I can't tell you what notes the strings were originally intended to be tuned to, obviously, but what I can do is give you some notes that might work! How long are the strings from peg to end? How many are there? If the original strings remain, how thick are they? (For reference, the thinnest string of an average set of acoustic guitar strings is around .012".) Also, do you listen to band/orchestra music more, or early folk music with a lot of guitar? If you listen to band music mostly, it might be good to tune the strings to notes like A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, E-flat and F natural since that music is played on B-flat instruments mostly; if folk music is your taste, then E, G, A, B, and D natural would work better since those songs are generally in keys like E Major, G Major, A Major and D Major.
Any chance you might post a picture of the part with the strings? I could tell you more if I had more info. It sounds so far like the inventors might not have had specific tunings in mind, even. Maybe the patent might know? Best, Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 11:07 PM Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Klingsor > > In a message dated 9/12/2005 8:25:38 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > > As such, I would be very surprised if the strings didn't add a shiny, > strange reverb quality to certain notes coming from the horn. The problem, > musically speaking, would be that the speed of the playback would need to give a > musical pitch equal to the tuning of the strings -- i.e., if the strings were > tuned relative to A=440Hz and the record played back just a little off, the > strings would sound awful. As we know, 78.26 didn't become a universally > observed standard until many years after the acoustic recording era, and even > modern turntables are rarely dead-on (not to mention that many lathes weren't > spot-on during the original recording sessions anyway), so unless you tuned the > strings for each record or tuned the phonograph's speed to the strings for > each record, they ain't gonna sound none too purty. > > Best to all, > Robert > > > Well now Robert...that makes the most sense of all. Tune the record to the > strings...but don't try to tune the strings to the record. After all, isn't > that what the speed control is for? > That's all good and well, but it still doesn't tell me which of the strings > on a Klingsor should be tuned to "A" 440 and whether it was intended to > provide half steps, whole steps, or octaves. Of course, all this is academic since > it probably never mattered anyway!!!! > This is a fun discussion, but quoting Shakespeare, signifying nothing. > ---Art > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > [email protected] > > Phono-L Archive > http://www.oldcrank.org/pipermail/phono-l/ >
