Hmmm Microtonal guitars

[Nick]

youtu.be/

Be alright for the 'odd' scales of the middle east, be a nightmare for me though, who considers fretting to be the worst part of building guitars (Having the attention span of a goldfish I absolutely HATE repetitive tasks )

[kiwigeo]

Only two things required for re-fretting one of those babies.......a double barrelled shotgun and someone to clean up the mess afterwards.

[charangohabsburg]

Aren't there easier ways to make a guitar that never plays in tune?

[Allen]

Reminds me of all those drug company adds. We've found a cure for a problem you didn't knew you had.

[kiwigeo]

Aren't there easier ways to make a guitar that never plays in tune?

Yes there is....leave the strings off

[charangohabsburg]

Aren't there easier ways to make a guitar that never plays in tune?

Yes there is....leave the strings off

A new service offered by the luthier! Similar to this pencil sharpening service.

[kpcart]

the examples he gave are terrible. what music uses this? why not just eliminate frets like a violin then? this kind of think will always have small interest, and sometimes be pushed by some academic for their own gain.

[charangohabsburg]

the examples he gave are terrible.

A matter of taste and tradition.

what music uses this?

Some traditional oriental music uses radif and other non-western scales.



I am not an expert on this, but I believe (without having had the patience to listen to what the guy in the video says) the first example is somesthing like that.

why not just eliminate frets like a violin then?

Because traditional instruments like the Tanbour, Dutar and Ghaychack tuned to radif were (are) fretted instruments.

However, the second example (with the very crowded fretboard) seems to be based on futuristic "academic developments". Well, why not if there are people who want to play and/or listen to that kind of music? The only thing I disagree with are claims that such scales would cure a problem (one we actually don't have, here I'm in the boat with Allen).

[Nick]

Both toons were Turkish in their origin I think I heard him say. Indian (asian not merican) music uses some interesting scales and tunings but not sure there would be a need for microtones.

[DarwinStrings]

I reckon the reason they still use frets rather than fretless is a tone thing. So that the string is stopped on a solid fret rather than a fleshy finger stop.

[slowlearner]

Interesting... the first guitar he played sounded out of tune with the microtone. The second one sounded totally in tune and properly harmonic. Funny how even temperament just doesn't work for some styles of music.