Buzz Feiten for the Axis?

[hendmik]

I keep coming up with these hair brained thread topics. Here's another one.

Anyone familiar with Buzz Feiten, knows that guitars inherently can never be perfectly tuned because of equal temperment. Some chords are dead right in tune and some just a bit off. This is just how guitars are built. Buzz has created a nut modification that solves this. Steve Vai is a fan and it was rumored that a certain person, we'll just call him Eddie Van Halen, had his guitars mod'ed with the system as well and may have coincided with his EBMM endorsement..

I have played Buzz Feiten guitars. Their tuning consistency is without comparisson. Your basic strat off the shelf can be perfectly in tune at the nut, but the 2nd or 3rd fret can be the slightest bit off (this is not an intonnation issue - read Buzz's site). The Luthiers out there know what I'm talking about.

My Axis (I'm the first owner) seems to tune fairly nicely already - much better than my strat. It tunes very well, very consistently, and all chords played seem to be very tight. Was Buzz's theory taken into consideration when designing the Axis to address this? Would I benefit from having the Buzz mod done to my Axis? Or would it be redundant?

As always, thanks for entertaining my questions...

Mike

 

[Skoorb]

Two things to think about: What happens to the Feiten System when you put a capo on the guitar ?? Secondly, guitar builders have been doing this very thing for years. PRS has done it, and so have others by simply moving the nut closer to the first fret. No, they did not have the offsets or require you to relearn how you tune, intonate or buy their special tuner. If you want to see something really interesting, check out this website : www.earvana.com

 

[Jimi D]

I wonder if Ernie Ball Music Man guitars don't have some slight compensation to the nut position to enhance apparent "in-tuneness" the same as PRS guitars. I owned my Custom 24 before I bought my first Axis, and I always loved how "in-tune" it sounded (still do for that matter)... Now that most of my guitars are Ernie Balls, I don't seem to notice as much difference with the CU24 - that is, my EB/MM guitars seem to be as well tempered.

 

[Skoorb]

A properly set up guitar has a lot to do with it. EBMM does a better job setting up their guitars than any other mass produced guitar manufacturer. And this eliminates all but the most inherent traits of a guitar´s tuning issues. The Earvana nut will remove the last problems.

I haven´t measured the nut-->1st fret distance on an EBMM but I may have to do so tommorow just out of curiousity.

 

[ebb soul]

Actually, the only innovation to truely address this beyond the nut is the fretwave system,or bentfret. Yamaha offers this as a special order. I've heard that there is some legal wrangling over who really owns the rights.
But it does work.
Feiten system does little for anything but open strings. Modification for intonation is best done ahead of a fret, not behind it, IMO.