Hi Ned, Pure fifths and equal-tempered fifths are pretty damn close to each other - slightly under 2 cents difference. I think the human ear - even of a good piano tuner - will have difficulty picking up this difference and will have to depend on beats to distinguish them. The perfect fourth is out by a similar amount. The real rogue interval is the minor third with over 15 cents difference and the major third only slightly less bad. So when tuning a lute - watch out for these thirds!
Best regards, Bill From: Edward Mast <nedma...@aol.com> To: Lutelist List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Sunday, 24 June 2012, 17:11 Subject: [LUTE] Tuning A question perhaps better posed on a bowed string forum, but I'm confident someone here can help me. When tuning my cello with a Korg chromatic electronic tuner, what pitches am I tuning to? Is it tempered tuning? The reason I ask is that though I usually tune the A string from the tuner and then the strings below by ear to fifths, if I tune each string from the tuner the results seem to be the same - still perfect fifths. Thanks. To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
