{"id":6682,"date":"2014-12-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=6682"},"modified":"2014-12-17T12:15:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T17:15:49","slug":"would-true-tempered-frets-actually-be-useful-on-a-bass-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/article\/would-true-tempered-frets-actually-be-useful-on-a-bass-guitar.html","title":{"rendered":"Would "True Temperament" frets actually be useful on a bass guitar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Image Credit: GuitarFish<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

A guitar with true temperament frets looks really weird when you first see it, as all the frets looked crooked in a “melted” sort of way.<\/p>\n

What is temperament? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Temperament describes the system of tuning in which chromatic intervals have a whole number ratio that corresponds between two intervals along the chromatic scale. This ratio is what describes a musical 3rd, 5th, and octave as an example. <\/p>\n

Why does true temperament exist? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The style of temperament that is found on most guitars is equal temperament. Equal temperament was originally developed for keyed instruments like the piano, clavinet, harpsichord, and other keyed instruments. This is a “compromise” based tuning system.The frequency changes between notes on the chromatic scale vary by an almost constant ratio. It is calculated by using the scale length, and a magic number that is fairly close to 18 in decimal. <\/p>\n

True temperament views various factors of the vibrating string and the relationship to the frequency changes and dynamically produces the ideal string to fret witness point for every position. There is no constant ratio observed, and the result is a perfectly balanced ratio between each string at every possible fret position or chord.<\/p>\n

In other words, the entire point is to have more “even” tuning across the fretboard, specifically to have optimal tuning in several keys that are useful for guitarists<\/em>. More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n

Does playing on true temperament frets “feel weird?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not at all. While it may look weird, a player would notice no significant difference compared to even-fretted when playing the instrument. In other words, no, you would not have to relearn how to play again.<\/p>\n

Would true temperament frets work for bass players?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is The Big Question. And here’s the answer:<\/p>\n

For bass players who mostly play single notes, no, you would not notice any significant tuning advantage.<\/p>\n

For bass players who chord<\/em> often and utilize thinner strings on high frets often, yes you would have more accurate tuning on those high frets, but pretty much only there.<\/p>\n

Should bass players who play multi-scale try the true temperament fret?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can if you wish, but in all honesty, if you’re the type of player that uses multi-scale where many strings are present, the fanned fret<\/em> is more accommodating, as many prefer it for playing comfort to hit those high notes more easily. <\/p>\n

Final word: True Temperament frets are more of a guitar thing than a bass guitar thing. Using these kind of frets on bass guitar would be different and look cool, but doesn’t really serve to the player’s advantage in any significant way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Image Credit: GuitarFish) A guitar with true temperament frets looks really weird when you first see it, as all the frets looked crooked in a “melted” sort of way. What is temperament? Temperament describes the system of tuning in which chromatic intervals have a whole number ratio that corresponds between two intervals along the chromatic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}