Strobe Tuner Repair?

[tofu]

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[bloke]

I'd be glad to install Mr tofu's bell as well as some intense/time concentrated 186 repairs..

[tadawson]

Sounds good! Let me know if I can help . . .

[tadawson]

OK, sorry for going dark on this . . . trying to figure out schedules (and at some time, perhaps this should go to PM . . . ? ? ?)

@bloke Not sure what your schedule looks like, but looks like the next time that we have planned travel south would be in the Thanksgiving time frame. Not sure how your workload looks then (or willingness), but the ability to drop the 186 off for 10 days or so would exist then, or we can find another plan.

On your amp, no problem working on it at all. I'm thinking that if I get that sent up, it can either get shipped back, or brought when I drop the horn off. On $$$ for work, perhaps we can barter 186 repair for amp repair (although I'll likely end up owing you more) but it's a thought . . .

Let me know if this idea has even the slightest bit of viability, and we can hammer out details from there. (And I'll get some photos of the horn so that it's not just a big mystery . . . ).

- Tim

[Mary Ann]

This thread looks done so I'll assume I'm not hijacking it. I think I have asked this before but will try again.
Does anybody know where I can find a physical (not online, not cell phone, not computer) tone generator? Maybe I'm using the wrong name in searches, but the search engine keeps coming up with testing devices and elebendy-seven online generators. What I want is what I remember from way back when, which was a metal box with an ON switch and an integral speaker, not very big, and a single large knob you could vary the output frequency / pitch with. To listen to, not to test equipment with. At the time it was called a tone generator. It was maybe 8 inches tall, six inches wide, four inches deep. It put out a sine wave, maybe other waves, but what I remember is a sine wave. It could only produce a drone, and I used to use it training myself to find A440 out of nowhere. That type of thing seems to have disappeared into the overly complex electronics of today.

[MikeS]

@Mary Ann, if you go to eBay and search for “Heathkit signal generator” or “Eico signal generator” you might find something that fits your needs.

[the elephant]

This thread looks done so I'll assume I'm not hijacking it. I think I have asked this before but will try again.
Does anybody know where I can find a physical (not online, not cell phone, not computer) tone generator? Maybe I'm using the wrong name in searches, but the search engine keeps coming up with testing devices and elebendy-seven online generators. What I want is what I remember from way back when, which was a metal box with an ON switch and an integral speaker, not very big, and a single large knob you could vary the output frequency / pitch with. To listen to, not to test equipment with. At the time it was called a tone generator. It was maybe 8 inches tall, six inches wide, four inches deep. It put out a sine wave, maybe other waves, but what I remember is a sine wave. It could only produce a drone, and I used to use it training myself to find A440 out of nowhere. That type of thing seems to have disappeared into the overly complex electronics of today.

I think this is what you are talking about.



The Conn LectroTuner produces a very loud A or Bb as a sine wave or (I think) a sawtooth wave (two waveforms can be produced, for certain). And it matches the original tuner like my ST-2 (the ST-1), which was the same crinkle paint, but black, with the same leather strap as a handle. It is tunable for several A schemes, like from A=435 to A=445… or something like that.

This one does not work, but they are not too hard to fix if you have a good guitar amp guy who works on tube-driven gear. This one is about sixty bucks shipped.

Conn Tone Generator

[Mary Ann]

Close but nope. My long ago boyfriend who was an electronics genius (and worked on rock bands' stuff as well as electronic organs) had one that wasn't to tune instruments. You turned a dial and got infinite variation in the pitch; I don't remember the range. But it told you what Hz you were at. I remember that because I always ended up at 438 when I was going for 440. Must have had a slightly flat A on the piano when I was growing up.

[TxTx]

Do you mean possibly a signal generator or a function generator? I have a couple of antique-ish lab grade ones - an HP200 and an HP3310. They don’t have a built in speaker but otherwise sound like what you are describing.

https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/wb_page ... ge_10c.htm

From a quick look on the internet there are some modern ones that aren’t so awful much. The trick would be to get sufficient resolution and stability for what you want.

Of course there are myriad digital keyboards one could use to make a drone - I have a hunk of wood and some smaller pieces I use to do that on mine.

I also found this looking for “digital pitch pipe”

https://cyber-tone.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq ... EZmrnuKkp1

Eric

[Mary Ann]

The second one, nope.
What Wade posted "looks like" my memory, but my memory might be off in the woods somewhere.

What I want it for: I want two of them, to teach people what beats sound like; set them up so they are a few Hz apart, let people hear the beats, let them fiddle with the knob on one of them to sync with the other and make the beats go away, show that the beat frequency is the indicator of how far apart they are in pitch, and demonstrate that they can do this with their instruments to get rid of the chandelier-rattling beats that occur so often in amateur groups because people have no idea what they are doing to cause that. Trumpets especially. I can't count the times I have seen a conductor "tune the trumpets" by having them play the same note and telling one or the other to raise or lower their pitch, until the beats disappear, without ever pointing out what is happening, and they never learn what is going on and so it never changes.

Oh, and they have to be cheap. The only other option I know of is two computers using "online tones" and that really isn't feasible. Two tone-generating boxes would work, but it seems not available any more, or if so too expensive.

[travisd]

You said you don't want phone apps, but there are phone apps that will do multiple (at least two) frequencies simultaneously.

The one on IOS that I have is "f Generator" - dual frequency support is a "Pro" ($9.99 one time) upgrade cost though. Even give you your choice of waveform (sine, square, triangle, something I don't recognize..).

I suspect that the reason it's hard to find standalone, analog waveform generators (other than expensive lab gear) now is that it's MUCH easier and cheaper to do it in software.

[TxTx]

I did find this:

https://rolls.com/product/MO2020se

The frequency adjustment may be too course for what you want though.

Eric

[djwpe]

In my distant memory, what you’re asking for sounds like what some ham radio friends 50 years ago called oscillators. I don’t have any source for it, but maybe that will help your search.

Don