Buzz feiten or Earvana?

[szulc]

http://www.buzzfeiten.com/FAQ/faq.html

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

Anyone tried either of these they both sound liike a good idea.

[Bizarro]

I agree that these both sound like good ideas, but I'm not too sure about the technical merits of the actual implementation of these two systems. It seems like a big hassle to me!

The guitar has two commonly accepted problems with tuning.
1. notes are sharp near the nut
2. the temperment is a compromise

Pianos use a similar principle for tuning that BF and Earvana use... Make the lower registers gradually flatter and the upper registers gradually sharper as you move away from middle C.

I think the Tom Anderson, PRS, etc guitars that use special tuning through nut displacement sound really good, but a similar effect can be accomplished on a normal (affordable) guitar through good intonation.

I've experimented a bit with this and I suggest you do the same before making a physical modification to your guitar. I re-intonate my guitars with every string change and occasionally get a really 'sweet' sounding intonation, and I'm consistently happy with the overall intonation. I use a variation of the piano method and let my ear be the final judge.

There's some good info on the web, here's one resource: http://www.custombasses.8m.com/temperment/alternate.html

p.s. There is no such thing as the perfect guitar, but that doesn't mean I'll ever stop looking!:p

[EricV]

Another thread where we talked about this... (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84&highlight=feiten)

Eric

[szulc]

String thickness and mass change how a string vibrates when it it fretted. The bridge adjustment accomplichis the evening out of the errors from the standpoint of fretted notes only. The errors corrected (or compenstated ) by the nut modification only affect open strings. The string thickness and mass affect how string interacts at the first fret. By modifying the nut to compensate for this you should be able to get better error correction including open strings. The earvana system allows you to slide the nut forwards or backwards ( the ideal would have individual adjustments for each string) but this nut is shaped in a way tah compensated for the typical scale lengths and relative string thicknesses.
This is truly different than merely adjusting the bridge.

[EricV]

This is quite interesting...
I really do have to check one of these out... I guess I´ll get my hand onto one of them at one of the upcoming tradeshows.

As I said, when I played a Buzzy Feiten-equipped guitar ( and I only played on it for a lil while ), it was interesting... felt and sounded just a bit different, I couldn´t exactly tell WHAT was so different.
Well, as Satch said, the most effective used of these systems is to use a BF-equipped guitar in combination with a regular one. That´s when the effect really becomes obvious.
Some info about the Gambale-guitar: CLICK (http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/DsplyModel/?gEGU00004AESFG)
Eric