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Negative. I’m a classically trained guitarist with degrees in music and physics. You are correct about the frets, but not the strings themselves. Sometimes,

Negative. I’m a classically trained guitarist with degrees in music and physics. You are correct about the frets, but not the strings themselves. Sometimes, you really need the two E strings to be perfectly in tune, sometimes, some piece has an octave on two adjacent strings as a drone, and that needs to be aligned, or in the key of D (with a drop D), you’d probably want the two Ds to be in tune. Whatever you choose, something will be out of tune because of physics . Half steps don’t perfectly align with their equivalents - thirds in particular drive me nuts. It’s just a matter of picking what you hate the least. It’s not uncommon to see professional classical guitarists give a string a micro adjustment during a whole note/rest while they are playing, or tweak tuning between each piece.

narag 4y ago
OK, I see what you mean, thank you very much. That's actually very interesting for me and explains some inconsistencies that I had attributed to too new/too old strings, badly adjusted bridge or whatnot.
- kansface 4y ago
  Old strings are a different matter. Strings ideally obey Hook's law for small perturbations and undergo simple harmonic oscillation with standing waves (overtones) that have nodes at the neck and bridge (or fret and bridge). With old strings in particular, the fundamental of the string changes over time (as the string sounds). Audibly so! My mental model is that the "length" of the string is a really fuzzy concept for [worn] strings in motion. Plucking the string deforms it, and the string slowly retracts back to the stable length (at rest) as it dissipates energy. I haven't done any math or seen any, but I don't think its linear, either. You can easily verify this using an electric guitar if you plug it into a tuner thing with a visible meter - the arm will swing around. Also, I haven't done any physics in over a decade because I write software now...

narag 4y ago

OK, I see what you mean, thank you very much. That's actually very interesting for me and explains some inconsistencies that I had attributed to too new/too old strings, badly adjusted bridge or whatnot.

kansface 4y ago
Old strings are a different matter. Strings ideally obey Hook's law for small perturbations and undergo simple harmonic oscillation with standing waves (overtones) that have nodes at the neck and bridge (or fret and bridge). With old strings in particular, the fundamental of the string changes over time (as the string sounds). Audibly so! My mental model is that the "length" of the string is a really fuzzy concept for [worn] strings in motion. Plucking the string deforms it, and the string slowly retracts back to the stable length (at rest) as it dissipates energy. I haven't done any math or seen any, but I don't think its linear, either. You can easily verify this using an electric guitar if you plug it into a tuner thing with a visible meter - the arm will swing around. Also, I haven't done any physics in over a decade because I write software now...