Re: Lee Oskars?

[hippo@xxxxxxxxxx (Hugh Messenger)]

At  4:12 PM 10/17/94 -0500, Rick Barker wrote:
>>Strangely enough ... intonation is just about the only thing I prefer about
>>Hohners to Lee Oskars.  Hohners (when they are in tune) have an intonation
>>that (for my ears) plays better chords ("well tempered") whereas the Lee
>>Oskar seems to have more "perfect" tuning.
>>
>>Another example of different strokes fer different folks.
>>
>>   -- hugh
>
>This is not necessarily a "different strokes" thing. Rather, it has to do
>with the way the human ear perceives pitch.

That's what I meant.  In 'classical' terminology, a "well tempered"
instrument is one that is not mathematically tuned, but rather has certain
notes 'detuned' such that they sound musical when played in chords.  For
instance, an original early Baroque klavier or harpsichord (or virginal or
...) sounds "out of tune" if you play chords, hence music of that day
features the distinctive single note, complex melody lines.  Only once the
"well tempered" klavier was built could composers layer up the chords.

As far as I can tell, a Hohner is tuned in a "well tempered" way, whereas a
Lee Oskar is tuned for more perfectly correct single notes.  I never sat
down and tried one out on a good tuner, but my ears tell me that a juicy
2-3-4 draw chord on a Hohner sounds more "in tune" than the same chord on a
Lee Oskar.

Hence different strokes - I use Lee Oskars for the single note, country
type style (or jazz, or whatever), but don't like them if I'm playing 2nd
position blues and want to grab a facefull.  Maybe that should be
'different strokes for different styles'.

   -- hugh