So true, but as long as you don’t gig with a tuner still on your headstock it’s OK.
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So true, but as long as you don’t gig with a tuner still on your headstock it’s OK.
Wow! Is this electromechanical? I never seen a tuner like this.
I have this old Yamaha tuner, but didn't use it for quite a long time.
The only way this guy would be electromechanical is if I accidentally stuck him in a socket. Not a good idea. Found him in a junk drawer. Can’t remember the last time I used it.
I've used a tuning fork in some form or fashion since the 70s. I bought a couple of these for my grandchildren recently to explain the concept. I also collect old Bulova Accutron watches that use tuning fork technology (1960-1977). These were the fore-runners of inexpensive quartz movements that almost destroyed horology! The tuning fork in the watch oscillates ~ F# and if you have a bunch of them (as I do), you can definitely hear them if it's really quiet.
It is a strobe tuner so the string appears to move back and forth when not in tune. One has to guess whether a given string is sharp or flat; however, should one guess wrong the string appears to wobble faster.
The oscillation would be amplified by sitting on a soundboard. In this case it was my nightstand. I had to lay it on a sponge to be able to sleep.
I have one of these from college! My professor gave me one to tune the Timpani drums. I’d often have to retune them in the middle of a piece - blowing as quiet as I could and tapping the drum quietly to tune it up while the orchestra was playing. I think I still have it in my stick bag.
Very cool! Somewhat OT, butt! my grandfather was a Captain in the US Merchant Marine and retired in the Boston, MA, area, and ran a maritime compass adjusting business (Brown & White) with another retired Captain, from Long Wharf in Boston. He had a Bulova Accutron that looks pretty much like the one second from left in the middle row of your picture. He used it because it was the most accurate timepiece he could get at the time, pun intended. Accuracy was of the ultimate importance, as you might imagine when setting compass settings to be used on the high seas.... His watch, his sextant, and a few other tools he carried in his briefcase (his "bag") were priceless. I served as his "bag boy" for a summer when I was 16, carrying the tools for him when he went to work. We served everything from incredibly opulent and expensive yachts to trawlers out of Boston and the seacoast up and down New England. I almost got to go with him on a US Navy destroyer once from Boston to Nova Scotia and back for work, but the Captain, who knew my granddad, apologetically told him he couldn't let me on board because I had to be 18.... I treasure those memories and I still have an old compass rose, and the watch, which keeps impeccable time still, and will be passed to my son.
Thanks for jarring those memories loose!
