Sort of OT - Buzz Feiten Tuning System??

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Resonant Alien

Resonant Alien

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Anyone have guitars with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System? Anyone had a guitar retro-fitted with it? Your thoughts on it? Worth it or not? Thinking about retro-fitting my guitars, but have gotten some mixed advice from my guitar guy and my guitar tech.

Thanks,
Rick
 
I have a Suhr Modern on order with the Buzz Feiten. I'm really curious as well since this will be the first guitar I will own with the Buzz Tuning System. I'm still about a month away. When I get it, I'll give you my thoughts. I think Matt owns a Suhr, I'm sure he'll chime in.
 
I had a Tom Anderson with it. I didn't really fel it made that much difference. You can tell that there is something different but I don't know that I would go out of my way to get it again. A well set up standard tuned guitar with BF system will sound great too.
 
Old tin ear here had it done to my workhorse, EBMM Morse #1, and it is all good. Thirds (both m3 and M3) in open voicings (like EJ's Trademark) are such a bitch on our instrument with our even tempered tuning system. I felt this made it a little better. Thinking about investing in a Tyler, and will look into the BF on it too. We are playing great amps that can dish out the odd and even harmonics in a pleasing manner, so I guess we owe it to ourselves to be in tune. If you are playing music that oozes 3rds (and their inversion - 6ths) or 7ths (and their inversion - 2nds as in sus2 and 9th chords), it will be very noticeable. If you are doing more the power metal 5th thing, it will be less noticeable as 5ths are in tune just fine on a standard guitar setup.
 
JKD":231bqmu9 said:
This only affects open strings right?

Nope, affects all over the neck, since the saddles are individually adjusted as well as the nut, changing the relative position of each fret to the string and other frets.

I love the BFTS, though there are other solutions for compensated tuning that work just as well or better (like Gerard Melancon's own system, which is the best IMO), and some that are not nearly as good (like the Earvana). But most of my guitars have BFTS for consistency.
 
mbrown3":ukr4l271 said:
JKD":ukr4l271 said:
This only affects open strings right?

Nope, affects all over the neck, since the saddles are individually adjusted as well as the nut, changing the relative position of each fret to the string and other frets.

Maybe I'm mis-understanding the concept or mis-stated my point. The Buzz Feiten system corrects the intonation of the open string right but as soon as I fret a note, the 'intonation' is derived from the bridge saddle position, like a regular guitar isn't it?

I'll go see what I can dig up to see what I may be missing...
 
Resonant Alien":zd1twh7z said:
have gotten some mixed advice from my guitar guy and my guitar tech.

old dogs and new tricks. ...

John Czajkowski's description is what it is. you don't need to use the offsets for tuning or intonation if you don't want to. you can use regular intonation from, lets say, 2nd to 14th fret and tune regularly. because of the compensated nut (a very old invention in guitar building) you'd still have a better tempered instrument.

personally, i like the feiten offsets, it really makes a great difference. if you're in a two guitar band and the other player has a regularly set up guitar, you MIGHT run into some problems (just might, use your ears).

.
 
I have 3 guitars that have BFTS: 2 Suhrs and a Washburn N4. I love it. It makes a noticable different for me. I agree that if you are just playing metal riffs and power chords it wont make much difference but when playing more complex chords, thats where you can really hear it.

My other guitar player doesnt have BFTS, byt we havent had any tuning problems that we can tell.

That said, I dont know if Id go out of my way to pay to get it installed on a guitar I already have. However, if it comes as a standard feature on a guitar you are buying / ordering to spec, then I think its definitely a plus.
 
I've had a couple of Andersons with it, and LOVE it. I think it really does make a difference. Out of tune guitars drive me batshit :thumbsup:
 
JKD":w1s22y3f said:
Maybe I'm mis-understanding the concept or mis-stated my point. The Buzz Feiten system corrects the intonation of the open string right but as soon as I fret a note, the 'intonation' is derived from the bridge saddle position, like a regular guitar isn't it?

I'll go see what I can dig up to see what I may be missing...

You can't have one without the other. If the intonation is set at the saddles, it affects the open string and the fretted note. The frets are placed where they are based on the division of the string into increments. So if that distance is adjusted (at the nut or saddle, either one), the length of the string is changed minutely (intonation) and each of the frets will divide the string slightly differently relative to those settings.

BFTS, specifically, moves the nut slightly closer to the bridge and then adjusts the intonation of each string to "offsets" that make each string (and thus each fretted note on that string) slightly sharp or flat.

Or am I still misuderstanding the question?
 
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