Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions

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A 6-string Kite guitar can be strung with a standard set of strings, but it's not ideal. The high strings will be somewhat slack, and the low strings will be somewhat tight. Microtonalist and luthier Tom WInspear can provide custom string sets at his website [https://www.winspearinstrumental.com/ www.winspearinstrumental.com]. He says this about string gauges: "Gauges can be scaled at the same ratios as frequency. A 41-edo downmajor 3rd is 2^(13/41) = 1.2458, thus from string to string the gauge changes by 24.58%. But you can't do that across the plain to wound transition. For an 8-string electric guitar with a downmajor 3rds tuning running from a low D up to vF, '''52 42 32 26 21 15 12 9.5''' (thousands of an inch, the last 3 strings are plain) would be similar to the standard 46-10 for EADGBE.You can use an 18 or 19 plain instead of the 21 wound if you prefer, but I would prefer 21w. To tune to different keys, increase the gauges by 5.95% for each 12-edo semitone of transposition. All this assumes a 25.5" scale. For a scale of S inches, multiply each gauge by 25.5/S and round off. For scales longer than 25.5", err on the side of heavier and round up, as longer scales do feel more flexible loaded with the same tension. Likewise, for scales less than 25.5", err on the side of lighter and round down. However, the plain strings should always be rounded slightly down, and should utilize .0005" increment plain strings where available. For a 27" scale, '''50 40 31 25 20 14 11 9''' is best (the 2nd string could be 11.5, if you can find it)."

A string's tension can be calculated from its unit weight, length and pitch (frequency) by the formula T = (UW x (2 x L x F)<sup>2</sup>) / 386.4. For open strings, the length is the guitar's scale. The frequency in hertz of the Nth string of 8 strings is 440 * (2 ^ (-7/12 + (21 - 13*N) / 41)). For the Nth string of 6, it's 440 * (2 ^ (-7/12 + (8 - 13*N) / 41)). The unit weight is pounds per inch, and is a function of string gauge and string type (plain vs. wound). D'Addario has [https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf published] their unit weights, thus for a given set of gauges, the tension can be calculated for each string. One can work backwards from this and select string gauges that give uniform tensions.

== About 41-EDO ==

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 A 6-string Kite guitar can be strung with a standard set of strings, but it's not ideal. The high strings will be somewhat slack, and the low strings will be somewhat tight. Microtonalist and luthier Tom WInspear can provide custom string sets at his website [https://www.winspearinstrumental.com/ www.winspearinstrumental.com]. He says this about string gauges: "Gauges can be scaled at the same ratios as frequency. A 41-edo downmajor 3rd is 2^(13/41) = 1.2458, thus from string to string the gauge changes by 24.58%. But you can't do that across the plain to wound transition. For an 8-string electric guitar with a downmajor 3rds tuning running from a low D up to vF, '''52 42 32 26 21 15 12 9.5''' (thousands of an inch, the last 3 strings are plain) would be similar to the standard 46-10 for EADGBE.You can use an 18 or 19 plain instead of the 21 wound if you prefer, but I would prefer 21w. To tune to different keys, increase the gauges by 5.95% for each 12-edo semitone of transposition. All this assumes a 25.5" scale. For a scale of S inches, multiply each gauge by 25.5/S and round off. For scales longer than 25.5", err on the side of heavier and round up, as longer scales do feel more flexible loaded with the same tension. Likewise, for scales less than 25.5", err on the side of lighter and round down. However, the plain strings should always be rounded slightly down, and should utilize .0005" increment plain strings where available. For a 27" scale, '''50 40 31 25 20 14 11 9''' is best (the 2nd string could be 11.5, if you can find it)."
+A string's tension can be calculated from its unit weight, length and pitch (frequency) by the formula T =  (UW  x (2 x L x F)<sup>2</sup>) / 386.4. For open strings, the length is the guitar's scale. The frequency in hertz of the Nth string of 8 strings is 440 * (2 ^ (-7/12 + (21 - 13*N) / 41)). For the Nth string of 6, it's 440 * (2 ^ (-7/12 + (8 - 13*N) / 41)). The unit weight is pounds per inch, and is a function of string gauge and string type (plain vs. wound). D'Addario has [https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf published] their unit weights, thus for a given set of gauges, the tension can be calculated for each string. One can work backwards from this and select string gauges that give uniform tensions.
 == About 41-EDO ==