I've had to do this conversion for my tuner, which is also in "cents", like yours.

440 hertz is what we call "straight up" tuning with no sharp or flat. In other words, dead on the note using equal tempered tuning. Many people tune some of their strings and pedal changes off of "straight up" because it sounds better to their ears....more in tune.

To convert to Cents, the difference between 440 Hertz and 441 Hertz is 1 Hertz. That 1 Hertz is equal to 4 Cents on the cents scale. So....

440 = 0 (dead on)
440.5 = +2 cents (sharp of the note)
441 = +4 cents (sharp)
441.5 = +6 cents (sharp)
442 = +8 cents (sharp)
and so on...

and too:
439.5 = -2 cents (flat of the note)
439 = -4 cents (flat)
438.5 = -6 cents (flat)
438 = -8 cents (flat)
and so on...

In the Jeff Newman Tuning chart the open strings are tuned as such:

F# = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
D# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
G# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
E = 442.5, or 10 cents Sharp
B = 442, or 8 cents Sharp
G# = 439, or 4 cents Flat
F# = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
E = 442.5, or 10 cents Sharp
D = 441.5, or 6 cents Sharp
B = 442, or 8 cents Sharp

Tuning the pedal and lever changes uses the same logic. The most detuned lever is the F lever (raises the E strings to F) and that lever is tuned 435.5, or 18 cents Flat of F.

I hoped this helps get you started in the right direction.

Holler if you need more help.

Tony

[This message was edited by Tony Orth on 12 August 2004 at 09:48 AM.]

Thank you Tony, that was as good as I have ever seen it explained.

One day I hope to understand everything
you just told me. But for now its kind
of foggy to me.

If you take a look at the fretboard of your guitar, you will see (of course) that the distance between any two frets is the same for all the strings.

To get an idea of what "cents" are, imagine taking a duplicate of your fretboard, then stretching it out so that it has 100 frets instead of 24, then compressing the whole 100 frets so that the 100 frets fit in between the nut and the first fret. Then do that for all frets. The distance between each of the tiny frets is one cent.

So, for example, one cent above the first fret is the same distance whether you're talking about the 1st string or the 10th string.

But, remember -- the first string vibrates at a significantly higher frequency (Hz) than the 10th string. So, if you move your bar up the fret board, you will change more Hz per cent than on the 1st string than on the 10th string because, although the cents are the same distance for each string on any given fret, the change in the number of Hz is different for each string.

I think it's sort of like saying that you can calculate an increase in road speed from an increase in engine speed. While that is generally true, you must know what gear you're in to actually do it.

[This message was edited by Tom Olson on 13 August 2004 at 12:10 PM.]