Equal Temperament Tuning

To my understanding it's more like Equal Temperament vs Just Intonation..?

only if it's equal temperament :-)

Equal temperament strikes again.

Notation wise and officially it is a loop. But the tuning is a compromise. Hence some sounds are not harmonised that way using the current scale. There is a reason why well-tempered clavier tuning is still a bit of debate. You may have to tune fir some songs differently in those days. Hence assume all flat and sharp are equal is a bit too pure that might not exist n the real world.

I believe (but could be wrong) that's only true for western music, tuned to 440hz as an "A" with 12 steps between octaves. Eastern music for example, with stringed instruments without frets, like Sitar for example, sounds very different and I believe its because they don't follow that practice. Highlighting that was my intent between linking a particular piece of music thats well outside the mainstream top 40. (alternatively, consider my tone-deaf self in middle school trying

They're not out of tune, they're just on... nonwestern scales. :)

You were hoping for just intonation?

you might realize this already, but you are not getting equal temperament when you tune a guitar this way.

How applicable is this to eastern musical scales?

I've been down that rabbit hole. Math and music aren't really in such harmony as advertised. Yeah, equal tuning gives your instrument ability to play in any key, but it will always be slightly off.For more enjoyable tuning, your frequency ratios should actually be fractions of small integers. For example, note E to note C ratio should be 5/4. This is called "just intonation", you can hear some examples on youtube when compared to equal temperament described in article