Some tuners have a "tick" mark every 10 cents. This can be a bit frustrating until you learn the secret. And it is called "interpolating". Electronic techs have had to do this for years prior to digital meters
Here is the procedure in the above example. If the needle is half way between 0 and the first left tick. then that note is 5 cents flat. This is because each tick is worth 10 cents. So half of 10 is of course 5.
Now if it is half way between half way and the first tick, that note is 7.5 cents flat. And so on.
Now you're probably thinking, this is very subjective. Indeed it is, but in trainig many techs to interpolate, it would suprise you how accurate they become once their eye/brain coordenation becomes acclimated to it.
In fact in some cases I have seen techs become sooooo good at it, that they were darn near as accurate as a digital meter, IF, the voltage or ohms or current was not greater or lesser than .5.
So on your meter, somewhere it will indicate what each tick means. This can take some thought. Example: on mine, all it says is -50 cents and +50 cents. With Zero in the middle.
BUT the -50 and +50 are the 5th tick away from 0. This then means 5 into 50 indicates that each tick is worth 10 cents. Then by using interpolation as above, you can determine with reasonable accuracy (after practicing) what the cents variation is on either side of 0. Example 3 marks to the right of zero would mean +30 cents. 2 and one half marks to the left of 0 would mean -25 cents. Etc.
If your meter is calibrated in HZ. Then 440 would be dead center. And the HZ shift on either side of center would follow the above; only instead of Cents it would be in HZ.
So lets say your meter has 5 ticks on either side of center and the furthest left tick said 435. This then would mean that each tick represented exactly 1HZ shift. If you used interpolation then any .5 HZ would be exactly half way between ticks.
Of course the above is just an example. So the first priority is to determine what your tuner reads (Hertz or cents; or both) and how much each tick is worth.
NOTE: when a meter or player says 435 he does NOT mean a given note is oscillating at 435 HZ. Rather it means 440 is reference and and the relative shift is 5hz in the above example. The actual frequency is of little concern when tuning instruments; so it makes it simpler to use a reference HZ rather than the actual HZ.
Good luck and May Jesus bless you in your quests,
carl[This message was edited by C Dixon on 29 March 2004 at 02:30 PM.]
