Sanderson Accutuner III: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This electronic tuner was made by Inventronics, Inc. in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, in 1999. It is a Sanderson Accutuner III, serial #5006, with a medium blue plastic shell with two digital displays, power and miscellaneous selection buttons, and 8 red lights indicating pitch on front of tuner. MIDI and other audio connections are on the back of the tuner. The tuner is marked:

The Accu-Tuner III can be used in three modes: Tune mode, FAC (stretch) mode, and Memory mode. The Tune mode functions like most conventional tuning instruments. The FAC mode uses three measurements known as stretch numbers to derive a tuning based upon computer calculations and stretch tables from the measurement of three stretch numbers on notes (F3, A4, and C6) on the piano being tuned. The Memory mode enables a tuner to store and retrieve complete 88-note tunings. The Accu-Tuner III comes with 198 pages of memory.

Materials, dates and provenance

• production date: 1999
• manufacturer: Inventronics
• Object Name: tuner
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 3 1/2 in x 6 1/4 in x 4 3/8 in; 8.89 cm x 15.875 cm x 11.1125 cm
• place made: United States: Massachusetts, Chelmsford
• ID Number: 1999.0266.01
• serial number: 5006
• accession number: 1999.0266
• catalog number: 1999.0266.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Inventronics, Inc. (through Paul Sanderson)
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.