kevgermany
ex Landrover Nut
- 21,192
Does anyone know why some of the old German manufacturers stamped their saxes with pitches that are generally twice what we use today? e.g. 880Hz instead of 440Hz?
Thanks Rhys. Question came up because I saw an old german sax stamped 870 (i.e. 435). And others from the same maker are usually stampedwith the double frequency as well. We've a discussion going on about it at the woodwindforum.com, in case you want to follow it.
Quite peculiar. 880 is 2nd octave B (H for the Alemans) on a soprano and high F# on an alto.
Could you please link us with woodwindforum?
As in "it's better to be sharp than out of tune"? The real problems start when everyone else thinks they must be flat and tune sharp themselves.Martin Taylor tunes his guitar to 442Hz because it sounds better. Wish I didn't have cloth ears.
Martin Taylor tunes his guitar to 442Hz because it sounds better. Wish I didn't have cloth ears.
I often tune my guitar down one half step when I want to rock out, not so much for the sound but because it makes the strings a little softer thus makes playing bends and vibrato easier . It does thicken the tone very nicely too.
When guys do this they end up with a slightly different tuning that's not equal temperament any more (frets are too far apart). Many people can't hear the difference, but those who can....
My wife's guitar teacher does the same thing, although he sets the pitch by ear, not with a tuner, and seems to go a little higher than A=442.
Makes me wonder - Tv, if you were to tune up to A=440, would you adjust your frets as well? Methinks if you didn't it'd sound very strange indeed.
Splitting frets is used by both lute and viol players to distinguish for exmaple between C# / DbNever considered the damping effect of fingers on strings even if they did give me a cello to try out at school.
There were other problems with gut strings as a 1904 Model 4 Windsor (made in Birmingham, UK) Zither banjo once owned, had a split first fret with the top D string fret a little nearer the nut (in both senses of the word for banjo players) than the B, G and low D strings (open G Tuning).
These sax players don't realise how lucky they are and this aint an April Fool. Wonder if total lunacy can be achieved with a 14 string pedal steel guitar?