Re: OT Re: Phiew.... guitar intonation - hard work!

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Ian Petersen wrote:
> 
> Andy,
> 
>     I'm rather skeptical of that as a fix. I reckon it's a hack that
>     only works
>     if you aren't aiming for equal temperament tuning.
> 
>     i.e. it works if you stick to the usual guitarist chords,
>     but otherwise makes the guitar untunable.
> 
> 
> All guitar tunings/intonation methods are 'a bit of a hack' as long as 
> you're using fixed, regularly spaced frets. 

:-)
Sure, because equal temperament can be thought of as a hack.


>The Earvana style nut just 
> distributes the hack at each end of the string instead of just one end. 
> 
>     All it's doing is making all the fretted notes on the G
>     string a bit sharper

+++ uh, that was me getting it wrong, it makes the fretted notes flatter.

> 
> 
> All the strings get a bit of compensation. 

Yep, it's a much more sophisticated system than I thought.

It looks quite convincing here

http://www.earvana.com/technology.htm

..but I notice they don't say what happens beyond the 12th fret.

> 
> I know the Earvana nut is all wrong *in theory*. But in practice - on 
> real guitars - it works just fine! 

With a low string height over the nut you don't need to compensate.
I just checked my two main guitars and they just don't have the intonation 
problems that the Earvana bridge is supposed to fix.

Of course, if you're using it and it sounds great then that's cool :-)

andy