Buzz Feiten Tuning system - anyone tried it?

[Naetharu]

Hi folks,

I came across this via the MTD website and I'm curious about the claims that Buzz Feiten makes regarding tuning. Given that it is used on MTD basses I'm guessing there is something to it and I was wondering if anyone here has given it a try?

http://www.buzzfeiten.com/howitworks/howitworks.htm

The idea seems to be to create pitch offsets akin to those that you would find on a piano. Curiously I always thought that the tuning you get for a piano was a compromise needed due to the difficulty of harmonic tuning over such a wide range of octaves, but all the same the claim here is that it produces a cleaner chord sound.

Having read the details on Buzz Feiten's side a few times I am puzzled as to what role the shelf nut is playing. It seems like a different issue to the tuning per-se. If so, is it possible to just tune any old bass/guitar with these offsets?

Any thoughts you have would be most interesting.

[Thunderbird]

I had this on a Washburn bass I once owned and to be honest I did not notice anything different on the bass that had the buzz system and one that did not

[Truckstop]

+1

Snake oil methinks.

[HowieBass]

I think the shelf nut is intended to counteract the tendency for a note to play sharp at the lower frets due to the string being stretched - you'll notice this when the nut slots are too shallow (and hence the string sits too high above the fingerboard) but get the nut cut correctly and I think most or all of that problem goes away.

[Musashimonkey]

Part of it is the nut or first fret being offset. The other side is tuning to a different intonation, being a cent up or down at a certain reference point, not always at 12th fret. this helps in keeping the bass more evenly tuned over the entire fret board. I do notice the difference with chords on 6 string basses.

[roman_sub]

Have a Washburn guitar with BF and never noticed the difference. Instructions came how to intonate it - I don't have details now but as I recall you had to adjust intonation to be +/- a few cent at specific points, I guess to help other notes be more "in tune".....

[pete.young]

I have an MTD Kingston which supposedly uses the Buzz Feiten system; but it doesn't have a shelf nut (it has a zero fret) and since the bridge has now been adjusted as part of a string change and setup, it seems to me that its remaining benefits are spurious at best!

[Cameronj279]

I have to say. The problems that the "tuning system" solves seem to me like they are issues that are solved by a well built/set up bass.

[Chienmortbb]

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1443092156' post='2872099']
I have an MTD Kingston which supposedly uses the Buzz Feiten system; but it doesn't have a shelf nut (it has a zero fret) and since the bridge has now been adjusted as part of a string change and setup, it seems to me that its remaining benefits are spurious at best!
[/quote]My first evet 6 string was a Hofner with zero fret and I dont understand why they are not used more often. The nut then is just a string guide and all the problems that nuts cause are eliminated. I believe Mosrite also used zero frets.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Chienmortbb

[Naetharu]

+1 on the zero fret. I have one on my main bass and it works a treat. The string tension at the first fret feels much nicer than on basses with proper nuts.

[Mykesbass]

Actually very effective (IMO) on 6 string guitar but I wouldn't have thought it would be very noticeable on bass.

[iiipopes]

For bass, for those instruments that need nut compensation, I have found Stephen Delft's individual shims more accurate on bass. I have incorporated them on my custom half-fanned P/J. Remember that if shims are needed to bring the notes on the first three frets into line, then the action needs to be raised so that the down force and resulting core stretch on the string to fret notes on the 7th through 10th frets is increased to keep those notes from being flat.

[url="http://www.mimf.com/nutcomp/"]http://www.mimf.com/nutcomp/[/url]