"Tuning " spokes by ear?

I've always taken my wheels down the LBS for trueing, but currently have one that's only slightly out and fancied having a go myself. If I take one side of the wheel at a time , ping all the spokes and adjust them to the same pitch would that give me a good wheel? Bear in mind there's only a very small amount of brake pad "flutter" to true out in this case...

yes, in theory.
You'll need a good ear
heres an article on it:
http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/tension.htm

No.

You need to find the right balance between pitch, tension and trueness. A wheel who's pitch is even may not be straight.

Watch the video on the Easton website.

http://www.eastonbike.com/index_vid.html

Trued my 36h wheels to 5 octaves of Eb Major.
They look like shit now.

Trued my 36h wheels to 5 octaves of Eb Major.
They look like shit now.

Well, Eb Major is a chord requiring at least 3 notes and replicating this over 5 octaves would imply 15 distinct pitches... so if your "wheel" now has 15 sides it would become a pentadecagon. I believe conventional wisdom dictates a circle to be the best shape. Try again.

Well, Eb Major is a chord requiring at least 3 notes and replicating this over 5 octaves would imply 15 distinct pitches... so if your "wheel" now has 15 sides it would become a pentadecagon. I believe conventional wisdom dictates a circle to be the best shape. Try again.

They may be tuned to the major scale in Eb.
This would require 36 spokes, all at different tensions, or of different guages.
Either way they're certainly going to look shit.

I tuned mine to play The Simpsons intro. Stuck a little piece of plastic on the seatstay to ping the spokes. I can do requests for £20.

Get and even overall tension and do the final adjustments by ear. You will find that after doing enough wheels, your hands, ears and eyes all come into play at the same time. Tasting a cool beer helps to complete the sensory enjoyment.

i don't belive this is any easier than the matches on the seat stays or forks and trial and error method

@Pifko, Do you use a front or rear wheel plectrum?
Try useing both to give you give an interesting chorus effect?

I actually tape 2 plectrums to the bike, therefore I can create lovely harmonics. I bought a £2k lightweight wheelset as I read they resonate better than standard spokes. I'm planning on Beethoven's 'Symphony No 5' for those.

eyebrows, dovoneil, leloby - thanks. I guess if I screw up its back to my (very) friendly LBS for a salvage job :-)

I actually tape 2 plectrums to the bike, therefore I can create lovely harmonics. I bought a £2k lightweight wheelset as I read they resonate better than standard spokes. I'm planning on Beethoven's 'Symphony No 5' for those.

good luck, be sure to post the results, oh and il take you up for that simpsons theme tune for £20, could you send me a few 'rear wheel plectrums' as well as i would like to start 'bicycle wheel harmonics'

Thanks awfully Eyebrows raises 1 eyebrow

Will

xD

I actually tape 2 plectrums to the bike, therefore I can create lovely harmonics. I bought a £2k lightweight wheelset as I read they resonate better than standard spokes. I'm planning on Beethoven's 'Symphony No 5' for those.

You'll need more wheels.
Try a trike for starters.

Charming notion but you're relying on your spokes to all be of exacting consistency and to have no imperfections in the spoke... Theoretically it would work but in practice I think it would just be too unreliable...

have been building wheels very well for over 10 years and have never used my ears to true a wheel!! use your eyes and you will see how obvious it is...