Making&Playing pipes/which tuner to choose

[Eric F.]

Hello,

Do you have any advice about which Cromatic tuner is the most usefull, accurate and suitable for Uilleann pipes for tuning, when playing or making pipes (especialy flat ones which are not tuned to 440hz), becouse concert pipes you can tune with cheaper tuners also) ?

I found few of "bagpipe" tuners on internet and I don't have idea which I should buy? But these are used moustly by Highland pipers, so mybe for Uilleann pipes is different ?

I will start with two which are made especialy for bagpipes chanters and drones.

1. Chesney D7 Bagpipe tuner - Number 1 Tuner, as used by World Championship winning bands - 890 $. I realy don't want to spend so much money…

2. SAUL Bagpipe tune - Accurately tunes chanter notes and drones simultaneously. Price is apr. 280 $

And now 2, which are used by many great pipers, althought these are not made only for bagpipes.

3. Peterson VSAM - a lot of pipers around the globe are using this one for bagpipes. And it have also metronome and build in so you get more things in one. Price apr. 350 $.

4. Korg Orchestral OT - 120 – some people are using this one for bagpipe tuning. Price is apr. 140 $

Ofcourse there is also many other tuners out there, but I am talking here about those 4 who are most often. So do you have any experience about them or you have any other, which work better for you. I don't even know what tuner must have to support flat and concert sets and different tunings?

Thanks a lot

[Marcelo Muttis]

I´d suggest Korg CA30, is the one I use with great success, is usefull compact, practical and relatively cheap, in Argentina costs about u$s 30.

[bwilson]

If you have an iPhone, I recommend the "Cleartune - Chromatic Tuner" app. It feels much more responsive than my CA30, and it has a lot of configuration options (e.g., more than a dozen different temperaments, callibrating to arbitrary frequencies, transposition, needle damping, etc.). All for the grand sum of $3.99.

There are also a bunch of metronome apps for the iPhone.

[eskin]

I have an use the Peterson VSAM, its perfect for tuning regulators and supports just intonation with any root key. I think you really want to go with a strobe tuner if you can afford it, most of the inexpensive tuners really don't have the stability and sub-cent accuracy of the Peterson. Not all the Peterson tuners support just intonation with settable root, so I'd stick with the VSAM.

[bensdad]

Get one of these http://www.amazon.com/S62-A-Electronic- ... 90&sr=1-17 for $5 and learn to use your ears.

[billh]

If you have an old analog Peterson there's no need to set for Just Intonation, just leave the tuner on the tonic (D or whatever); with the tuner set there you can tune most notes on the scale to the tonic's display. That's because it's "just", i.e. small integer ratios

There's something worrying in your post though. You mention "making pipes"... yet you seem unfamiliar with the nuances of uilleann and/or union pipes. You need a pretty thorough knowledge of the uilleann pipes before thinking of making a set, and becoming a competent reedmaker is also an important prerequisite.

Agreed that ears are the most important equipment.

[Eric F.]

Thanks to everyone. And thank you mr. Bill - about your worrying of making pipes - this is my looong term plan, mybe in next 10-15 years. Regards