards to ultimate expression. The one thing I have found interesting and even humorous is how they spend a huge amount of energy and expense (including the industry itself) getting their instrument of choice to “bend”…to be expressive in a way that as guitarist we take for granted. I suppose the whole keyboard synth world started and definitely evolved to solve this problem.

As much as the squiggly frets is a bit off putting, the whole 432 Hz over 440 Hz thing gets to the level of being annoying. As much as the proponents point out all their rationale all the way to celestial levels of “synchronicity” with the universe, I believe what’s really at its core is this misguided notion that Western dominance over the world has been detrimental instead of the exact opposite and needs to be deconstructed and dismantled.
 
mr_fender said:
Yeah I think it was the "Just" temperament that I was thinking of that doesn't work well across keys.
Click to expand...
Seems logical that if the intervals aren’t exactly all the same (half steps) that some keys would at least sound different than others.
 
I've played a squiggly-fretted guitar. The frets are surprisingly easy to get used to. But you better hope they never wear or the neck never takes a set. I can't imagine how you'd refret that or how you'd even crown the frets after leveling them.

And big bends can cause some weird pitch changes.
 
Rex said:
I've played a squiggly-fretted guitar. The frets are surprisingly easy to get used to. But you better hope they never wear or the neck never takes a set. I can't imagine how you'd refret that or how you'd even crown the frets after leveling them.

And big bends can cause some weird pitch changes.
Click to expand...
This is a big concern because I am not crowning those for less than four figures 🤣
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom