Patent ID: 6894212

Claim:
A tuning device for use in tuning an acoustic musical instrument, comprising: a housing; sensing means operable for sensing a tone emitted by the musical instrument and producing a representative electrical signal; conditioning means operable for amplifying, pre-filtering, and shaping said representative electrical signal into a representative pulse train; input means operable for selecting at least one of the twelve standard notes in a musical octave to form a comparison standard for tuning; computing means operable for computing the fundamental frequency of the first harmonic in said representative pulse train, and computing the difference, and difference direction, whether plus or minus, between said fundamental frequency and each of the note frequencies in said comparison standard to calculate the least difference and least difference direction; output means operable for displaying said comparison standard and said least difference and least difference direction; said sensing means, said conditioning means, said input means, said computing means, and said output means collectively enclosed within said housing; and mounting means operable for permitting said housing to be affixed to the wrist, the mounting means including a generally C-shaped frame fitted with opposing members, at least one of the members being arcuate and mounted for movement toward the other, and operable, by urging said C-shaped frame onto the wrist at its open end, to slide onto, surround, and grip the wrist; whereby said tuning device, by reason of its placement on the wrist, is necessarily placed in close proximity to the sound source of a wide range of musical instruments and, thereby, enables tuning with a high signal to noise ratio; and whereby said tuning device, during use, does not require attachment to the musical instrument nor a separate supporting surface.