Almost Perfect Pitch...

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Warthog:

And you are right, to me it sounds like the sine wave flattens out when you hit the right notes on each string.

I've never read any beginner's book that talks about it though.

 

I wonder about resonances though, whether the sine curve on a dreadnought would flatten out on a different note than on (say) a parlour guitar. I imagine so seeing the body size difference.

 

If so... why are we stuck on the bottom string being tuned to "E" anyway? Why "E"? Did it sound best on a classical guitar (smaller body than a dreadnought) with gut strings (duller sound than steel)?

 

And yes, I know about DADGAD and those alternative tunings, but 99.999% of beginners' books only tell you about plain old EADGBE.

 

So yeah, why "E" anyway? Maybe we should have alternative tunings to suit each guitar, specified by the manufacturer or something. I've never read of anyone doing that. You'd expect someone like Legg or Kottke to be really into that and yet...

 

Bit of a pain to implement, because you'd always be transposing from one guitar to another but it'd be interesting.

[Bluesape]

I'll say it again. The dial tone is A440, at least in this part of the world. If ya can nail that pitch in your head, it's all ya need.

[Trucks]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Originally posted by Warthog:

And you are right, to me it sounds like the sine wave flattens out when you hit the right notes on each string.

I've never read any beginner's book that talks about it though.

 

I wonder about resonances though, whether the sine curve on a dreadnought would flatten out on a different note than on (say) a parlour guitar. I imagine so seeing the body size difference.

 

If so... why are we stuck on the bottom string being tuned to "E" anyway? Why "E"? Did it sound best on a classical guitar (smaller body than a dreadnought) with gut strings (duller sound than steel)?

 

And yes, I know about DADGAD and those alternative tunings, but 99.999% of beginners' books only tell you about plain old EADGBE.

 

So yeah, why "E" anyway? Maybe we should have alternative tunings to suit each guitar, specified by the manufacturer or something. I've never read of anyone doing that. You'd expect someone like Legg or Kottke to be really into that and yet...

 

Bit of a pain to implement, because you'd always be transposing from one guitar to another but it'd be interesting.

Its funny you should say that as I have a theory that each of my guitars sound best in a particular tuning. Most people think im crackers My 6 string acoustic really shines in DADGAD tuned up a half step so i guess that makes it Ebsus4?? My 12 string sounds great in open C or in standard tuned down to C, my electric sounds great in Eb and my semi-acoustic reso sounds best in either D or Open D. Im yet to find a guitar that I think suonds best in Standard E. So I leave the guitars in the tunings that suit them, which works out fine for me but when other people come over for a jam they are always complaining about it. I think because i've always played around with tunings I now dont find it too hard to transpose a peice from one guitar/tuning to another.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Nope NOT crackers at all actually! and WHY U ASK... because you can hit the optimum resonant frequency of EACH instrument through alternative tuning! Standard tuning is always a compromise.