do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
- Thread starter esandes
- Start date
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
No such thing. A well-tempered guitar would be unplayable.
No such thing. A well-tempered guitar would be unplayable.
vinta9e
New member
kramersteen
PowerMetalRaph
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
Vasshu the humanoid typhoon
Unseen
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
Imagine dressing frets like that.....and it does not even sound either....that "perfect" intonation....
Imagine dressing frets like that.....and it does not even sound either....that "perfect" intonation....
F
Funkfingers
Guest
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
My first decent electric guitar was a Telecaster copy with a three-saddle bridge. I learned to bend strings to pitch.
My first decent electric guitar was a Telecaster copy with a three-saddle bridge. I learned to bend strings to pitch.
Oinkus
New member
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
I think a well setup guitar hits about 85% on the scale of notes being correct , add a compensated nut/frets and you might get it to a little over 90% (maybe 94% max). Just play a D chord on any guitar and adjust the high E string to pitch , that is the second fret and it is off on every guitar in the universe without a compensated nut or frets.
I think a well setup guitar hits about 85% on the scale of notes being correct , add a compensated nut/frets and you might get it to a little over 90% (maybe 94% max). Just play a D chord on any guitar and adjust the high E string to pitch , that is the second fret and it is off on every guitar in the universe without a compensated nut or frets.
blueman335
Mojo's Minions
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
+1. The straight frets guitars have are an average of what works best in general for the 6 strings, but it's not accurate individually. If you have straight frets and think your guitar has perfect intonation, you need to see someone about your hearing.
+1. The straight frets guitars have are an average of what works best in general for the 6 strings, but it's not accurate individually. If you have straight frets and think your guitar has perfect intonation, you need to see someone about your hearing.
treyhaislip
Well-known member
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
Me thinks the only "yes" would be a fretless?...and then only a select few can play those 100% accurately 100% of the time
Me thinks the only "yes" would be a fretless?...and then only a select few can play those 100% accurately 100% of the time
F
Funkfingers
Guest
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
Straight frets date back to gut strings. Back then, string material inconsistency issues put inexact fret positioning into the shade.
Straight frets date back to gut strings. Back then, string material inconsistency issues put inexact fret positioning into the shade.
crusty philtrum
Vintageologist
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
i like music
i like music
PFDarkside
of the Forum
Re: do any of your guitars have perfect intonation?
Play a major third interval (G-B for example). If the two notes are perfectly in tune on a tuner, you will hear "beats" of the frequencies interfering. If you lower the third (B) by 13.7 cents it will ring true. An instrument tuned to just tuning will play great in one key and atrocious in an adjacent key. Equal temperament is a way to make all 12 keys play equally "out of tune".
This is all before you get to the quirks of the guitar design. For example, the lower 3 or 4 strings being wrapped and the highest 2 or 3 being plain. The issues that these necks and nuts try to solve are centuries old, and everything is a compromise. The one benefit is that with recorded music for the past century or so, we have become accustomed to the latest Equal Temperament, so much so that many musicians don't even understand that two notes tuned in a tuner are out of tune with each other. However, in our benefit, many styles we play on guitar heavily rely on bending notes and "blue" notes that don't fall perfectly on the equal temperament scale.
That neck takes the basic equal temperament, factors in the fact that guitarist play in E, A, G, C and D FAR more often than G#, Bb & F#, and tries to correct some of the guitar's natural flaws... Some guitarists will think it's the best thing ever, others will think it's absolutely awful.
So the answer is no, none of us do, no matter how you define it. And, it doesn't really matter since we overcome the limitations with technique and workarounds.
Even that neck is a compromise between equal temperament (what your tuner shows) and just intonation (what your ear wants to hear).Does your guitar look like this? It would have to look like this:
Play a major third interval (G-B for example). If the two notes are perfectly in tune on a tuner, you will hear "beats" of the frequencies interfering. If you lower the third (B) by 13.7 cents it will ring true. An instrument tuned to just tuning will play great in one key and atrocious in an adjacent key. Equal temperament is a way to make all 12 keys play equally "out of tune".
This is all before you get to the quirks of the guitar design. For example, the lower 3 or 4 strings being wrapped and the highest 2 or 3 being plain. The issues that these necks and nuts try to solve are centuries old, and everything is a compromise. The one benefit is that with recorded music for the past century or so, we have become accustomed to the latest Equal Temperament, so much so that many musicians don't even understand that two notes tuned in a tuner are out of tune with each other. However, in our benefit, many styles we play on guitar heavily rely on bending notes and "blue" notes that don't fall perfectly on the equal temperament scale.
That neck takes the basic equal temperament, factors in the fact that guitarist play in E, A, G, C and D FAR more often than G#, Bb & F#, and tries to correct some of the guitar's natural flaws... Some guitarists will think it's the best thing ever, others will think it's absolutely awful.
So the answer is no, none of us do, no matter how you define it. And, it doesn't really matter since we overcome the limitations with technique and workarounds.
