[Harp-L] Best tuners for micro-adjustments and a lesson learned the hard way

["Trip Henderson" <trip.tunes@xxxxxxxxx>]

If y'all want to make tuning your harps allot easier I'd recommend getting
yourself a strobe tuner.

here's one I found on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CONN-ST-11-STROBOTUNER-vintage-strobe-tuner_W0QQitemZ200093888512QQcategoryZ64388QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've got an old Petersen Analog tuner which is perfect for harp.  Without
going into detail the strobe tuner allows you to see micro-pitch
differences, you can play an octaves and see where the two notes are
relative to one another, you can dial in cents, et.  Harp tech Richard
Sleigh uses them and I love mine.

On another note. I've added a couple new tunes to my myspace site.  One's a
fun throw away fiddle tune from the end of a rehearsal called the Leake
County Blues, and the other is a version of that harp favorite Amazing
Grace.  On that piece I learned a valuable lesson.  It was a odd gig at
Lincoln Center here in New York.  I was to play the song to "set the mood"
for a film called PICTURING MARY: Her Face in Art.  Anyway, we sound
checked, everything was cool. At showtime and I went out on stage and
started to play the tune in cross (D on a Sleigh double thick reed plate G).
I had just gotten two of these harps from Richard Sleigh and had not really
put them through their paces yet.  When I reached the 4 draw in the melody
(THE juicy note in the song) the reed buzzed to the extent that I had to
pretty much avoid that note for the rest of the song.  This was definatley
not the "improvise over the melody" kind of gig ~ there were many starched
white collars in the crowd if you get my drift. Lesson learned, if you're on
a high profile gig like that, *always* have a spare harp in your pocket,
just in case.  It turned out fine, and forced me to improvise, albeit w/o
the 4 draw.  For those curious, it's a duet with Tim Kiah on bowed bass.

Trip - NYC
*http://www.myspace.com/triphenderson*<http://www.myspace.com/triphenderson>

*http://www.myspace.com/thesecondfiddles*<http://www.myspace.com/thesecondfiddles>