Re: [Harp-L] Chromatic tuners and harp tuning

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim McBride wrote:
> Since we're on the topic of chromatic tuners and harp tuning .... 
> today I checked a few of my SP20's and Hering Vintage 1923's against
> my Korg chromatic tuner. The tuner reads cents and I wanted to see 
> how close the harps were to the factory tunings. I was using tuning 
> charts provided to me by someone on Harp-L (my apologies for 
> forgetting who sent it to me). None of the harps were close to the 
> numbers on my tuning chart. Is this because the harps have been 
> played a while and have gotten out of tune? Or is it because the 
> Korg tuner is that inaccurate? Or are my charts wrong? I'm hoping 
> that those of you with harp tuning experience can help.

Since you don't really specify how they are not "close to the numbers
on my tuning chart" it's hard to say what the difference might be. 
One thing you don't mention is whether you adjusted the baseline
calibration on your tuner to match the harp before you tested it.  In
other words, although harps generally claim to be tuned to A=440hz,
the truth is they generally use a base reference closer to A=442 or
A=443 (+12 cents).  In this case, all the variations you see on the
tuning chart would need to be adjusted to take this reference into
account.  In other words, if you're looking at a chart that shows
variations like this:

02 04 -10 02

But if the factory tuning reference is A=443, which is +12 cents, then
if the tuner is set to A=440, the readings would be:

14 18 02 14

Of course, it could just be that the harps have been played a while
and have gotten out of tune or the tuner is inaccurate or the charts
are wrong.  ;-)

-tim