Equally temepered tuning - it works....

[Jimi75]

Yesterday I had a "Blitz" experience. I had a few issues with the intonation of my Les Paul also after setting up the guitar perfectly. My thoughts were like buy an Earvana saddle and so on, but my fear was that my guitar is gonna lose its sound due to the change. Not to speak of the Buzz Feiten operation...

The last two days I took some time to analyze the problem. Guitarists tend to love it when one chord sounds great. You often witness that a guitarist on stage / session pulls a Gmajor Chord and tunes the guitar so that it sound correct. It satisfies for the moment, but we all know that the other chords sound so and so then and the overall neck intonation is so and so, too.

The "Blitz" came when I saw an Eric Johnson insruction video on YouTube. He says that he adopted the way of tuning his guitar from a piano tuner. He starts in the middle which is our G-string and equally tempers out what sounds best. The result is that the guitar is slightly flat on some chords, but still in a way that is acceptable to our ear ( please bear in mind that this also depends on how trained your hearing is).

Unfortunately, he only explains it in short terms, but I understood what he wanted to say. I checked Google and called my guitar builder, who always tells me that I have to accept that a stringed instrument can not be tuned porperly over the complete neck, unless it has 36 frets in the same measure we usually have our 12 frets.

I gave it a try and tuned after the equally tempered tuning method. I can accept that what I am hearing better. The overall feel is more negotiable and I feel like I do not have to make any adjustment on my guitar.

Here is how I tuned my guitar:

Play the flageolett above the 5th fret of the low E string.
Tune the high e string so that both are in tune.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the low E string
Play the 2nd fret of the d string and tune the d string accordingly so that both sound equal.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the d string.
Play the 3rd fret of the b string and tune the b string accordingly.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the g string.
Play the 3rd fret of the e string and tune the g string accordingly.

Finally play the flageollet above the 12th fret of the A string.
Play the 2nd fret of the g string and tune the A string accordingly.

I guess this is no a big news to most of you, but I felt like sharing my new experience.

Jimi

[kerc]

What is a flageolett?

[Jimi75]

Flageoletts are the harmonic tones about the 5th 7th and 12th fret.

[warren0728]

Flageoletts are the harmonic tones about the 5th 7th and 12th fret.

ohhhhhh.....i was thinking it was what i got after eating mexican food.....was gonna have a mexican lunch today so i could properly tune my guitar

ww

[tot_Ou_tard]

Play the flageolett above the 5th fret of the low E string.
Tune the high e string so that both are in tune.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the low E string
Play the 2nd fret of the d string and tune the d string accordingly so that both sound equal.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the d string.
Play the 3rd fret of the b string and tune the b string accordingly.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the g string.
Play the 3rd fret of the e string and tune the g string accordingly.

Finally play the flageollet above the 12th fret of the A string.
Play the 2nd fret of the g string and tune the A string accordingly.

I understand all of that except using the flageolet above the 5th fret
of the low E to tune the high e. Why not use the 12th fret flageolet?

ohhhhhh.....i was thinking it was what i got after eating mexican food.....was gonna have a mexican lunch today so i could properly tune my guitar

ww

Well you might have to have a 5-course french meal because flageolet has several meanings:

From Wikipedia:



Cornucopia lists 37 varieties of Shell beans. The light green Flageolet bean is taken very seriously in France and soon the heirloom Chevrier will come under a controlled label reminiscent of the wine "Appellation d'Origine Controllée" called "Label Rouge". A number of other beans are already produced under this label.

Flageolet bean varieties include:

* Chevrier (the original heirloom)
* Elsa
* Flambeau
* Flamingo



But my favorite meaning is:

A flageolet is a woodwind musical instrument and a member of the fipple flute family. The first flageolets were made in the 16th Century and the instrument continued to be made until the 20th Century when it was succeeded by the tin whistle.

Because I've never heard of the fipple flute family. Sounds like a goofy sitcom.

[Jimi75]

Oh, to be honest, I can not tell you why 5th and not 12th.

Just try it - if it works for you it is okay - nobody holds you from trying this with 12th instead of 5th...

By the way, the word flageolet tone derives from the physics. It means that only a part of the vibration of the whole tone can be heard, often compared to the sound of a bell...blablablablabla...blablablabla

[t_ross33]

Here is how I tuned my guitar:

Play the flageolett above the 5th fret of the low E string.
Tune the high e string so that both are in tune.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the low E string
Play the 2nd fret of the d string and tune the d string accordingly so that both sound equal.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the d string.
Play the 3rd fret of the b string and tune the b string accordingly.

Play the flageolett above the 12th fret of the g string.
Play the 3rd fret of the e string and tune the g string accordingly.

Finally play the flageollet above the 12th fret of the A string.
Play the 2nd fret of the g string and tune the A string accordingly.

Jimi

Jimi, did you use a tuner or tune by ear?

[Jimi75]

I tuned the low E string with a tuner and did the rest by ear.

[t_ross33]

I tuned the low E string with a tuner and did the rest by ear.

Cool! I haven't tried that method before. I know what I'm gonna be doing tonight