Re: Carl's tunable instruments

>For what it's worth (probably very little on past form) I tune strings
>and steel tubes to 0.1 cent accuracy, according to my Peterson strobe
>that is. And that's about 20 minutes testing and fine tuning on each
>string at room temperature. The tubes, every time I check, are accurate,
>no problem with the fundamental, as I have eliminated partial
>interference using filters. Maybe you could add these to your list or,
>if my tuner's wrong, I could sue Peterson under the UK Trades
>Description Act.

Alison, I meant "classical", say those in mass production. With custom
instruments, the sky's the limit. I was just trying to establish how
rare such accuracy is.

I've been using Peterson strobe tuners for years. My original unit was
stolen, so now I've got one of the digitally-controlled ones with the
claimed 0.1-cent accuracy. I believe this is just the accuracy at which
they've got the strobe and motor working together. It's still up to the tuner to be able to see the wheel and tune the instrument correctly. For
timbres that have strong, perfectly-harmonic even-numbered partials,
getting 0.1 cents out of it may be possible. Not with a piano though,
but I've know piano tuners that I suspect are tuning that finely by ear.

I am interested in your instruments -- in particular, what do you mean
by using filters on tubes? What sort of tubes? Struck with a hammer?
I've heard of using hose clamps to kill certain partials on struck
tubes...

I'm a long-time advocate of JI. I too would be surprised if there's a
useful microtemperament for the 19-limit in 21 tones or so. Maybe Gene
can prove me wrong.

I've also built a custom instrument -- a 15-limit slide guitar. I tune
it with my strobe tuner, to about 1-cent accuracy between strings, I
think, though it doesn't last very long. The slide is only good to about
10 cents or so, but that's melodic resolution, and plenty good enough.

-Carl

PS- the strings on my slide guitar are fastened with nickel-plated
zither pins.

Carl Lumma wrote:

> I am interested in your instruments -- in particular, what do you mean
> by using filters on tubes? What sort of tubes? Struck with a hammer?
> I've heard of using hose clamps to kill certain partials on struck
> tubes...

I mean digital filters. I have a Digitech rack unit with a good set of filters, low-, high-, band-, etc. If I want to get a good fundamental I
experiment with the steel tubes, 1/2" or 3/4", through the filters till I get an unwavering signal. Then I can cut and file as appropriate. After 100
plus tubes you get good at it. Kris Peck suggested this a few months ago and it works very well. Also you're right, pressing on certain points of the
tubes and trying different beaters will all give different partials at different amplitudes.

> I'm a long-time advocate of JI. I too would be surprised if there's a
> useful microtemperament for the 19-limit in 21 tones or so. Maybe Gene
> can prove me wrong.
>
> I've also built a custom instrument -- a 15-limit slide guitar. I tune
> it with my strobe tuner, to about 1-cent accuracy between strings, I
> think, though it doesn't last very long. The slide is only good to about
> 10 cents or so, but that's melodic resolution, and plenty good enough.
>
> -Carl
>
> PS- the strings on my slide guitar are fastened with nickel-plated
> zither pins.

I use zither pins from a large UK Early Music shop. Once embedded into a good block they only move if you want them to. I think I got lucky with
these.

Kind Regards

>