best hand-held tuners

[carl-swanson]

Years ago, a piano tuner friend who had a large collection of important pianos lent me, for about 10 years, a 1904 Steinway with a Carpathian burl elm case and carved cabriole legs. It was a glorious piano with a sumptuous sound. Once it was delivered, my friend tuned it for me. About a year or two later, it needed tuning, so I asked my friend, who didn’t live near me, for a recommendation. He recommended a former student of his. I had the man come over and tune the piano. When he left, I tried the piano. It sounded perfectly in tune, but it had lost something tonally. It sounded bland. The next time my friend, the owner of the piano, came to visit, I told him about this. He went to the piano, played a few chords, and said, “he didn’t stretch the octaves. I’ll go over it after dinner.” My friend worked on it for about 25 minutes, and when he was done, the glorious sound was back. So stretching the octaves actually has an effect on the sound production.

[Gretchen Cover]

My dear Balfour. I have not been very active here for a while so it gives me great pleasure to once again bring up Cb. Think how you could tune that note so much much better on a phone app than a hand held tuner:) BTW, I can read but chose to shake up the thinking. Times have changed. If you have a cell phone, why not take advantage of the technology. It’s not as though a tuning app will get hacked, nor will it disturb you and certainly won’t waste your time.

[dancingpiper]

For tuner apps, does one need a particular quality of phone? I’ve had my Moto G for about a year and a half and have had a few serious tech difficulties with it, the first one when I had an app installed, hence my being app shy. It’s an android while all of the tech people at school use iPhones. Does it matter?

[dancingpiper]

In scoping out Peterson tuner apps, I see one called iStrobe; is that the one or are there others to consider? Also (luddite question), is the cost a one-time fee or is it a subscription? I’m still not decided on whether or not to go that way but want to be open minded ;-D

[balfour-knight]

Ha, Ha, Gretchen! Indeed, I have really missed your posts on HC forums! Hope all is well with you.

In this rural area of western North Carolina where we live, in the mountains, cell-phone reception can be very spotty, with miles of “no service.” Where these sweet young brides want to get married, 40 miles from “nowhere,” and “out in the sticks,” there is often no cell-phone service, so we traveling musicians have had to rely on battery-powered Korg tuners which work anywhere. I tune mostly by ear anyway, and only use the Korg to establish A=440 for the benefit of playing with other musicians, such as violin and flute. (Formerly, a tuning fork sufficed!)

Anyway, thanks for “shaking up the thinking” on this thread. My C flats and also my F flats are doing quite well, especially since I have to tune my pedal harp in C flat, ha, ha! (No such thing on the lever harp tuned in C, you know! A C flat has to be a B natural, like on the piano!)

Harp Hugs everyone,
Balfour

[carl-swanson]

Balfour- Do you mean to tell me that if I don’t have cell phone service, the Peterson ap on my phone won’t work? I thought once you downloaded it, it was on your phone.

Us old folks remember the days when we had to tune entirely by ear. I can remember carrying a tuning fork around with me. The saying then was: Harpists spend half their life tuning, and the other half playing out of tune!

[balfour-knight]

Carl, all I know is that when I don’t have cell phone service, nothing works on my phone. All of those “extras” like apps seem to be not really in the phone itself, but “in the cloud.” If someone knows more about this, feel free to respond!

I love “us old folks,” ha, ha! I remember back in the early days of my pedal harp experience in college, how delighted we were to find your book on harp maintenance and regulating!

I believe that Debussy may be credited with saying “harpists spend half their life tuning, and the other half playing out of tune!” We are having cold, damp rainy weather here, which raises the humidity above 60%, so we are using the dehumidifiers right now. The harps are not content, ha, ha! Sometimes I just play on them out-of-tune until the damp period is over. At least my fingers get a workout, if it is not too hard on my “perfect pitch,” ha, ha!

Best to all of you,
Balfour

[carl-swanson]

I didn’t realize that that quote was from Debussy. How perceptive composers are… Another composer quote I love came from Stravinsky. When he was told that Vivaldi wrote 220 concertos, his response was: “No he didn’t. He wrote one concerto 220 times!”

[Alison]

Hi everybody,
I think you’ll find that quote was Mendelssohn’s who disliked the harp ! I also grew up with the tuning fork and actually once I have fixed a key note in the 3rd Octave, I am quite capable of tuning by ear, it’s quicker, it keeps my ear trained and is more enjoyable.

[balfour-knight]

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.

Igor Stravinsky

[balfour-knight]

Carl, apparently, some apps still work when there is no cell-phone reception, depending on the way they are installed. Someone who knows more about this may post something here on this thread, I hope.
I was wrong about Debussy, but the above quote is substantiated in several sources about Stravinsky!

Best wishes, everyone,
Balfour

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