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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Andrews French Tuner
Andrews French Tuner
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MP
3417 posts
Feb 26, 2017
4:27 PM
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Howzit Andrew!
The French Tuner is a very good tool. I love it: since I tune by octaves, and your instructions are very easy to follow.
I do have a couple of questions though.-
Your instructions say tune the top plate to 442 and the bottom plate to 443.
At one point in the instructions you say to match two draw w/ 3 blow. At 4 cents difference they will not match exactly. Why the difference in calibration for top and bottom plate? Doesn't the 4 cents difference sound odd to you?
I'm sure you have good very reasons and I'd really like to know them.
Aloha, Mark
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Have good day. M.A.P.
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arzajac
1808 posts
Feb 26, 2017
4:58 PM
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Hi Mark!
3 Blow is a fifth and should be tuned slightly sharper than the tonic (1 and 4 blow).
2 Draw is the same note. But it's a different scale. On the draw plate, the 2 draw is the tonic - so the whole scale it tuned in relation to it. Since it has to be in tune with the 3 blow and the other notes of the draw plate at the same time, that's the way to make everything work out.
It you want to be ultra precise, the difference should only be about two cents. A difference of A=442 and A=443 is about four cents, but we tend to play the 2 draw a little hard and flatten it anyway. So a little sharp is usually better.
I hope that helps!
One more thing...
Four cents of a single note isn't that much. I'm sure most of the time, the same note on harp, piano and guitar are further apart than that. What really hits the ear wrong is when two notes played together are not in tune. If they are harmonious, they sound bigger than the sum of the parts. So it often doesn't matter what the absolute value of the pitch is (442, 443, etc..) but whether the other notes played togehter are in tune with it.
That's what the French Tuner focuses on.
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica Combs and Tools.
Last Edited by arzajac on Feb 26, 2017 5:05 PM
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Thievin' Heathen
903 posts
Feb 27, 2017
5:57 PM
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I love mine. It really speeds things up.
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MP
3418 posts
Feb 28, 2017
2:18 PM
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Howzit and Mahalo, Azajac! It's always a pleasure to learn new stuff about my strange obsession. I like zeroing out when tuning. Rather than go minus 12 cents from 442 it's easier to zero out at 439.
I agree about 'the absolute value of a pitch'. I'm no longer amazed that gigging players have harps tuned somewhere in a nether world between 444+ to 440- yet don't notice anything odd. As far as I can determine, a lot of players don't notice anything until 4 blow and 4 draw sound odd, or 5 blow and 5 draw are roughly the same note. Of course these are obvious signs of breakage. I have to remind myself that years ago; for many years in fact, I broke a lot of reeds and when a harp was dead it was dead, and repairing and tuning were not things I considered.
Like Theavin' Heathen my tuning time has speeded up considerably. Aloha,Mark
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Have good day. M.A.P.
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