Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions
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In addition, important 7-limit intervals like 7/6, 7/5 and 7/4 are easy to play. This means the Kite guitar can do much more than just play sweet Renaissance music. It can put a whole new spin on jazz, blues and experimental music. The dom7 and dom9 chords are especially calm and relaxed, revealing just how poorly 12-tET tunes these chords. But dissonance is still possible, in fact 41-tET can be far more dissonant than 12-tET. And 41 notes means that the melodic and harmonic vocabulary is greatly expanded, allowing truly unique music that simply isn't possible with 12 notes. | In addition, important 7-limit intervals like 7/6, 7/5 and 7/4 are easy to play. This means the Kite guitar can do much more than just play sweet Renaissance music. It can put a whole new spin on jazz, blues and experimental music. The dom7 and dom9 chords are especially calm and relaxed, revealing just how poorly 12-tET tunes these chords. But dissonance is still possible, in fact 41-tET can be far more dissonant than 12-tET. And 41 notes means that the melodic and harmonic vocabulary is greatly expanded, allowing truly unique music that simply isn't possible with 12 notes. | ||
The Kite guitar has | The Kite guitar has 1.7 times as many frets as a standard guitar. Even with these additional frets, the Kite guitar is still quite playable. The interval between open strings is usually a major 3rd, not a 4th. Thus new chord shapes must be learned. However, the Kite guitar is isomorphic, meaning that chord shapes can be moved not only from fret to fret but also from string to string. Thus there are far fewer shapes to learn. (Open tunings, which are non-isomorphic, are also possible.) Tuning in 3rds not 4ths reduces the overall range of the guitar. Thus a 7-string or even an 8-string guitar is desirable. | ||
=== Photographs === | === Photographs === | ||
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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. To find the appropriate gauges, use the D'Addario method: calculate each string's tension 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 a 6-string guitar, N ranges from 2 to 7. The unit weight is pounds per inch, and is a function of string gauge and string type (plain vs. wound, etc.). D'Addario has [https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf published] their unit weights, thus the individual tensions can be calculated for a given set of strings. One can work backwards from this and select string gauges/types that give uniform tensions using this spreadsheet: http://tallkite.com/misc_files/StringTensionCalculator.ods The desired tension depends on the instrument, and of course personal taste. A steel-string acoustic guitar might have 25-30 lbs. tension for each string. A 12edo 25.5" electric guitar strung with a standard 10-46 set has 15-20 lbs. With a 9-42 set it has 13-16 lbs. | 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. To find the appropriate gauges, use the D'Addario method: calculate each string's tension 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 a 6-string guitar, N ranges from 2 to 7. The unit weight is pounds per inch, and is a function of string gauge and string type (plain vs. wound, etc.). D'Addario has [https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf published] their unit weights, thus the individual tensions can be calculated for a given set of strings. One can work backwards from this and select string gauges/types that give uniform tensions using this spreadsheet: http://tallkite.com/misc_files/StringTensionCalculator.ods The desired tension depends on the instrument, and of course personal taste. A steel-string acoustic guitar might have 25-30 lbs. tension for each string. A 12edo 25.5" electric guitar strung with a standard 10-46 set has 15-20 lbs. With a 9-42 set it has 13-16 lbs. | ||
* A longer scale | * A longer scale means a higher tension and/or a smaller gauge and/or a lower pitch (frequency) | ||
* A higher tension | * A higher tension means a longer scale and/or a bigger gauge and/or a higher pitch | ||
* A bigger gauge | * A bigger gauge means a shorter scale and/or a higher tension and/or a lower pitch | ||
* A higher | * A higher pitch means a shorter scale and/or a higher tension and/or a smaller gauge | ||
Microtonalist and luthier Tom WInspear can provide custom string sets at his website [https://www.winspearinstrumental.com/ www.winspearinstrumental.com]. His approach is to extrapolate from familiar string sets. 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 | Microtonalist and luthier Tom WInspear can provide custom string sets at his website [https://www.winspearinstrumental.com/ www.winspearinstrumental.com]. His approach is to extrapolate from familiar string sets. 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. To tune to different keys, increase the gauges by 5.95% for each 12-edo semitone of transposition, or 1.705% for each 41-edostep. 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." | ||
www.JustStrings.com sells custom gauges singly or in bulk. Recommended (somewhat light) gauges for a 27" acoustic guitar: '''11.5 15 18 24 30 36 46 56''' (3 plain, 5 wound). For a 25.5" or 26.5" electric: '''10 13 16 22 26 32 42 52''', the wound 4th string could instead be a '''19''' plain. | |||
'''<u>Saddle and Nut Compensation</u>''' | '''<u>Saddle and Nut Compensation</u>''' |