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Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

But given the frets are placed to divide the length of the string in a specific place, you're aiming to play equal temperament, right? You're using that system on a typical guitar, even if the sounds don't match exactly.

Of course it's not going to be perfect, but it's still closer to 12TET-with-noise than some specific mediaeval tuning.

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There are guitars with weirdly shaped frets, if you really want to approach true temperament.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-659a2269b3cf8608d61d56...

Yes and no. Those who play electric guitars with distortion prefer to approach Just Intonation(for a given key) as it doesn't have so much intermodulation.

There is an attempt to tune guitars close to equal temperament trademarked as True Temperament:

https://www.truetemperament.com/faq/

I for one am happy when my 12th and 24th frets are in tune. Solos sound off and weak if these two don't hold.

To use computing slang to talk about music: this is just ricing. At best you'll sound out of tune with the rest of the band, at worst you'll run into wolf intervals and other issues with just intonation.

This touches on the biggest reason we stick with 12-tone equal temparament in the West: social reasons. Having a standard means we can play together, in groups or at jams, without having to negotiate which tuning system we use (an argument most working musicians I've met see as utter wank and a waste of time).

Is ricing a computer term? Thought it was a (funny|racist) reference to JDM cars and how engrossing a hobby tweaking those cars can be.

I only ever heard this as a car culture term.

Yea, it definitely has racist undertones related to import tuners. "Rice" implying "asian." I find it a bit uncomfortable to read people posting their customized Linux desktops, for example, and calling them "riced out."

Maybe I'm showing my power level a bit here. To me it means "tweaking something's aesthetics in a way that doesn't improve, perhaps even degrades, performance".

I wouldn't say that you aim to play equal temperament. More that it's the base structure you deviate from. I think my real point is that on most instruments you don't play only twelve tones. You play a whole lot more that get grouped into twelve groups.

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