ET guitar (was Bassplaying)

[A440A@AOL.COM]

 pianoola 

<< I played with a country guitar player who change his tuning after what key 
his playing in. It would be intresting to check what he is doing. I asked a 
classic guitarist if he did the same thing but he said he didn't do it but 
he tuned the guitar between each tune so he probably changed the temprement 
not knowing it, just thinking the guitar is out of tune.
 >>

Greetings, 
     If you watch that "country guitar player" closely, you will probably see 
that he is changing the B string.  
   It is this compromise that usually throws guitarists into tuning hell.    
     Many guitarists unknowingly tune a pure or even a narrow fourth between 
their lower strings.  This hidden sharpness then shows up on that high E, 
making the distance between the G and E strings so great that the B will not  
find a happy home between them, ie.  if you make a tolerable 4th with the E, 
the G-B third is harsh.  If you slow that third to a tolerable level, the B-E 
fourth sounds bad, and when they flatten the high E string to fix that,  the 
whole guitar sounds flat and out.    
      When the guitar's four lower strings are properly tuned, ( very 
slightly wide fourths),  and a clean octave is found for the high 
E,  the G-E 6th will be within musical limits and the B string then can be 
tuned to improve the B-E fourth while speeding up the G-B third, or flattened 
to improve the third at the expense of the fourth.  It all depends on what 
key they will play in. 
     I have handed a professional, session guitarist a guitar which I had 
tuned in as close to ET as I could, and he was baffled.  He said it sounded 
pretty good,  and all the chords worked in all the places, but he thought 
there was something just slightly off about the sound.  I told him to retune 
it like he thought it should be, and he instantly lowered the B string.  Told 
me he would bring it back up if they got into the key of E!! 
Regards, 
Ed Foote 
(Music row IS tuning hell...........)