Zer0 Glide Nuts

[Alanko]

I know a guy that got very deep into just intonation. He was wrenching frets out of guitars and trying to get a jeweler friend to add new ones in the 'correct' places, with a single fret per string in the 'correct' place. I lost interest in that, though I did defret a bass for him and inlay it with the correct markings (as per his drawn-on dots at least). In my ignorant opinion, perfectly in tune thirds and fifths made his instruments sound like synths when run through distortion. Part of the charm is all those fuddled mathematically wrong harmonic overtones.

I admire it from an innovation point of view, but at the end of the day none of my instruments have these mods carried out.

[Daniel_J]

I know a guy that got very deep into just intonation. He was wrenching frets out of guitars and trying to get a jeweler friend to add new ones in the 'correct' places, with a single fret per string in the 'correct' place. I lost interest in that, though I did defret a bass for him and inlay it with the correct markings (as per his drawn-on dots at least). In my ignorant opinion, perfectly in tune thirds and fifths made his instruments sound like synths when run through distortion. Part of the charm is all those fuddled mathematically wrong harmonic overtones.

I admire it from an innovation point of view, but at the end of the day none of my instruments have these mods carried out.

I guess you're talking about what it's know now as "True Temperament" fretting. There's this company http://www.truetemperament.com/ that has patented the system, I guess.

Watching the demonstration video, it kinda sounds like a synth when the guy plays chords.


Edit: I've just watched the whole video. I think it's worth watching, even if just for laughs. The guy basically says that "normal" guitar sounds like crap...

[Dave W]

After saying that a guitar with straight frets is "impossible to tune" and has "extremely bad intonation," he gives us 3+ minutes of shitty tone. 

[amptech]

What an annoying video. Some people just spend too much time worrying about this, like it is something to fill up the emty space where their talent should have been. Althoug math and logics will say straight frets and normal nuts is a compromise, good instruments in the hands of good players (they don't even have to be that good) have always sounded good to me.

[copacetic]

After listening to that cats video I offer apologies all around for even bringing the notion of zero fret. No excuses for finding ourselves there. I actually found the topic from Stew Mac, but I'll take the blame.

[Alanko]

It is ironic that the guy talks about intonation and tuning, but uses the whammy bar to embellish the clean chords and then insists on bending random harmonics over and over again. What music calls for that, and surely intonation is a moot point if you are adjusting the pitch constantly with the whammy bar?

I've tried listening to the music of Harry Partch, an early and noteworthy proponent of Just Intonation music. It sounded like a bunch of people kicking scrap metal around whilst an old man rambled on, tonelessly, about train hopping.

[Rob]

It is ironic that the guy talks about intonation and tuning, but uses the whammy bar to embellish the clean chords and then insists on bending random harmonics over and over again. What music calls for that, and surely intonation is a moot point if you are adjusting the pitch constantly with the whammy bar?

I've tried listening to the music of Harry Partch, an early and noteworthy proponent of Just Intonation music. It sounded like a bunch of people kicking scrap metal around whilst an old man rambled on, tonelessly, about train hopping.

With Pan Flutes?

[66Atlas]

no nut will ever correct for my sloppy playing so Im at a loss here   I guess I prefer my music with the imperfections so I keep listening to recordings of Jack Bruce playing with a crappy "bar bridge" and aspire to achieve mediocrity.

That said there is no excuse for Gibson screwing up the placement of the bridge on the original Thunderbird and the Badbird bridge still has my full endorsement.

[Alanko]

With Pan Flutes?

Not that I heard, but I wouldn't rule it out. Harry Partch had a harmonium created with the keys tuned to microtones. Something like one octave spread across four octaves of keys.

[dadagoboi]

Less Talent=More Tech[/b]

[/size]

it would be perfect if I could just get that to flash on and off...damn.

[patman]

agreed...

[Dave W]

no nut will ever correct for my sloppy playing so Im at a loss here   I guess I prefer my music with the imperfections so I keep listening to recordings of Jack Bruce playing with a crappy "bar bridge" and aspire to achieve mediocrity.

That said there is no excuse for Gibson screwing up the placement of the bridge on the original Thunderbird and the Badbird bridge still has my full endorsement.

Yes, Jack seems to have done all right for himself. Likewise many more who used (and still use) Gibson bar bridges and uncompensated wraparound bridges on Juniors, Specials and Melody Makers. Then there's Gibson's continued use of the Rule of 18 for fret placement instead of the more accurate divisor of 17.817. And yet somehow we manage to make good, listenable music, unlike the anal retentive git in the video.