Peterson Tuners ...Default keys for Historic Tunings ?

[Michael Dene]

I cannot find any information online as to what specific key the Historic Temperaments are calculated for.

I suspect that it maybe C as the most affected instrument was the keyboard ... ie the white notes.

However, the A = 440(+ or -) setting appears to be still operative, and obviously setting it would throw the whole thing out!

I seem to have it worked out ... First I select the Temperament, then set Capo to +4 to bring the Tuner and its settings up to E, and ignore the A440 setting.

Done as above the 1/4 Meantone and the Just Intonation seem to work well.Also tested JI with harmonics and it seemed spot on to these aging ears.

Can anyone confirm or improve on these conjections?

[John Norris]

I cannot find any information online as to what specific key the Historic Temperaments are calculated for.

Hi Michael,

Which tuner model are you referring to?

[Michael Dene]

Hi John,

It's the Clip-0n. Since posting I have been testing above reasoning and it's looking very good on my very old Seiko with a cents display.

Maybe I'll have to step up a model. It never occurred to me that the Clip-On wouldn't show cents!

I love the strobe technology, so much more stable than the flickering little needles.

[Arthur Dickerson]

There is book called equal temperament and how it ruined harmony. The author goes into the theory behind the discrepancies between just and equal temperament (I.e. why when you tune gramma’s piano perfectly in the k ey of C, it only sounds good in C,F, and G maybe D and A, but it sounds terrible in A flat or E flat). Bach’s well-tempered(not equally tempered) clavier was all about composing the songs so that they sounded the least bad for temperaments that were being developed at the time (which did ultimately lead to the equal temperament. When I get back home this weekend I’ll find his name.