Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions

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== For Luthiers ==

To place the frets on a Kite guitar, simply replace the 12th root of 2 = 1.059463 with the 41st root of 4 = 1.034390. Or purchase a pre-slotted fingerboard from ~~Precision Pearl in Austin, Texas~~. It comes radiused, tapered and inlaid, so all you need to do is glue it on and put in the frets. Replacing 24 old frets makes 41 new frets, but the last few are very ~~tight~~. One might instead replace 21 old frets to make 36 new frets.

To place the frets on a Kite guitar, simply replace the 12th root of 2 = 1.059463 with the 41st root of 4 = 1.034390. Or purchase a pre-slotted fingerboard from [https://precisionpearl.com/ PrecisionPearl.com] . It comes radiused, tapered and inlaid, so all you need to do is glue it on and put in the frets. Replacing 24 old frets makes 41 new frets, but the last few are very tightly spaced. One might instead replace 21 old frets to make 36 new frets. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.

To find the saddle compensation on a standard guitar, one compares the harmonic at the 12th fret with the fretted note at the 12th fret. For the Kite guitar, by a weird coincidence, one does the same! But the 12th fret now makes the 3rd harmonic, not the 2nd. Thus the two notes should be an 8ve apart, not a unison. To get a unison, when you fret the string, play the 2nd harmonic with your other hand. With your forefinger or middlefinger, touch the string midway between the 32nd and 33rd frets. Then stretch your hand and pluck with your thumb as close as you can get to the midpoint between your finger and the bridge. If this isn't feasible (e.g. with a bass guitar), you can capo the string at the 12th fret and use both hands to play the harmonic. And to be extremely precise, the fretted note should be 0.48¢ sharper than the harmonic.

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 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)."

== About 41-EDO ==

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If the tonic is the D at the 14th fret, the open strings are in a rainbow zone.

[[File:The Kite Tuning 3.png|none|thumb|1113x1113px]]

This chart shows the actual notes of an 8-string Kite guitar. A 6-string is usually tuned to the middle 6 strings of an 8-string. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.

This chart shows the actual notes of an 8-string Kite guitar. A 6-string is usually tuned to the middle 6 strings of an 8-string. The ideal string gauges for this tuning are discussed in the "For Luthiers" section. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.

[[File:The Kite Tuning 4.png|none|thumb|1150x1150px]]

This shows all the notes, not just the natural ones. But it's too much work to memorize all this. Just learn where the 7 natural notes are, and learn your intervals. Since the open strings don’t work as well, one tends to think more in terms of intervals than notes.

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 == For Luthiers ==
-To place the frets on a Kite guitar, simply replace the 12th root of 2 = 1.059463 with the 41st root of 4 = 1.034390. Or purchase a pre-slotted fingerboard from Precision Pearl in Austin, Texas. It comes radiused, tapered and inlaid, so all you need to do is glue it on and put in the frets. Replacing 24 old frets makes 41 new frets, but the last few are very tight. One might instead replace 21 old frets to make 36 new frets.
+To place the frets on a Kite guitar, simply replace the 12th root of 2 = 1.059463 with the 41st root of 4 = 1.034390. Or purchase a pre-slotted fingerboard from [https://precisionpearl.com/ PrecisionPearl.com] . It comes radiused, tapered and inlaid, so all you need to do is glue it on and put in the frets. Replacing 24 old frets makes 41 new frets, but the last few are very tightly spaced. One might instead replace 21 old frets to make 36 new frets. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.
 To find the saddle compensation on a standard guitar, one compares the harmonic at the 12th fret with the fretted note at the 12th fret. For the Kite guitar, by a weird coincidence, one does the same! But the 12th fret now makes the 3rd harmonic, not the 2nd. Thus the two notes should be an 8ve apart, not a unison. To get a unison, when you fret the string, play the 2nd harmonic with your other hand. With your forefinger or middlefinger, touch the string midway between the 32nd and 33rd frets. Then stretch your hand and pluck with your thumb as close as you can get to the midpoint between your finger and the bridge. If this isn't feasible (e.g. with a bass guitar), you can capo the string at the 12th fret and use both hands to play the harmonic. And to be extremely precise, the fretted note should be 0.48¢ sharper than the harmonic.
+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 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)."
 == About 41-EDO ==
@@ Line 86: / Line 88: @@
 If the tonic is the D at the 14th fret, the open strings are in a rainbow zone.
 [[File:The Kite Tuning 3.png|none|thumb|1113x1113px]]
-This chart shows the actual notes of an 8-string Kite guitar. A 6-string is usually tuned to the middle 6 strings of an 8-string. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.
+This chart shows the actual notes of an 8-string Kite guitar. A 6-string is usually tuned to the middle 6 strings of an 8-string. The ideal string gauges for this tuning are discussed in the "For Luthiers" section. Every 4th fret has a dot, and every 12th fret has a double dot.
 [[File:The Kite Tuning 4.png|none|thumb|1150x1150px]]
 This shows all the notes, not just the natural ones. But it's too much work to memorize all this. Just learn where the 7 natural notes are, and learn your intervals. Since the open strings don’t work as well, one tends to think more in terms of intervals than notes.