The Feiten System attracted my attention in the late nineties as a direct result of the extraordinary claims made by it's inventor.
The system was unequivocally being touted as a solution to the discrepancy which exists between the natural harmonic intervals and the equal temperament ones. Since any kind of accommodation other than equal temperament is impossible for the guitar it seemed to be offering something that was patently impossible; as impossible for example, as claiming to have discovered a new value for pi, the ratio of a circle's diameter to its circumference.
The problem I have with the Feiten system, after some considerable research into those parts of it that have been released in the public domain, is that it has been based on inadequate and sometimes faulty reasoning.
There are many errors of history and comprehension, some unverifiable assumptions and the entire system appears to have been built on the presumption of these as accepted fact.
Such is the complex of confusion surrounding the system's rationale that it 's actually very difficult to deconstruct and examine its flaws and even harder to explain them to anyone with a lack of in depth knowledge of physics, mathematics and the science of musicology. What follows is a series of quotes drawn from Buzz Feiten's original website (now unfortunately taken down) and from his patent application along with my comments on these which I hope will serve to illustrate my concerns over it.
