Dear Jon: I am not replying to your post specifically, but using it as a piggy back into this discussion. Neither do I desire or intend to create a controversy or argument, understanding that when finances allow I intend to purchase one of these electronic wonders. What happened to tuning by ear? The entire history of the Lute was tuned by ear, meaning the original instruments and not the modern revival. To this date I have never used anything other than a tuning fork. Are there any good suggestions and or methods for doing this properly (by ear)?
Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lutelist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 7:45 PM Subject: Re: Electronic Tuners > I assume that harp experience applies to electronic tuners for the lute. The > Korg is well respected in the harp community, but I'll add another one to > the list. I use the Zen-on Chromatina 331 (about $80 US). It calibrates to A > 438 through 445 in increments of one. It has a needle that swings from -50 > cents to +50 cents with markings at intervals of 10 cents (and enough swing > to eyeball to about 2 to 3 cents). A pair of red lights show below or above > pitch (and both light when with in a cent or so of exact). Absolute pitch is > shown as lights on a diatonic scale, with a "sharp" light added if > appropriate. Inputs are built in mike and direct pick up (and there is an > output for those with an electrical instrument, which I don't have, so the > tuner can be "in-line" with the speakers). I find it works well on the harps > when the pick up is clipped to the sound box, and works well on the lute > with the pick up on any peg. > > One negative, it seems to have some memory of a sound. The string must be > fully damped before striking it again or the machine gets a bit confused. > And a caveat for all electronic tuners, even when using a pick up you may > get false readings (although so false as to be obvious) if you have > background sound. The mike is supposed to shut down when the input plug for > the pick up is inserted. But when I first got this for the harps I was > tuning with the TV on (it takes quite a while to tune 52 strings) and got > false readings. I blocked the mike with foam and tape, then finally realized > that it wasn't a false reading, the TV sound was resonating the harp > soundbox (a lot bigger than a lute) - the mike wasn't interfering, it was > the resonation from the ambient noise. So if a tuner seems "jumpy" it may > not be the tuner but the noise, even if using the direct pick up. > > Best, Jon > >
