TUNING TIPS

About the Buzz feiten Tuning System

All Anderson guitars are equipped with the Buzz Feiten Design Tuning System. The Feiten system is primarily a visually undetectable structural neck change in combination with slightly altered bridge intonation offsets. It allows your guitar to tune more accurately than you have ever experienced before. The most noticeable benefit is that chords sound more in tune with each other. The method shown below is a slightly more precise method of tuning which will allow you to take full advantage of this new technology. But don't worry, even if you tune using your old standard way, your guitar will still tune and play more accurately than ever before.

Remember one thing, even though this tuning system is much better than anything any of us have ever heard, it is not perfect, no tuning is. But, your guitar will now be as accurate as a well tuned piano. This piano type tuning is called "Well Tempered Tuning." It is a compromise in tuning where everything sounds pleasing, as opposed to "Even Tempered Tuning" where a couple of things sound perfect while everything else sounds "out." When an instrument that is designed to play chords is tuned normally, or "even-tempered," it will produce some intervals between notes that sound perfect and others that sound quite out of tune, especially 3rds and 6ths. For centuries artists have realized that if a keyboard were tuned using a "well-tempered" scale, all of the chords would sound pleasingly in tune. Although the guitar is also an instrument capable of playing chords, that same method was not applied to the guitar until Tom Anderson introduced the Buzz Feiten Tuning System in early 1996.

Tuners and Programming Offsets

We use a bench tuner that has many programming parameters, but they make the ST-300 which is user programmable to accept the Buzz Feiten offsets. It is the fastest, most accurate tuner we have seen and it will radically simplify your live tuning experience. 

Programming the ST-200 and 300 with Buzz Feiten Tuning System offsets:

Press the right Mode button till you have cust 1 mode lit.

While holding down the right Mode button, hold the left Mode button as well. Then release both. You should have a small “o” on the screen. The LED over cust1 will flash.

Use the left Mode button to scroll through the string numbers. Starting with the high E, #1, use the right Mode button to get to the next parameter. The left Mode button is used to change the parameter.

So, high E looks like this:

1, right Mode button, = , right Mode button, E, right Mode button, 4, right Mode button, + (doesn't matter on this note), right Mode button, 0, right Mode button, 0, right Mode button,. , right Mode button, 0, right Mode button, blank. You're done with high E.

Pressing the left Mode button gets you back to string numbers. We'll do one more to get the hang of the offsets.

After pressing the left Mode button from the blank screen, we have 2.

right Mode button, =, right Mode button, B, right Mode button, 3(3rd octave), right Mode button, +, right Mode button, 0, right Mode button, 1, right Mode button,. ,right Mode button, 0, blank, left Mode button on to the next string.

It's very repetitive, and if you ever goof, you can always exit edit mode by hitting the pedal on off button, then go back to the beginning, but you don't have to reenter what you have already done. you can page through the strings till you get to the one you goofed on. I goofed a lot, so I got lots of practice getting into edit mode.

We use the 7th string for an open dropped D so you'll have to change the string name to D. If in the first 6 strings the string name is not correct, just use the left button to change the string name or any other parameter.

For open position tuning in cust1

1=E 4 octave 0 offset(open E)

2=B 3 octave +1. Cent offset(open B)

3=G 3 octave -2. Cents offset(open G)

4=D 3 octave -2. Cents offset(open D)

5=A 2 octave -2. Cents offset(open A)

6=E 2 octave -2. Cents offset(open E)

7=D 1 octave -4. Cents Offset(Drop D)

For 12th fret intonation, program cust2 1=E 5 octave 0 offset

2=B 4 octave 0 offset

3=G 4 octave +1 cent offset

4=D 4 octave +1 cent offset

5=A 3 octave 0 offset

6=E 3 octave 0 offset

When you tune, tune to the attack, not where the note settles. Notes settle flat. You can re-strike the note every second as this tuner is fast enough to track it.

*The bridge intonation has been set at the factory and should not need to be readjusted, unless changing string gauge by two or more sizes (i.e.009 to .011). A bridge intonation adjustment does require an extremely precise tuner. We are now using the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner for tuning and intonation.

Click HERE to download the Instructions for Programming the ST-200 and 300