<HTML>List, I went to the website for the Guild of American Luthiers that Charles Neuman posted: http://w3.ime.net/~cygnus/equal_temperament.html I found a document which tells how that organization feels the guitar should be tuned.  Here are a few phrases from it that seemed to jump out at me: "...equal temperament. You must accept this compromise..." "...Guitarists ... must learn to understand and accept equal temperament." "...while in equal temperament each 5th must be lowered slightly. " "Tune the guitar as instructed below and let it stand... help your ear accept equal temperament." "...the strings will be tuned perfectly to equal temperament. No further tuning adjustments are permissible." Now here is a real dictator talking if I ever heard one.  I believe this reflects the mentality that leads people to believe so strongly, faithfully and from the depths of their consciousness in the absolute and monolithic correctness of ET.  The tragedy of it all is that the concept which has been believed in so fervently really never was fully understood.  To believe in the one and only way but not to really understand it, to pass those misconceptions on, to teach them as facts and dictate them only causes people to make tuning errors which are at least as bad, if not worse than the ones this purportedly "perfect" compromise tries to correct. But guess what folks, they used to think the world was flat and could prove it.  You risked your life if you ever challenged that notion.  Does anybody know how you "lower a 5th", as this authority says you *must* do? Guitarists of the world:  Don't believe it, it's not true, there is a better, more musical way to tune your instruments.  Take the credibility issue with "lowering of the 5th" as your license to ignore this document as having any validity at all. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>