JP6682119B2 - Method for determining fret position and nut or zero fret for stringed instrument with frets - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of determining a mounting position of a fret of a stringed instrument with frets.

  Conventionally, for example, an electric guitar having a plurality of strings, for example, 6 strings (hereinafter, also referred to as an electric guitar) includes a body to which a pickup or a bridge is attached and a neck connected to the body. A string is stretched between it and the attached nut. A fingerboard having a plurality of frets is provided at a portion of the neck facing the string on the bridge side of the nut.

  The frets are provided on the surface of the fingerboard, and have a mountain shape in which the center is high and the sides are low when viewed from the side, and are provided to change the pitch. Moving one fret from a certain fret raises or lowers the pitch by a semitone. Such a fret is attached to the position obtained by calculation as described in Patent Document 1. Specifically, in the case of the 12 equal temperament, which is a temperament that divides one octave into 12 equal parts, the frequency ratio of adjacent tones (semitones) is the 12th root of 2 (≈ 1.05946 or its inverse 0.943388). Is. Therefore, the length of the first fret is 0.943388 times the length between the nut and the saddle, in other words, the effective length of the string, and the second fret is only 0.943388 times the position of the first fret. Attach each at the position where the length of the string becomes shorter. Then, by repeating the above calculation, the twelfth 12th fret is attached at a position of 0.94388 to the 12th power of the length of the open string, that is, at a position of 1/2 of the length between the nut and the saddle. To be In the case of an electric guitar, the fret is generally provided up to the 22nd fret.

  Such an electric guitar plays a desired pitch by pressing a string on a fret, for example. The 6 strings are tuned so that the pitch of the open string is determined according to the thickness of the string. As an example, the first string is E (English note name, the same applies below), the second string is B, the third string is G, the fourth string is D, the fifth string is A, and the sixth string is It is tuned to E, which is two octaves below the 1st string. Before tuning each string, adjust the distance between the fret and the string, that is, the string height, by adjusting the bridge height so that the string does not come into contact with the fingerboard when vibrating. Keep it. The chord height is generally higher in the high position than in the low position near the nut.

  One tuning method is to compare the actual pitch (sound frequency) of the 12th fret with the pitch of the open string, and tune the former so that the pitch is one octave higher than the latter. is there. In this way, if the actual pitch of the 12th fret and the pitch of the open string do not reach the pitch of one octave, move the bridge saddle position toward or away from the neck to move the pitch of one octave. The saddle is stopped at the position where was established.

  However, in the electric guitar tuned in this way, there is almost no difference between the actual pitch and the pitch corresponding to the fret on the 7th to 13th frets, but on the 1st frets other than that. The inventor has found that a difference (hereinafter, also referred to as a tone shift) occurs between the actual pitch and the pitch corresponding to the fret on the sixth fret and the fourteenth fret to the twenty-second fret. As shown in FIG. 9, when looking at the entire first to sixth strings, the pitch difference is a maximum of 10 cents in the direction in which the pitch is generally higher (1 cent is 1 / 100th of a semitone). It became high).

  This means that the tuning was performed on the 12th fret to give a pitch of one octave, and the pitch of the actual pitch produced by pressing the strings against the fret is the pitch at the fret position calculated. It is thought that it is due to the change in the tension of the strings. In particular, the tension of the string is considered to have a great influence on the pitch because the tension increases by pressing the string against the fret. Moreover, since the string height has a limit that can be lowered as described above, if the string height is lowered based on the difference in pitch at the high position, the string will come into contact with the frets when playing on the frets at the low position, or the strings will come into contact with each other. There was a limit to how low the string height could be.

JP, 2005-189690, A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a fret position determining method for a fret-equipped string instrument that adjusts the position of the frets so that the pitch deviation of each fret is minimized. And

  That is, the fret position determining method of the present invention includes a fingerboard in which a string is stretched between a nut or zero fret and a saddle of a bridge, and a fingerboard having a plurality of frets under the string is provided. A method for determining the fret position of a stringed instrument having a fret, comprising: a plurality of strings that are brought into contact with a finger to select a pitch, and the frets up to the 12th fret are attached to the fret positions obtained by calculation, wherein the fret is the fingerboard. , The fret is placed on the fingerboard in the vicinity of the position of the nth fret (n is a natural number of 13 or more) after tuning the open string, and the fret placed on the fretboard is attached to the fret. The string is vibrated while being pressed, and the position of the fret is adjusted so that the vibrating frequency of the string becomes a frequency corresponding to the pitch of the nth fret. A fret location method which is characterized in that the position of the fret mounting position of the fret when the pitch frequency of the n-th fret and frequency of the string match.

  According to such a configuration, the nth fret has its fret mounting position at the finger position when the frequency of the string and the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret match in the same situation as when playing a stringed instrument with frets. Determine the position of the frets on the board. Therefore, when playing a stringed instrument with frets with all frets attached, it is not affected by changes in the tension of each string, and the pitches and actual pitches corresponding to the frets on the 13th fret and above are not affected. The difference from the pitch of can be suppressed to the minimum.

  In order to minimize the sound shift up to the 12th fret, it is desirable to tune the open string and then tune the open string again by adjusting the position of the nut or the zero fret. By adjusting the position of the nut or the zero fret in this way, even when the fret mounting position obtained by calculation is used, the pitch shift at the open string is reduced, so the sound when the fret is pressed is reduced. The deviation can be reduced.

  Considering the position of the string with respect to the fingerboard, it is desirable that the open string to be tuned be a high-pitched string.

  In order to easily place the fret on the fingerboard, it is preferable that the fret is made of a mountain-shaped wire whose lower surface is flat and whose upper surface has a high center and whose both sides are low when viewed from the side. In this way, if the lower surface is made flat, it becomes easier for the fret to come into close contact with the fingerboard when placed on the fingerboard, and moreover, it becomes possible to easily move the fretboard.

  Examples of the string instrument with frets to which the fret position determining method of the present invention is applied include electric guitars or electric basses, or acoustic guitars or acoustic basses.

  The nut or zero fret of the string instrument with frets of the present invention is the nut or zero fret of the string instrument with frets in the fret position determining method of the present invention, wherein the nut body or the zero fret body supports two strings each, and the nut. A nut or a zero fret of a stringed instrument with a fret, comprising: a pedestal that supports the main body or the zero fret body so that the position thereof can be adjusted in the chord length direction.

  According to such a configuration, when the fret position is determined, it is possible to adjust the support position of the string by adjusting the position of the nut body or the zero fret body with respect to the pedestal after tuning the open string. Become. Therefore, the chord length up to the 12th fret can be adjusted in detail, and the sound shift at the lower fret can be eliminated.

  In order to facilitate the position adjustment of the nut body or the zero fret body, the pedestal rotatably supports the nut body or the zero fret body around the two strings. Alternatively, it is preferable that the pedestal supports the nut body so as to be movable between the two strings in the string length direction.

  It is desirable that the zero fret body of the zero fret has the same shape as that of the fret attached to the fingerboard, which is formed of wire rods of which the shape viewed from the side is high in the center and low in both sides.

  Examples of the fret string instrument to which the nut or the zero fret of the fret string instrument of the present invention is applied include an electric guitar or an electric bass, or an acoustic guitar or an acoustic bass.

  As described above, according to the fret position determining method of the present invention, it is possible to surely eliminate the sound shift at the frets at the high positions of the 13th fret and above. In addition, by using the nut or the zero fret of the string instrument with frets of the present invention, it is possible to substantially eliminate the sound shift in all the frets.

  Further, according to the nut or the zero fret of the stringed instrument with the fret of the present invention, it is possible to improve the tuning accuracy of the open string and eliminate the sound deviation in the fret up to the 12th fret.

The front view of the electric guitar which concerns on this embodiment. The perspective view of the fret of this embodiment. The perspective view of the fret used when deciding the attachment position of this embodiment. The fragmentary front view which expands and shows the attachment state of the nut and the zero fret in the neck of this embodiment. The exploded perspective view of the zero fret of this embodiment. The front view which shows the electric guitar before performing the positioning operation of the fret of this embodiment. The principal part enlarged side view which shows the state which is performing the fret position determination work of this embodiment. The table which shows the pitch difference in each fret of each string in this embodiment. The table which shows the pitch difference in each fret of each string in the conventional electric guitar.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  The string instrument with frets in this embodiment is a 6-string electric guitar 100, and FIG. 1 is a drawing of the completed electric guitar 100. The completed electric guitar 100 includes a body 1 to which a pickup 11, a bridge 12, a volume controller 13, a sound quality controller 14, a pickup changeover switch 15 and the like are attached, and a neck 2 connected to the body 1. The body 1 may have a generally known configuration.

  The neck 2 is attached to the neck body 21 in which the truss rod is incorporated, the first fret F1 to the twelfth fret F12 are attached to the attachment positions determined by calculation, and the fret 3 of the thirteenth fret F13 or more is described later. From the saddle 12a of the bridge 12, the fingerboard 22 to which the fret 3 is attached at the position determined by the position determining method and which is attached to the neck body 21, the headstock 24 to which the six pegs 23 are attached at predetermined positions, A nut 25 that guides the string 4 to the determined peg 23, and a zero fret F0 that is the starting point of the effective string length near the nut 25.

  The attachment position of the fret 3 determined by the calculation is a fret position obtained by calculating the distances to the respective frets by the following formulas with the position of the saddle 12a of the bridge 12 as a base point.

fn = 2 ^{(12-n) / 12} * L / 2

  However, n is a natural number from 0 to 12, and L is the effective chord length from the bridge saddle to the zero fret F0.

  Calculating by applying numbers to the above formula, the first fret F1 which is f1 is at a position of 0.944 times the effective chord length, and the fifth fret F5 which is f5 is at a position which is 0.749 times the chord length. Attach the fret 3 of. Then, the twelfth fret F12 is attached at a position that is 1/2 the chord length.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the fret 3 to be used is provided with a mountain-shaped crown 31 whose bottom surface is flat and whose center is high and whose both sides are low when viewed from the side, and the center of the bottom surface of the crown 31 in the width direction. And a tongue 32 embedded in the fingerboard 21. On the side surface of the tongue 32, projections 33 that prevent the frets 3 from falling off the fingerboard 21 are provided at predetermined intervals. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the fret 5 (hereinafter, also referred to as a positioning fret) used when deciding the attachment position in the fret position deciding method of the present invention described later is a crown 31 of the fret 3 attached to the fingerboard 21. It consists of the same shaped wire. The positioning fret 5 is obtained by cutting out the tongue 32 of the fret 3 attached to the finger plate 22 and flattening the lower surface on which the cut-out tongue 32 is provided to form only the crown. The first fret F1 to the twelfth fret F12 are attached to the fingerboard 21 before attaching the fret 3 of the thirteenth fret F13 or more.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the nut 25 and the zero fret F0 are provided on the fingerboard 21 end side of the headstock 24. The nut 25 has a groove 25a having a width substantially equal to the thickness of the string 4 formed on the upper surface (shown in FIG. 6). Therefore, the nut 25 holds the inter-string distance between the adjacent strings 4, and is attached to a position where the zero fret F0 is sandwiched between the zero fret F2 and the end of the fingerboard 21.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the zero fret F0 includes two strings 4, that is, a first string 41 and a second string 42, a third string 43 and a fourth string 44, and a fifth string 45 and a sixth string 45. Three zero-fret bodies F01 for supporting the strings 46, a pedestal F02 for supporting the respective zero-fret bodies F01 so that their positions can be adjusted in the chord length direction, and a member for fixing each of the zero-fret bodies F01 to the pedestal F02. It consists of a bolt F03.

  The zero fret body F01 has the same shape as the crown 31 of the fret 3, and a mounting hole F04 through which the bolt F03 penetrates is provided at the center in the length direction thereof. The zero fret body F01 is set to a length that is larger than the distance between two strings and does not contact the adjacent zero fret body F01.

  The pedestal F02 has three long holes F05 into which the bolts F03 are inserted. A nut (not shown) is attached to the lower portion of the long hole F05 so as to be movable along the longitudinal direction of the long hole F05 and also vertically movable. In this embodiment, the pedestal F02 has a structure common to the three zero fret bodies F01. In this case, when the respective zero fret bodies F01 are fixed, the upper surface between the long holes F05 and the zero frets. The bottom surface of the main body F01 comes into contact with the bottom surface of the main body F01, and the zero fret body F01 is made difficult to move and is supported from below. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the zero fret position from moving during the performance.

  The zero fret F0 is assembled by inserting the bolt F03 inserted into the mounting hole F04 of the zero fret body F01 into the elongated hole F05. The assembled zero fret F0 can rotate the zero fret body F01 around the bolt F03 to a desired angle with the bolt F03 loosened, as shown by an arrow A1 in FIG. As shown by, the zero fret body F01 can be moved to a desired position in the chord length direction. Then, by finally tightening the bolt F03, as shown in FIG. 4, the zero fret body F01 is fixed at a desired position at a desired angle.

  Prior to attaching the frets 3, as shown in FIG. 6, the electric guitar 100 is in a state in which the neck 2 is attached to the body 1 and can be played as the electric guitar 100 in a state where there are no frets of the 13th fret F13 or more on the fingerboard 22. That is, it is assembled so that sound can be output via the guitar amplifier. Then, in order to determine the position of the fret 3, one end of the first string 41, which is a high-pitched string in this embodiment, is fixed to the bridge 12 and the other end is wound around the peg 23, so that the saddle 12a of the bridge 12 and the zero fret. Put it between F0.

  The first string 41 is first tuned so that the tension of the first string 41 is gradually increased by turning the peg 23 so that the frequency of the first string 41, that is, the pitch frequency of the open string becomes 326.63 Hz. To do. After that, the position of the zero fret F0 is moved to the bridge 12 side or the headstock 24 side in the chord length direction to tune the pitch of the actual pitch so that it coincides with the pitch at the 12th fret. A tuning meter (tuner) may be used for tuning. In addition to a commercially available guitar tuning meter, a measuring device capable of measuring the frequency of a string or the frequency of a sound emitted by a vibrating string can be used.

  After the tuning of the first string 41 is completed, the work for determining the mounting position of the nth fret is performed. In the work of determining the mounting position of the nth fret, the positioning fret 5 described above is used. The work procedure is as follows. Note that n is a natural number of 13 or more. In this embodiment, the maximum value of n is 22.

  Procedure 1: The positioning fret 5 is placed on a position considered to be the attachment position of the nth fret of the fingerboard 22 (the area 6 in the case of the 13th fret is shown by a dotted line in FIG. 6). Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the first string 41 is pressed against the fingerboard 22 with the finger 7, for example, in the vicinity of the positioning fret 5. While pressing the first string 41, the part of the first string 41 on the saddle 12a side of the positioning fret 5 is flipped to vibrate the first string 41.

  Procedure 2: The frequency of vibration is measured while the first string 41 is vibrating. When the measured frequency matches the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret, the position where the positioning fret 5 is placed at this time is determined as the fret mounting position of the nth fret.

  Step 3: When the measured frequency does not match the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret and the measured frequency is higher than the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret, position the positioning fret 5 on the zero fret F0 side (Fig. 7 to the arrow A3). On the contrary, when the measured frequency is lower than the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret, the positioning fret 5 is moved to the saddle 12a side (indicated by arrow A4 in FIG. 7).

  Step 4: After the movement of the positioning fret 5 is completed, the first string 41 is pressed against the fingerboard 22 with the finger 7 in the vicinity of the positioning fret 5. While pressing the first string 41, the part of the first string 41 on the saddle 12a side of the positioning fret 5 is flipped to vibrate the first string 41.

  Step 5: Measure the vibration frequency while the first string 41 is vibrating. When the measured frequency matches the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret, the position where the positioning fret 5 is placed at this time is determined as the fret mounting position of the nth fret.

  The above procedure 1 to procedure 2 or procedure 1 to procedure 5 is performed for each fret position to determine the mounting position of each fret.

  After determining the respective fret mounting positions, the first string 41 is once removed from the electric guitar 100, and a groove for embedding the tongue 32 of the fret 3 in each fret mounting position of the fingerboard 22 is cut. After that, the tongues 32 are inserted into the grooves cut at the respective fret mounting positions, and the frets 3 are mounted. The fret 3 is attached to the final 22nd fret F22 to complete the fingerboard 3.

  In the electric guitar 100 in which the thirteenth fret F13 to the twenty-second fret F22 are attached in this way, the tension of each string 4 is the same as the tension at the time of determining the fret attachment position, even if each fret 3 is pressed during playing. Therefore, the pitch difference between the pitch of each fret 3 and the pitch of the actual pitch is approximately plus or minus 3 cents or less, as shown in FIG. It is very difficult to perceptually recognize such a sound shift. Therefore, when playing, in particular, when playing a chord, no sound shift is felt, so that the music can be played with almost no melody, and the impression of hearing can be remarkably improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.
Although the six-string electric guitar 100 has been described in the above embodiment, the present invention can be applied to a string instrument with frets, such as an electric bass, an acoustic guitar, and an acoustic bass. The electric guitar may be a string other than the 6th string, such as the 7th string, the 10th string, or the 12th string. In that case, the number of pegs 23 and saddles 12a is increased according to the number of strings 4, and the pickup 11 is also increased in the number of pole pieces. It may be applied to a headless or headless type electric guitar.

  Further examples of stringed instruments with frets include those of the genus Mandolin, banjos, zithers, bouzoukis, and the like.

  Although the fret 3 including the crown 31 and the tongue 32 has been described in the above embodiment, the fret having only the crown 31 may be the same as the positioning fret 5 described in the above embodiment. In this case, the tongue-free fret is attached by fixing it to the fingerboard 22 with an adhesive or the like. Further, in the case of the fret without the tongue, the fret without the tongue can be used for the work for positioning when determining the fret mounting position, and thus the positioning fret 5 used in the above-described embodiment is unnecessary. . Furthermore, since it is not necessary to provide a groove into which the tongue 32 is inserted in the finger plate 22 when attaching the fret without the tongue, the number of steps can be reduced.

  Although the electric guitar 100 including the nut 25 and the zero fret F0 has been described in the above embodiment, the zero fret F0 may be used as the nut. In this case, since the zero fret body F01 has a structure capable of rotating around the bolt F03, a string guide is provided between the zero fret F0 and the peg 23 instead of the nut 25, and the six strings are always It is configured to contact the zero fret F0 at the same interval.

  Further, the zero fret F0 may be one in which the zero fret body F01 is attached to the pedestal F02 so as to be rotatable around the bolt F03, or one in which the zero fret body F01 is attached to the seat F02 so as to be movable in the chord length direction.

  Further, the pedestal F02 is not common to the three zero fret bodies F01 as in the above embodiment, but may be provided for each zero fret body F01.

  In addition, an independent zero fret body may be provided for each string, and each zero fret body may be independently provided on the pedestal so that the position thereof can be adjusted.

In the above embodiment, the position adjustment of the zero fret body F01 is performed after the tuning of the open string. In order to determine the mounting position, the above steps 1 to 5 may be appropriately performed.
In addition, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

100-electric guitar (stringed instrument with frets)
4 strings 25 nut F0 zero frets 12 bridge 12a saddle 3 frets 22 fingerboard

Claims (10)

A string is provided between a nut or zero fret and a saddle of a bridge, and a fingerboard having a plurality of frets under the string is provided, and the strings are brought into contact with the frets to select a pitch. A method for determining the fret position of a stringed instrument with a fret, comprising: attaching the frets up to the 12th fret to the fret positions obtained by calculation,
When the fret is attached to the fretboard, the fret is placed on the fretboard in the vicinity of the position of the nth (n is a natural number of 13 or more) fret after tuning an open string,
Vibrating the strings while pressing the strings against the frets placed on the fingerboard,
The position of the fret is adjusted so that the frequency of the vibrating string has a frequency corresponding to the pitch of the nth fret,
The fret position determining method is characterized in that the position of the fret when the frequency of the string and the frequency of the pitch of the nth fret coincide with each other is the fret mounting position.   The fret position determining method according to claim 1, wherein after tuning the open string, the position of the nut or the zero fret is adjusted to tune the open string again.   The fret position determining method according to claim 1, wherein the open string to be tuned is a high-pitched string.   The fret position determining method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the stringed instrument with frets is an electric guitar or an electric bass.   The fret position determining method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the stringed instrument with frets is an acoustic guitar or an acoustic bass.   A nut or zero fret of a string instrument with frets in the fret position determining method according to claim 1, wherein a nut body or a zero fret body that supports two strings each, and the nut body or the zero fret body in the string length direction. A nut or zero fret for a stringed instrument with a fret, which comprises a pedestal that supports the position of the fret.   7. The nut or zero fret of a stringed instrument with frets according to claim 6, wherein the pedestal rotatably supports the nut body or the zero fret body around the two strings.   The nut or zero fret of a string instrument with frets according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the pedestal supports the nut body so as to be movable between the two strings in the string length direction.   The nut or zero fret of a stringed instrument with frets according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the stringed instrument with frets is an electric guitar or an electric bass. The nut or zero fret of the stringed instrument with frets according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the stringed instrument with frets is an acoustic guitar or an acoustic bass.