I use Pitchlab to tune harpsichords first pass, and it makes them sound fine (first partial of each note, tuned to zero). I agree that a wee bit of stretch is a good idea - just use the ETD to find out how much, as in reading the upper partials of a lower note (4th partial is probably as far as it is worthwhile going). It will usually be in the 2 - 4 cent range. Having done that, you can enter progressing cent values in a tuning record. And you can tweak them as desired. I have found that better than using the calculating function of ETDs, which often won't read all the notes adequately.
Pitchlab is nice because it simply goes and reads the note, wherever it is. Since many harpsichord tunings (e.g., end of summer) involve MASSIVE pitch changes, this makes life much faster. Especially for those 150-200¢ pitch changes. It is a free guitar tuning app, with a $3.99 in app purchase to get all the bells and whistles. It also does all sorts of historical temperaments. Lots of harpsichordists use it, as attested by testimonial posts on the enormous Harpsichord Facebook Group.
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Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm@unm.eduhttp://fredsturm.nethttp://www.artoftuning.com"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2017 09:26
From: Martin Snow
Subject: Harpsichord tuning question
Page 60 of my trusty SAT 11 is my generic FAC equal temp. for most of the harpsichords on inventory and I set it up at 2.0 at each measurement.
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Martin Snow
Boston MA
617-543-1030
Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2017 08:03
From: David Doremus
Subject: Harpsichord tuning question
Tune whatever temperament you like and then tune the rest clean by ear and it will all fall into place. You may want just a wee bit of stretch as Alan says but only detectable in the tests, certainly no audible beat in the octaves. Harpsichords are very clean sounding and reveal any beating clearly. Which is why they sound so good in historical temperaments.
---Dave
Sent from my phone, forgive typos!
Original Message------
I know that since harpsichords are a low tension instrument they exhibit very little inharmonicity. Should a harpsichord be tuned chromatically or should it receive some semblance of stretch?
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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