A strobe tuner. This is kind of an esoteric subject. I mean, if you don't own a guitar, and you don't spend time tuning it, this subject probably means nothing to you. I have tuned guitars for most of my life, I actually once had a job tuning guitars. I tuned for a living!
Being in tune is really the first step to playing a guitar. An out of tune guitar will just sound bad, unmusical. So yes, I have spent lots of my time tuning guitars. Some guitars stay in tune for long stretches, some guitars easily go out of tune. And there are many devices one can use to tune. I've used tuning forks, and electronic tuners, and sometimes just my ear...
Anyway, I own a strobe tuner, I've owned it for a few years, and I do think this is a device made for crazy people. Or maybe a device made to make people crazy.
"The problem is that the waveform of a musical instrument is very complex..."
Yes, and in that simple sentence is the conundrum, and in that complexity is madness. Trying to find that point of "perfectly in tune" doesn't really exist. You can get close, but usually you will also see overtones and harmonics. And the strobe tuner just vividly displays this fact. I mean you can go mad just trying to get that waveform to come to a "steady state." But it's like trying to catch a cloud, or catch a wave in a tin cup.
I know. I've tried. Over and over again. And if you do the same thing over and over, and never quite get there, I mean, you get so close, so close, just ever so close. And you do it over and over. Well, that is madness. You can resolve to just trust your ear, "isn't it good enough?" But that little strobe device is flashing, spinning, sort of laughing at you, daring you to try to get to the state of perfection... yes, madness...
