THE TUNED DECK

Jesse Mueller listens to the cards.
THE TUNED DECK
By Richard Robinson
"Very few people are aware of it, but the cards get quite excited when it's time for a card to be selected. In fact, if you listen very closely you can hear all of them shouting Pick Me, Pick Me."
The magician fans the deck and asks the spectator to remove any card, look at it, and replace it in the deck.
"Of course once a particular card has been selected, the rest of the cards quiet down. However the selected card usually keeps yelling Me Me Me." The magician shuffles the deck, then holds it up to his ear.
"In fact, the only way to quite the card down is to take it out of the deck for an encore. Ah, there it is."
The magician riffles the edges of the cards next to his ear, stops, cuts the deck and asks the spectator to take the card cut to. The spectator does so. It is the selected card.
The Tuned Deck so impressed John Northern Hilliard that in 1938 he devoted an entire chapter of 'Greater Magic' to the effect and routine. Hilliard credited the trick to well known card trick inventor Ralph Hull who claimed he had been doing the trick for years and not one magician had ever figured out the secret.
In fact, the effect was the invention of Jesse A. Mueller and published in The Sphinx magazine in March of 1916. Unlike Hull's routine which went on long enough to put even the most enthusiastic audience to sleep, Mueller's handling was quick and to the point.
Although Mueller titled the trick 'Obtaining Possession Of Card By Its Sound,' sound has nothing to do with the working of the effect, at least as far as the magician is concerned. The following is from Mueller's original instructions.
Setup

One corner of the card is trimmed slightly then re-rounded. Above nail scissors are used. Three or four small trims made, since these scissors do not match the curve of the corner.
The corner can also be trimmed using the precise hair trimming scissors used by barbers and hair dressers.
The bottom card has its original corner. The corner above has been trimmed slightly. The top corner is significantly re-rounded and can be used to practice the handling as Mueller suggests. Take any card from the pack, I would suggest using a 4, 6 or 8 spot, and strip from one of the edges a very thin crescent. This card is your indicator and can not be detected if cut right.
Location Move

Grip the deck in the hand, backs up cards up. Curl the first finger down behind the deck. Place the thumb on the top, stage left corner of the deck. The thumb now presses on the corner, pulling it back against the pressure of the first finger. The thumb relaxes slightly, allowing the cards to escape one at a time. When the corner short card is reached there will be perceptible break in this riffle. Cut the cards at the break.
Handling

With the corner short on the face of the deck, fan the cards and ask a spectator to remove a card from the deck and look at it. As the spectators looks at the card, in this case the 7 of Hearts, square up the deck, the corner short card keep in position as the face card of the deck. As the spectator to put his selected card on top of the deck.

With the selected card on top of the deck, cut the deck and complete the cut. This puts the corner short, this case the 3 of Spades, on top of the selected card with those cards now buried in the middle of the deck.

Give the cards an over hand shuffle, only shuffle the top few cards of the deck back on themselves. Bring the deck up next to the ear, then riffle the corners, stopping at the corner short. Cut the deck and drop the selected card on the table, claiming to have found the card but sound.
Mueller's Presentation
Keep the card on the bottom of the pack and have a card selected and replaced in the pack after the pack is divided so the indicator comes on top of the selected card.
The cards may then be shuffled any number of times. Taking care that the half of the pack with the indicator in it is held in the right hand, run the thumbs of each hand over the upper edge of each half at the center, running the halves into one another. By this method of shuffling the indicator always falls in back of the selected card.
Hold the pack in the right hand and place it to the ear. Run the thumb of the right hand over the edge of the pack and when you pass the indicator the next card is always the selected card. You know when you pass the indicator by sense of touch.
I would suggest in getting familiar with this card that you make the first indicator for practice by cutting a half circle about the diameter of a quarter from the card.