Getting Bent
August 17th, 2009 JonIn the October 2009 issue of Guitar Player magazine, when asked what new gear discoveries he’s excited about, Steve Vai mentions that he’s using the bent fret True Temperament necks on his 2 favorite guitars (pg. 61). These necks attempt to address some of the intonation problems found on a standard guitar neck. The bent frets do not provide pure Just Intonation pitches, or any new pitch identities, but it is a step in the right direction. The problems of standard fretting are being acknowledged by one of the most visible guitarists around.
Some of Vai’s statements are misleading. He states, “The tempered scale is sort of out of tune with itself. If you tune a piano to a C chord, and then play an F chord, one will sound out of tune.”
Actually, the tempered scale is in tune with itself, but out of tune with the natural Harmonic Series. And if you tune a pure C chord on a piano, you can also tune a pure F chord and both will be perfectly in tune with no conflict. You could even tune a pure G chord and that would be in tune as well. The problem would arise on a chord like D, as the D note from the G chord would be out of tune with the A note from the F chord. This is why more than 12 pitches are needed to play music in tune.