Jeffran tunning help

Rick Lane · Post by **Rick Lane** » 12 Aug 2004 8:16 am

Could someone please explain the tunning
that jeffran music uses. My tuner only
has a cent scale on it. They use the hertz
scale.They say to use the cents scale
"multiply the difference from 440 by 4,ie
442= +8 cents". I just don't get it.
could someone simply explain it to me.

THANKS
RICK

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 12 Aug 2004 8:33 am

There's not much to explain.
1x4=+4 cents so 441Hz would be +4 cents.
441.5Hz would be +6 cents.
In the reverse for 339Hz it would be -4 cents. etc.
I tune my ShoBud E9th E's to 441Hz or +4 cents because that is the amount of drop I have and adjust all the other strings from that setting. And to make it all easier I have it programmed into my Peterson VS-II tuner.
Hope this helps some.
Don

Tony Orth · Post by **Tony Orth** » 12 Aug 2004 8:47 am

Rick,

I've had to do this conversion for my tuner, which is also in "cents", like yours.

440 hertz is what we call "straight up" tuning with no sharp or flat. In other words, dead on the note using equal tempered tuning. Many people tune some of their strings and pedal changes off of "straight up" because it sounds better to their ears....more in tune.

To convert to Cents, the difference between 440 Hertz and 441 Hertz is 1 Hertz. That 1 Hertz is equal to 4 Cents on the cents scale. So....

440 = 0 (dead on)
440.5 = +2 cents (sharp of the note)
441 = +4 cents (sharp)
441.5 = +6 cents (sharp)
442 = +8 cents (sharp)
and so on...

and too:
439.5 = -2 cents (flat of the note)
439 = -4 cents (flat)
438.5 = -6 cents (flat)
438 = -8 cents (flat)
and so on...

In the Jeff Newman Tuning chart the open strings are tuned as such:

F# = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
D# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
G# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
E = 442.5, or 10 cents Sharp
B = 442, or 8 cents Sharp
G# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
F# = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
E = 442.5, or 10 cents Sharp
D = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
B = 442, or 8 cents Sharp

Tuning the pedal and lever changes uses the same logic. The most detuned lever is the F lever (raises the E strings to F) and that lever is tuned 435.5, or 18 cents Flat of F.

I hoped this helps get you started in the right direction.

Holler if you need more help.

Tony

[This message was edited by Tony Orth on 12 August 2004 at 09:48 AM.]

Rick Lane · Post by **Rick Lane** » 12 Aug 2004 9:04 am

Thanks Tony and Don for the info.
And to think I almost went out and
bought a new tuner.

THANKS AGAIN
RICK

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 12 Aug 2004 9:14 am

I would like to congratulate Tony for providing one of the best answers to a thread author's question.

Thank you Tony, that was as good as I have ever seen it explained.

But nothing better than this

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 12 Aug 2004 1:08 pm

So that's what 4 cents per hertz meant... Now if somebody woulda said 4 cents per cycles per second I would've still not got it, only differently.

Great explanation, the light dawns... I really never understood Jeff's web page explanation either until now. Thanks fellas.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 12 Aug 2004 1:22 pm

One of the problems is that the Hz numbers exist for calibration of the tuner. You can't really tune an E to 440 Hz. If you did, it would be an A, not an E.

The whole notion of "cents per Hz" is very misleading, but it was thrust upon us by tuner manufacturers who assumed that everyone would tune to equal temperament.

The cents scale is the more musically useful one. It shows you how far you are from equally tempered reference note. A cent is 1/100th of a semitone.

The actual number of cents per Hz varies logrithmically according to where you are in the audio spectrum. The only place where 1 Hz =~ 4 cents is near the A note (440 Hz).

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

Rick Lane · Post by **Rick Lane** » 12 Aug 2004 1:51 pm

Hi bobby,

One day I hope to understand everything
you just told me. But for now its kind
of foggy to me.

THANKS FOR THE EFFORT
RICK

Tony Orth · Post by **Tony Orth** » 13 Aug 2004 8:32 am

Thank you, Carl. Your kind words are appreciated.

Tony

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 13 Aug 2004 11:03 am

Rick, I'll take a shot at further explaining what b0b said above. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

If you take a look at the fretboard of your guitar, you will see (of course) that the distance between any two frets is the same for all the strings.

To get an idea of what "cents" are, imagine taking a duplicate of your fretboard, then stretching it out so that it has 100 frets instead of 24, then compressing the whole 100 frets so that the 100 frets fit in between the nut and the first fret. Then do that for all frets. The distance between each of the tiny frets is one cent.

So, for example, one cent above the first fret is the same distance whether you're talking about the 1st string or the 10th string.

But, remember -- the first string vibrates at a significantly higher frequency (Hz) than the 10th string. So, if you move your bar up the fret board, you will change more Hz per cent than on the 1st string than on the 10th string because, although the cents are the same distance for each string on any given fret, the change in the number of Hz is different for each string.

I think it's sort of like saying that you can calculate an increase in road speed from an increase in engine speed. While that is generally true, you must know what gear you're in to actually do it. [This message was edited by Tom Olson on 13 August 2004 at 12:10 PM.]

Rick Lane · Post by **Rick Lane** » 13 Aug 2004 2:03 pm

Thanks Tom,
I understand what you mean.

THANKS AGAIN
RICK