Tuning styles with octaves

[David Andersen]

on 6/11/04 7:36 AM, ibetuner at ibetuner@sbcglobal.net wrote:

> Please tell us more about open string tuning.  Only 2 years new in the
> business and still finding out what I don't know but getting better
> hopefully.
> 
> Never heard of open string tuning till your post.

It's how everybody tuned until relatively recently---one mute, a tuning
hammer, and that's it, tuning unisons as you go, using the wetware that the
Creator gave ya. It requires you to have a pretty good aural idea of where
you're going, but with practice, it's the most fun and, just as importantly,
the most stable and eventually beautiful & musical way to tune---IMHO.

My method of setting temperament is kind of unusual as well---I base it on a
kind of "ladder" of fourths between F3 and F4, with the tonic starting at F3
and moving up a half step on each step of the ladder; each fourth is beating
sharp in the same slow, lazy roll---usually between 1 & 2.5 bps---and the
fifths are just a frog hair flat---no beat speed really discernible.

When you start to listen to open, stock-still unisons, and learn that each
pin movement subtly affects the pitch of the 3-string note, precision and
magic start to happen, if your ears are any good and you like to tune.

Hope this helps...
David Andersen
Malibu, CA