Tuning bass

evodia

New member
i just like to know hw to tune a bass guitar..

its hard to tune by hearing to know a drop d or E

is there a cheap tuner for bass guitar that i can get?
 
all the strings or just the E string? Most tuners are guitar and bass tuners. A simple one can do. Try the 12th fret tuning or the 5th fret.
 
'i just like to know hw to tune a bass guitar..' as wrtten/quoted by evidia...

very simple....

get 3 friends to assist, you , the owner to hold the tuning peg, 2 assistants to hold the bass guitar and turn it anti-clockwise to tune up to pitch OR clockwise to tune down..while the other assistant to advise with tuner in hand.
 
Just get a general guitar/bass tuner. If you've set it up properly, you should be able to tune using the 12th fret, since some tuners don't register the bass signals very well. Anyway, the slightly more expensive tuners support drop tuning as well, so that's no problem, regardless of whether you're tuning down your last string or all you strings.

For me, I use a...TUNING FORK! Just turn the volume all the way up, strike the fork, and let it resonate away!
 
yea you should get a tuner, too bad for me i left mine in the jamming studio and nowadays i tune my E by turning on Hallowed be thy name on Windows media player and just tune to the same note. then tune the other strings according to the E then do a double check with natural harmonics and playing the major scale one time to hear if it sounds right.
 
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i used to just use my ears, but that proved to be bad after awhile... don't know whether my ears are becoming crap, or they're becoming better at listening for defects =P anyhow i'd go wit the tuner... wit a tuning fork you're still using your ears, which opens up area for flaws, whereas a tuner detects the actual frequencies of the note... much more reliable ;)
 
mini-story to share,

i jammed with my guitarist friend who was studying overseas and came back from holidays. he is the expensive guitar --> giant tube amp kind of guy, doesnt believe in effects

when he saw my pedal board and the pedal tuner, he kpkb me "looks like we dont have to use our ears anymore..."
 
wit a tuning fork you're still using your ears, which opens up area for flaws, whereas a tuner detects the actual frequencies of the note... much more reliable ;)

Not true. A tuning fork works by listening for the LOUDNESS of the resonance, and it's pretty idiot-proof, so the margin of error is very very small, in fact nearly neglegible with practice. Of course, you still can't beat a tuner larh, but you get my point. : )
 
Not true. A tuning fork works by listening for the LOUDNESS of the resonance, and it's pretty idiot-proof, so the margin of error is very very small, in fact nearly neglegible with practice. Of course, you still can't beat a tuner larh, but you get my point. : )

hmm, i always thought that using a tuning fork, u hit it, and with the sound it makes, u tune the string accordingly :p guess i had the wrong idea in my head...
 
hmm, i always thought that using a tuning fork, u hit it, and with the sound it makes, u tune the string accordingly :p guess i had the wrong idea in my head...

Works both ways actually.

What many people do is put the tuning fork to the bridge of a classical string instrument, or acoustic guitar which makes it ring out. If not you have to wait till it hits a harmonic before it rings.
 
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