pythagorean tuning?

EDX

EDX

New member
do any of you guys use pythagorean tuning, in other words tuning your guitar at 432hz instead of 440hz?

i'm actually trying it, first thing i noticed is my power chords sound perfect, some notes sound "wacky" while others wich used to sound quaky (if that actually makes sense) not sounds "right", it's supossed that pythagorean tuning at not givin the same difference in frequency from note to note will actually cuase some notes to detune in comparison to others, as i play mainly metal and i don't really use so much more than actually 4 or 5 chord shapes i haven't really noticed it.

other thing i had really noticed is that even when ripping off the most aggresive thrash, death or most evil riffs, after some time it actually kind of gets relaxing, i don't know if it's the effect of the tuning or just placebo effect.....

anyway, what do you thing of this kind of tuning, any of you use it?, more people shoud use it?, what's actually all the thing going behind it?
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

really kramersteen, you had never felt the itch to try an alternate tuning, tomething dropped, open, a quarter, half or full step?
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

well, i like to try some tunings and see if i can get something with them, there was a time i got along with D#, then the 'ol drop d, and c standar as i got a detuned black sabbath riffs itch, but i always went back to E 440hz, maybe this 432hz is just another guitaristical phase, anyway, it caught me after i readed that was the tuning used in helloween's 7 sinners album, the main thing that drived me to try the tuning was that since i first heard that album the songs were "relaxing", well for a speed/power metal album.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

Link to Pythagorian tuning?

Can you really hear 2Hz? I guess maybe, because the leading symphonies are all around that mark now.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

No. I've tried that once, and switched back because I see no benefit from it.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

Is that something like where Metallica tuned for ride the lightning? They were a touch high on a couple songs.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

Tuning on a guitar is relative to any arbitrary pitch. You can pick a higher or lower one, it doesn't really have an impact on the music being played. You're still using the same intervals. The notes are still spaced apart similarly. Pythagorean tuning is not the correct term for tuning to 432, tuning DOWN is. Real Pythagorean tuning is based around a 3:2 tuning ratio and is incredibly wide range . . . Not really useful for modern music, and a guitar can't easily be tuned in this way.
 
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Re: pythagorean tuning?

GuitarDoc said:
The difference between 432hz and 440hz is 2hz?!
Click to expand...

Sorry, pre-coffee posting. ;) I read it as 442Hz. (I'll bow out of the 432Hz vs 440Hz discussion this time)

I just read up on Pythagorean tuning, it's one of the earliest methods. You don't even achieve perfect octaves. As GuitarStv mentioned, it would require physically changing the placement of frets. Modern equal temperament is the best compromise for instruments that require precise intervals. (Keyboard, fretted string, valved and keyed wind, etc.)
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

I'm not at my guitfiddle at the moment, but rest assured, I will be trying this today. 440hz is so overplayed. I mean it seems like everyone is tuning to 440hz.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

well, after some other hours playing, the inperfect octaves and the smoother 5ths gives an interesant flavour to playing, it's like 3 cents lower than the tuning dimebag used as standar, and i'm feeling like if it has some mojo, anyway it could be placebo effect or the out of tune octaves, but it works at givin "texture" on dark thrash/black riffage
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

I tried that in my acoustic and actually saw a lot of difference at first. It sounded more mellow and relaxing, but with a detuned kind of vibe. In comparison to 440hz i found the 440 kind made me feel like i was more alert and tense. On the other hand, it's hard to measure with efficiency indeed how much of my sensation was not influenced by what i read before trying the tunning, since i read a lot of stuff of how it was a way for the government to make you more tense and fearful and that the nazi's (most despicable thing in history) supported it and such.

Having that said i never even knew there was such thing as 432hz before reading about it, so besides questioning myself why some old recordings of classical guitar sounded different than new ones note-wise, i don't think i would have ever realized if i hadn't read about it. =P
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

But aren't you like, vibing with the natural vibration and hum of the earth, man? :smokin:


Back to reality, Pythagorean is not 432Hz, two different things.
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

not exactly, but in pythagorean 432hz is the reference freq for A, so is kind of, also as an interesant thing, tuning A to 440hz was standarized until the 50's, so a lot of guitar lines from before that, and more important classical music is written with 432hz as the ref freq for A, or the nick named baroque tuning, wich is 3 or 3.5 cents over pythagorean (i think this is useful for someone going for neo-classical or baroque shredding)
 
Re: pythagorean tuning?

EDX said:
well, after some other hours playing, the inperfect octaves and the smoother 5ths gives an interesant flavour to playing, it's like 3 cents lower than the tuning dimebag used as standar, and i'm feeling like if it has some mojo, anyway it could be placebo effect or the out of tune octaves, but it works at givin "texture" on dark thrash/black riffage
Click to expand...

Your octaves and 5ths aren't any more or less imperfect than they were at a=440 unless you moved all your frets as well as tuned down.
 
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