[Guitar] Thanks to Tito, who sent me the above link. My thoughts on that system: the tension of nylon strings is much lower than steel strings, which is why we don’t use the metal tension bar in the necks of flamenco guitars. I have a very hard time believing that the “end-tension” on a nylon string is perceptibly higher than toward the middle of the string. Certainly I have too many doubts about it to let anybody try it on my Lester DeVoe guitars!
But maybe I’ll try it on my strat sometime…
It is an interesting system for steel, but I agree that nylon is a different animal.
I recall somebody telling me that the middle section of a nylon string that is properly tensioned, actually has a smaller diameter than at the bridge or tuning head/peg areas. Probably because tensioning forces are being applied in both directions, so the central area of the string must compress and stretch more than the ends to accomodate the loading???
Oh no!!! Not on your DeVoe’s. Especially if you have a waiting time of three years and drop $5,000 on one of these puppies. Try on an “el Cheapo” to see if you like it.
Funny story about tuning problems. Two years ago I bought a Schecter electric. The minute I got it I could tell that something wasn’t quite right. I could not get the G string to tune for the life of me. My friends thought I was crazy, because they could’nt hear it. I brought it to a couple of shops (Daddy’s junky to see if they could tell me what was wrong, but they, too, thought I was crazy. I started reading on the matter and, apparently, ALL guitars suffer from this in varying degrees. For some guitars this is quite noticeable, for some not so much. It depends on the guitarrist’s ear. I can really hear this now. I just did not notice it until I bought my Schecter. Tuning the guitar is a matter of compromise. Nothing is ever perfect.
I have posted a few items on the tuning subject. Just use the words “guitar” and “tuning” in the search field on the right side of this Diary and you will find them.