Tuner

“ The cause may be a twisted string, a fault in the string by imperfect drawing of the wire, or in the construction of the sound-board.
In the low bass tones, a kind of false waves are always present, and will annoy the tuner long after he has been in regular practice. They are, however, of a different nature from the true waves in that they are of a metallic timbre and of much greater rapidity than the latter. Close attention will generally enable the tuner to distinguish between them. They are caused by what is known as "harmonics" or "over-tones" ”

“ He listened and listened; he turned the tuner handle up and down. He got the soundwaves short and got them long; high and low as well. But one fact he was sure of: they were the same sounds—the same series of clumsy dots and dashes—repeated over and over again! ”

“ All the tuner can do is to apprise the owner of the defect and inform her that it will not stand well at this point, as the intense strain is thrown largely upon the wooden frame, which will have a tendency to yield gradually to it. ”

“ It is readily seen that by a system of this kind the tuner's mind is constantly on a strain to know how to temper the interval he is tuning, and how much to temper it, as fourths require a different degree of tempering from the fifths ”

“ Any regulating or repairing of the action should be attended to before tuning the instrument; the latter should be the final operation. As a thorough knowledge of regulating and repairing is practically indispensable to the professional tuner, the author has spared neither means, labor nor research to make this part of the lessons very complete, and feels sure that it will meet with the hearty approval of most, if not all, students. The piano tuner who knows nothing of regulating and repairing will miss many an opportunity to earn extra money. ”

“ To tune by the beats requires a sharp ear and mental discernment; to tune by pitch requires a fine musical ear and knowledge of the simpler laws of harmony.
As stated above, the tuner will fail in many cases to tune his high octaves sharp enough. Rarely, if ever, will a tuner with a good ear leave the upper tones too sharp. Now, there is one more fact which is of the utmost importance in tuning the treble: it is the fact that the extreme upper octave and a half must be tuned slightly sharper than perfect ”

“ At first, the young tuner is almost invariably discouraged by his slow progress. He must remember that, however fine his ear and however great his mechanical ability, he has much to acquire by training in both, and he must expect to be two or three times longer in finishing off a job of tuning at the outset than will be necessary after he has had a few months' practice. ”

“ No special instrument is made for the purpose of searching for such objects, but one can be easily devised with which the tuner can feel all over the sound board, and remove such articles as well as dust and dirt. ”

“ This is a point whereon I 50dwell rather particularly; knowing that, even in Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, a good tuner is not always to be had; and that, in all other situations, throughout the interior scarce a professional person can be found. Besides, in a country whose climate deranges the most skilful adjustment of the wires, often in a few minutes, merely by a slight exposure to heat, or to damp, the expence attendant upon such frequent tunings, as are indispensably requisite, would speedily absorb the full value of the instrument itself ”

“ Persons of a different taste, and, we would say, a more cultured ear, call the tone harsh when the hammers are hard, and they usually desire the tuner to soften the tone, which he does by softening the hammer ends as has been described in Lesson VII. This operation, which we call voicing, is a very delicate piece of work, and the tuner should exercise care and pains in doing it ”

“ More depends on practice, and a native talent for it, than anything else. At Mr. W.'s is a very superior tuner, and he has been at it but a few months. It requires strength of wrist, and a rather long arm. The change of posture and strain on the back is considerable. There is not one good tuner in fifty. Mr. W. thinks a lady might be a tuner. He says it is not necessary that a person should know how to play on an instrument, but it is better. A tuner in his factory receives $3 a day. Regulating is done by the touch, tuning by the ear. ”

“ The tuner should hear but two strings at once while setting a temperament; the one he is tuning by and the one he is tuning. A continuous mute is a strip of muting felt of the proper thickness to be pushed in between the trios of strings. Simply lay it across a portion of the strings and with a screwdriver push it in between the trios just above where the hammers strike. In the square piano, which has but two strings to a key, the continuous mute cannot be used and you will be obliged to tune both strings in unison before leaving to tune another interval. ”

“ Hannover Germany. The illustration shows the hook-up which is used and in the photograph the four pole double throw switch controls booth tuners, the small one outside the cabinet and the large tuner which is inside. The same audion hook-up is used for both tuners. ”

“ Fig. 203.—Complete Double-Slider Tuning Coil. When scraping the insulation, be very careful not to loosen the wires or remove the insulation from between them, so that they are liable to short-circuit between adjacent turns.
A Loose Coupler is a much more efficient tuning device than a double-slider tuner, and sooner or later most amateur wireless operators install one in their station. ”

“ A crystal detector can be used with or without a battery while the vacuum tube detector requires two small batteries.
A tuning coil of the simplest kind consists of a single layer of copper wire wound on a cylinder with an adjustable, or sliding, contact, but for sharp tuning you need a loose coupled tuning coil. Where a single coil tuner is used a fixed condenser should be connected around the telephone receivers. Where a loose coupled tuner is employed you should have a variable condenser connected across the closed oscillation circuit and a fixed condenser across the telephone receivers. ”

“ Don't expect to get as good results with a two-coil tuner as with one having a third, or tickler, coil.
Don't think you have to use a regenerative circuit, that is, one with a tickler coil, to receive with a vacuum tube detector.
Don't think you are the only amateur who is troubled with static.
Don't expect to eliminate interference if the amateurs around you are sending with spark sets. ”

“ For the purpose of making the student more thoroughly informed we detail here several different systems which have been devised and practiced by other tuners. It is a matter of history that artisans in this profession and leaders in musical science have endeavored to devise a system of temperament having all the desirable qualifications.
The aims of many have been to invent a system which uses the fewest number of tones; working under the impression that the fewer the tones used in the temperament, the easier the tuner's work. ”

“ Nor would it be superfluous for a lady to take with her several sets of wires for her piano; they being very scarce. At all events, she ought to qualify herself to tune the instrument; which may be effected in the course of a month, or six weeks, by attention to the instructions of a regular tuner, who would feel himself well satisfied under a moderate compensation. ”

“ The only means given the tuner by which he is to bring about this condition are his tuning hammer and the key of the piano, with its mechanism, whereby he may strike the string he is tuning.
The purpose of the tuning hammer is that of altering the tension. The purpose of striking the string by means of the key is twofold: first, to ascertain the pitch of the string, and second, to equalize the tension of the string over its entire length. ”

“ The power divider contains a double stub tuner to compensate for mismatch between the re-entry C-band beacon, the C-band helical antennas, and the phase shifter. Tuning is accomplished by means of a self-locking tuning shell located underneath each tuning stub cap.
The phase shifter has its own ac power supply. The input to the phase shifter, is half wave rectified and applied across a coil wound around a ferrite material. Due to the characteristics of the ferrite material, the rf signal from the power divider is delayed 0 to 180 degrees +- 20 degrees at the rate of 453 cycles per second. ”

“ It might also bring out any musical talent the individual possesses. While piano tuners are learning, if they practise long at a time, they often experience a confusion of sounds, and are not able to distinguish correctly. I was told by another manufacturer, it is not at all necessary to be a player to make a good tuner, as the two are entirely distinct. There is a great difference in the abilities of tuners. There is much difference naturally in the sense of hearing in different individuals: there is much from training, there is much from the aptness of a pupil, and in the application. ”

“ The tuner should carry with him a tuning pipe or fork tuned to 3C in one or the other of these pitches. The special uses to which pianos are subjected are as follows:
1st, As a concert piano. In the opera house, music hall, and occasionally in the church, or even in a private dwelling, the piano is used along with orchestral instruments. All orchestral instruments are supposed to be tuned to concert pitch. The stringed instruments can, of course, be tuned to any pitch ”

“ The Audion is selective to some extent as to spark frequency, but positively is not selective as to wave length. It is exactly as sensitive at 3000 meters as at 200. If you will consider the proportions of an amateur tuner, you will realize that it is most efficient from 200 to 1500 meters. ”

“ Musical colleges in which tuning is taught are few and far between; piano factories are built for the purpose of producing pianos and not tuners, for mechanics and laborers and not for teachers and pupils; furthermore, very little fine tuning is done in the factory; rough tuning is the bulk of the work there, and a long apprenticeship in the factory, with its meager advantages, is rarely sufficient to meet the demands of the would-be-thorough tuner. ”

“ Being a regular succession of fifths and octaves, without a break, the system is easily learned, and can be followed with little mental strain.
Uniformity. After the tuner has become well trained in tempering his fifths, there is little danger of an uneven temperament, as the various intervals used in trials will prove a false member in some chord in time to correct it before he has gotten so far from it as to make the correction difficult. When a correction is necessary, the offending point is most easily found. ”

“ These have reduced the compass of the temperament to the twelve semi-tones from middle C to B above; or from F below, to E above middle C. [Pg 164] This system requires the tuner to make use of both fourths and fifths. Not only does he have to use these two kinds of intervals in tuning, but he has to tune by fourths up and fourths down, and, likewise, by fifths up and fifths down. When tuning a fifth upward, he flattens it; and when tuning a fifth downward he sharpens the lower tone; when tuning a fourth upward, he sharpens it; when tuning a fourth downward, he flattens the lower tone. ”

“ The Oscillation Transformer.--The tuning coil, or oscillation transformer as this one is called, is a conductively coupled tuner--that is, the primary and secondary coils form one continuous coil instead of two separate coils. This tuner is made up of 25 turns of thin copper strip, 3/8 inch wide and with its edges rounded, and this is secured to a wood base as shown at A in Fig. ”

“ You may be a little surprised at what we are about to tell you, but it is a fact, gleaned from long experience in traveling and observation, that many, verily, the majority of pretending tuners have not so much practical knowledge of a piano as you should now have. ”

“ Each receiver should have 1000 ohms resistance. Some boys may find it necessary to purchase one receiver at a time. Two receivers, a double headband, and a double cord, forming a complete head set as shown in Figure 217, should be secured as soon as possible.
Fig. 218.—A Circuit showing how to connect a Double-Slider Tuning Coil. Connecting the Receiving Apparatus
Figure 218 shows how to connect a double-slide tuner, a detector, a fixed condenser and a pair of telephones to the aerial and ground. ”

“ They learn to do everything, from tightening a wire to putting a new one in, and hundreds of testimonials from those who have employed blind tuners speak for the thoroughness with which they do their work. ”

“ When you have gone through the entire system and arrived at the last fifth, 1F-2C, you should find it nearly as perfect as the rest, but you will hardly be able to do so in your first efforts. Even old tuners frequently have to go over their work a second or third time before all fifths are properly tempered. By this system, however, you cannot go far wrong if you test each step as directed, and your first chord comes up right. ”

“ But whatever you do, never use a current from a lighting circuit on a tube of any kind that has a rated plate potential of less than 100 volts.
The Apparatus You Need.--For this experimental continuous wave telegraph transmitter get the following pieces of apparatus: (1) one single coil tuner with three clips; (2) one .002 mfd. fixed condenser; (3) three .001 mfd. condensers; (4) one adjustable grid leak; (5) one hot-wire ammeter; (6) one buzzer; (7) one dry cell; (8) one telegraph key; (9) one 100 volt plate vacuum tube amplifier; (10) one 6 volt storage battery; (11) one rheostat ”