Compensating?

[jeffhigh]

Hi Trevor,
Just got sent a link to James Taylor's guitar lessons
The bonus lesson for lesson 5 is Tuning
He recommends tuning open -3, -6, -4, -8,-10 and -12 Treble to Bass to allow for capo use and the bass strings playing sharp when plucked hard.
Does he need a compensated nut on his Olsons and a better capo?

[Trevor Gore]

Possibly!

The compensation techniques I use focus on getting the fundamentals of each note to play in tune. However, string partials always play sharp with respect to the fundamental to some degree (on steel strings generally not much), so stretch tuning (which is what Taylor is doing) is not a bad idea and I talk about that in the book. However, depending on how you tune, you might be doing that, anyway. If you tune one note to pitch and match the others by ear (e.g. match the open 1st to the 6th double octave harmonic) you are stretch tuning. If you tune all the open strings using an electronic tuner, you aren't. However, the stretch usually comes out at ~3-5 cents between the 1st and 6th fundamentals, whereas Taylor is talking ~9 cents, which seems a lot to me.

I can usually put on a capo and play without having to re-tune. If you really clamp on a capo, sure, you have to. Also, if you hit strings hard, they tend to sound sharp, but on the vids of Taylor I've seen, he almost looks like he's miming, because he hardly hits the strings at all.

With his Olson, he might, of course, be trying to emulate the sound of his early J45 recordings, because those things never played in tune no matter how hard you tried.

[Mark McLean]

Hi Jeff. Thanks for the heads-up on the JT guitar lessons. I hadn't found them yet and I have always wanted to learn a bit of his stuff. It is not surprising that he tends to tune a little bit flat since he uses a capo so often, which I like to do also. I find it always makes the outside strings (6, 5, 2, 1) significantly sharp. Maybe, as Trevor suggests, I am cranking down a bit too hard on it.
Mark

[Trevor Gore]

Mark, one thing you could try is capo-ing very close (almost on) the fret, which minimises the string deflection whilst still allowing you to clamp pretty hard. Whether this works for you depends on whether or not you now feel crowded out of the "nut" position. Next option is a really good capo with a curve that matches the fretboard, so you don't have to really jam it down to get all the strings fretted. With some capos, e.g. the Shrubbs, you can bend the bar to make it fit.

Another trade "secret"; capos with the hardest rubber (which means they also have to fit well) sound best. No kidding.