Crossover
Mon, 12/26/2011 - 01:29
Hi Kinya,
Hope you had a good holiday.
I got a Crossover today and wanted to verify that the tuning was correct. Do you know where I could find a chart of what the stock values should be?
-Taylor
Sun, 01/15/2012 - 22:25
#2
Crossover tuning
Hello Taylor,
My apologies for the delay in my response. I was pleased to see Mike's contributions ... sage advise indeed.
Also check out the Harp-Tech forum posting from Sat, 06/12/2010 - 08:03
Your Harpsmith,
Kinya
Marine Band Crossover Tuning
BLOW 0 -5 1+ 0 -5 1+ 0 -5 1+ 0
HOLE# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DRAW 8+ 4+ 0 1+ 2+ 1+ 0 1+ 2+ 1+
Please read an excerpt from a posting Steve Baker placed on Harp-L on this tuning:
0=443Hz w. minimal air pressure, all deviations are in cents, 1Hz =
approx. 4 cents on most tuners
I would be shocked if any harp from any manufacturer blowed to the correct tuning for you. For one, most the tuning is done by ear to a certain degree - so the best you can hope for are smooth octaves and reasonsable beating on the chords. Two, the person who tuned it is not the person who is playing it. Three, breath pressure will skew results. Four, there will be variance between tuners unless you have really high-end Peterson stuff. I mean the real strobe tuners. The digital strobe tuners, like the Peterson desktop units and the iPhone app work well, but they aren't perfect and often need to be calibrated. If you are using a generic guitar tuner, than it is even less likely it will show up as listed above. Those are not as accurate as strobe tuners.
If you are really concerned with the tuning, you have to first decide on the temperament you are after and then what you are willing to sacrafice. For example, the Crossover tuning is very close to ET. The chords will not be smooth compared to the Marine Band compromise, 19LI, or 7LI. The chords will sound better, though, than ET. However, all the single notes should sound in tune with a band tuned to A=440.
The easiest solution is to get a solid tuner and retune all your new harps to match your playing style. If you are just playing the harp out of the box, I probably wouldn't worry about it. If you are regapping or reed profiling, then you will want to retune anyways as any real reed work will flatten or sharpen a reed (regardless of reed material).