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Old 11-16-2010, 12:06 AM   #73
stupeT
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: frankonia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yep View Post
Maybe this notion of "tuning to chords" is more common than I realized, but I honestly can't believe we're even seriously talking about it.
Well, I would not call it "tuning to chords" but tuning to a certain scale. (I am not a native English speaker, though). Before well tempered area a harpsichord was perfectly tuned to the scale of the composition. Say: C maj. So where the other instruments. Playing in C# maj on such a tuned instrument sounded horrible, of course. BUT: played in C maj it sounded much cleaner than todays well tempered standard tuning. Thats why so many people at that time refused that "perfect compromise of detuning" called well tempered.

Many commercial keyboards today still allow for such a tuning. Indian music still does. A Sitar's frets can be shifted (up/down) to reflect that. Fixed frets on modern guitar will never allow for being that perfect, of course. This does not change the truth that 99.9% of the modern songs on the radio are in well tempered tuning... Bot not everybody here is in commercial music only.

Back to heavy distorted e guitars: that sound will emphasize the slight errors introduced by the well tempered tuning. Makes it much more audible. Maybe thats why powerchords on 2 strings only became so popular?

We had a punk rock song where I played open D and my fellow D power chord. With long sustain more like a pad, not the metal hammers (think of some Hüsker Dü songs). I always tuned to a perfect open D for that, and it made a big difference in the overall guitar sound of both.
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