Why wont my headstock tuner Tune my Ukulele? OR Headstock Tuners 440 Hz and Calibration Explained

Headstock tuners are really popular thesedays, but some have a Calibration mode and people accidentally alter the calibration away from 440Hz and end up with ukes out of Tune.

So todays post is all about International Standards, Hertz (Hz), Tuners and Calibration, Lets dive in.

HISTORY TIME

Our Modern Tuners are often fitted with a Calibration Mode (at least the better quality tuners are anyways).

Since WW2 the worldwide standard for an A note is 440Hz, or Concert Pitch.  

Before WW2 different countries had different standards for Concert Pitch, some countries were 338 Hz some were 442 Hz etc etc.  

The Germans took over Europe and said this will not do, So all the European orchestras adopted the German standard of A = 440Hz.

Post WW2 it stayed that way, the International Standards Organisation was based in Germany post WW2.

WHY THE ABILITY TO CALIBRATE OUR TUNER REMAINS

Standard Modern concert pitch is an A note vibrates at 440 Hz.  

We have Ukuleles, Guitars, Bass Piano etc, these stringed instruments are instruments that can be tuned.

But when we play with Brass players they cant tune like we can, 

Brass have a fixed Pitch instruments, sometimes they can move their mouth pieces in and out a little to get it a little sharper of flatter, but not by much.

So if you play with a Brass player who has an instrument where the A note is Sharp or Flat of the standard A 440 Hz we can alter our tuners calibration to match the pitch of the Brass players A note.  

We then tune our instrument to match their A and all our strings are then either a little flat (or Sharp) but at least we match the Brass player.

OK that is why we have the ability to calibrate our tuners.

HOW TO GET IT BACK TO 440Hz.

The On / Off button is on the rear, 

A long press turns it on and a long press turns it off.

But quick presses alters the calibration of the Tuner in 1Hz increments.

So lets re-calibrate

STEPS TO RECALIBRATE YOUR TUNER

Turn the tuner On

Look at the Front face, 

Watch the number on the front, 

Start quickly pressing the button repeatedly and the numbers will change,

Keep pressing till it cycles back to the number 440.  

And bobs yer uncle you are back at standard Concert Pitch of 440 Hz