True Temperment Frets

C

claxor

Power User
Anybody here use or try True Temperment frets on a guitar? What are the impressions you guys have of them? I'm curious because it annoys me how I can hear the subtle differences in tunings with chording throughout the neck. Hoping this can solving this issue.
 
TrueTemperment.com said:
If you play a lot of jazz chords in keys which brass players favour ....
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It improves the temper of some scales, but not all. Bending becomes "interesting". In some cases you can bend the string and the note will go down. Personally I tend to tune the G slightly flat, and press a bit harder on some chord shapes/fret positions.
 
NeoSound said:
Is that the frets that Vai says he is going to put in all his guitars?
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Yes. It seems to me to be a good tool for chording, especially with high gain. I have "relative pitch" and I hate it when the guitar is technically in tune, but I still hear these nuances with some chords that sound a bit off. Soloing, I don't think I notice these issues much. If I don't use TT Frets, is the only solution to tune the offending string to the root chord I'm playing?
 
If you bend strings, forget about it. If you rarely or never bend and you just want better sounding chords, you might want to consider it. Have you tried a guitar that has the nut moved back a bit? Most (if not all) PRS guitars are designed that way, and I have far less tuning issues with those guitars than with others. Moving the nut slightly is one of the key points of the Feiten system, but several builders use that one piece alone instead of the whole system as it is often viewed as a significant improvement.

I personally wouldn't consider the TT Frets.

D
 
In my experience, whenever ppl complain about microtonal issues the real reasons are:

- old strings
- improper technique (too much pressure)
- intonation is off
- microtonal issues

in that order

and then there is Hansford Rowe, who really knows what he is talking about and a very nice guy.

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I attended Matthias IA Ekhlund's Freak Guitar Camp a few times, and the True Temperament guys dropped by to demo their products. You can hear an amazing difference when playing.
My only grief is that it would be a pricey upgrade for a weekend warrior like me.
 
Wish there was a TT fret guitar I could try in Los Angeles. I did talk to the guitar repair guy that the TT website referred me to. When I called him about it, he immediately said "don't do it". Frankly, it put me off more to him than using TT frets...

It drives me crazy how I live in a "music city" in America, and yet most great music equipment is not easily available here... It's like I have to good to NAMM or else!
 
claxor said:
I have "relative pitch" and I hate it when the guitar is technically in tune, but I still hear these nuances with some chords that sound a bit off.
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"True Temperament" frets might improve intonation and tuning, but they won't fix the problem. Perfect intonation is impossible to achieve on a guitar or any other fixed-pitch instrument. (It's theoretically possible on a guitar, but you'd need about 30 frets per octave to do it.)
 
Action is set with bridge and nut height, the same as with any other nut. You can have whatever action you want.
 
Rex said:
Action is set with bridge and nut height, the same as with any other nut. You can have whatever action you want.
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So, really, how the guitar feels should be the same with the Earvana Floyd Nut? It just sounds more in tune with each chord?
 
Pretty much. Your frets stay the same. If the nut slots and bridge are at the same height as before, it will feel the same.

Any tuning of a fixed-pitch instrument involves compromises; if you put a given note at the correct pitch for one chord or key, it'll be off slightly out of tune for another chord/key. The Earvana makes slight tweaks to the string length that adjust those compromises to minimize how far out of tune a note can get.
 
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