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...there was the AccuTone Model 300!!
I found this in my late mother-in-law's garage just the other day, in a box containing my stuff from a long time ago, including a creative diary I wrote 40 years ago, which is mind expanding!
Anyway, the Accutone Tuner was a much sought-after piece of kit for any serious lute or harpsichord player. There are 16 punch cards with different temperaments and pitches (415, 440, 460). For those unsure about this, temperament refers to a way of tuning the intervals within an octave. We mostly use equal temperament these days, meaning everything is equally out of tune
but there are many ways to "temper" the semitones, making, for example, 3rds sweeter. Think of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier", meaning he could write his preludes and fugues in all keys, whereas many keyboards at the time and before his time were tempered for playing in only two or three keys.
So, we have punch cards for various Mean Tone temperaments, which were popular with medieval and early-Renaissance specialists, and lots of baroque temperaments, including popular ones by Young, Vallotti, and Werkmesiter. You slotted your card in the side of the box - you can see a generic one called "Baroque Scale" in the first image above - choose which octave you want the tone generator to sound in, then gently pull the card out, thereby sounding different notes. The name of the note would be illuminated in the small window.
I might donate this to a museum...and myself with it!
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03-26-2020 05:09 AM
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Looks electronic to me...aren't punch cards IBM technology?
I remember when every self respecting guitar tech had a strobotuner in their workshop...some probably still do...but still electronic though.
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Ha, yes, it IS electronic. I meant "before electronic tuners, there were electronic tuners", which is a kind of daft joke.
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Yes, but did they have punch cards?
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Basile Bouchon - Wikipedia
Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
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Punch cards are very old technology, from when even Bach was alive.
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Here’s Bach playing his ‘Punch Card Fugue’ to the Ottoman Ambassador.
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That's a very interesting piece of equipment.
But speaking of pre-electronic...
And if you went to Catholic school the nun used one of these...
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In one of her DVDs (past 5-10 years) Carol Kaye uses a tuning fork to tune her guitar. Old school through and through.
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The pitch pipe brought back some old (and not necessarily pleasant memories). Originally Posted by Drumbler
That's a very interesting piece of equipment.
But speaking of pre-electronic...
And if you went to Catholic school the nun used one of these...
I seems that every nun carried one of these around in her pocket.
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I used a "pitch fork" for many years...teaching a young player recently..I used it..he asked..">>>what is THAT?.."
begs the question...will "electronic" tuners be replaced with more "future tech" toys or revert back to basic functional tools..like the pitch fork
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Didn't they tune the lutes and harpsichords at the factory?
Last edited by Doctor Jeff; 03-26-2020 at 04:32 PM.
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I used a pitch-pipe the first year and a half I played.
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My classical teacher only let us tune with a tuning fork.
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It doesn't matter if you're in tune to play jazz.
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When we got one of these for the band circa early 80's it was life changing. One day it fell from someone's amp and broke into a hundred pieces. But small personal electronic tuner's had made their debut around the same time luckily. Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Looks electronic to me...aren't punch cards IBM technology?
I remember when every self respecting guitar tech had a strobotuner in their workshop...some probably still do...but still electronic though.
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Years ago before small electronic tuners my ex used to complain I was playing out of tune.
I think it was her way of saying, I don't really like your playing, I'm dissatisfied with my life in general, and I think I want out of the marriage. Just a feeling.
Now that I have a tuner my current relationship "rocks steady".
Last edited by Doctor Jeff; 03-27-2020 at 08:23 AM.
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A lesson for us all.
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I used an A440 tuning fork from about 1968 to about 2000, still ocassional use one now-a-days. They are really easy to use when you get the hang of it (I use to whack it on my knee and bite on the handle end with my teeth freeing both hands while the tone was resonating in my head. Just had to get use to hearing that out of tune pulsating sound to make it really easy to use.). Not so good on a noisey bandstand though.
Electric tuners use to be expensive, and I thought one could get a guitar in better tune using a tuning fork.
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Hi Fep.
by coincidence, I used an A440 tuning fork years ago before the
advent of electronic tuning devices, The method I used was to
tap the fork on a surface and hold it across the pickup while
amplified and while it sustained , tuned the A string to it ,quite
effective, Today , the simple TC electronic polytune pedal is
accurate and easy to use while plugged in to an amp.
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I had one too when I was a kid. (Late '60s) Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus
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My mom got me an Ovation analog tuner (the ones with a needle, remember them?) Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I think she was trying to tell me something.
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In a similar vein, this nostalgia for the pre-electronic age, reminds me that I still have my late 60s slide rule somewhere in the house.
Sent from my H8216 using Tapatalk
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I have a collection of vintage hand planes which I use regularly in the wood shop—mostly Stanleys. Some things are done much better manually. Originally Posted by newsense
Calculating logarithms...not so much. We learned on a slide rule in the 9th grade, but by 10th I had a Texas Instruments calculator. Cost $75, which my dad thought was OUTRAGEOUS.
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I have a modest collection, and my wife and I were proud to present to our granddaughter's engineering student boyfriend a pristine in-the box unit complete with instructions. Originally Posted by newsense
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Grant Green, What is This Thing
Today, 01:59 PM in Ear Training, Transcribing & Reading