Well, the first ten years for me was the time between a short bout of violin lessons at age 9 and learning to tune a guitar at age 19. I had no contact with stringed instruments between those times. After that, any time I heard a group of instruments out of tune it was because their owners didn't value being in tune. I doubt that a modern electronic tuner would have solved the attitudinal problem. I don't recall being with a group of people that actually wanted to be in tune and couldn't get there in short order—autoharp players not included.

      - Mark