Here is an easy way of tuning. first, make sure that at least one of your strings are intune (preferrably the E string)
1.Now on your E-string, put slight pressure on the 5th fret and pluck the string (do not rest stroke or this will not work). You should hear the high pitched tone. If you don't hear this, either put a little more pressure on the string or a little less and pluck again.
2.now while leaving the E-string ringing, put slight pressure on the 7th fret of the A-string and pluck. if you don't hear the high pitched sound, do what i said to do for the E-string.
3. If the two tones sound the same,then your A-string is in tune. If the two tones make a wavy noise, then that means your A-string is out of tune. So turn the tuning knob of the A-String until the two tones match.
4.Do steps 1-3 for all the other strings. Example: If you want to tune the D-string now, Lighty press the A-String's 5th fret and pluck, now lighly press the D-string's 7th fret and pluck. see that Easy. This type of tuning is called Harmonics tuning.
5.You can also use this technique to tune your strings to a differnt note. For example, you can tune the E-string to drop D by following my next steps 6-9.
6.Press the 5th fret of your E-string lighty and pluck. leave the tone ringing.
7.Now goto the 12th fret of the D-string, press slighly and pluck. Leave the tone ringing.
8.Now Tune the E-string down until the E's tone matches the D's tone.
(Note:You might not do this right the first time you try it. but after awhile it will be a really good tuning technique to use)

Now for the Slapping Technique. Along time ago (about 1988 or so) the Red Hot chille Peppers released A song titled Jungle Man. Most of the song's bassline is a slapping and popping. Since this is a fairly easy Tune. It is great for learning the slap and Pop technique. This is for people who already know how to slap and pop good enough to make a sound come from it.

G-----------------------------------------
D----------4------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------
E---0h2-2------2-0------------------------
S S S p s s


1.Ok if you don't know how to read tablature the E,A,D,G at the beginning of the lines is the string. The numbers on the lines mean what fret to play on that string.Example: if it says 5 and its on the lines of the E-string it means Stroke the E-string while holding down the 5th fret. The "S" means slap the note which is above the "S". A "P" means pop the note which is above the "P". and the H means hammer-on the two notes right and left of the H. At first, take it slow. as you get better you can go really fast and other people will think your great at bass guitar because of this easy lil' Diddy.

Any questions or comments just reply to this thread i will help as best as possible.

O no! not another bass player giving helpful advise! Argh!! Just kidding bassguy. great advise Kid.

Don't know if this is right, but the way i thought it was is you press the 5th fret on E(if in tune) and ajust A untill both sound the same. Then make D sound like the 5th fret on A. Then make G sound like the 4th fret on D. Please tell me if it is right or not.

Bassguy is right. It is the fifth and the seventh: ie, if you are in tune, the lightly touching the fifth fret on the E string will give the same sound as lightly touching the seventh fret on the A.
Thanks for the tips on slapping, bassguy.

OK bassguy, do you have any tips for someone (me) who knows how to play bass, but hasn't learned the technique of slapping?
thanks in advance

bassguy doesn't mean lightly press the fret, he means lightly press the string above the fret. do not actually press the string down to the fingerboard. this is called playing a harmonic.

Originally posted by dancehallclasher
bassguy doesn't mean lightly press the fret, he means lightly press the string above the fret. do not actually press the string down to the fingerboard. this is called playing a harmonic.

excuse me, this is what i mean, i am used to playing an upright....thus no frets, and this is what i was describing, sorry about that

Bassguy's tip works, but take care: it tunes perfectly!
"Great", you might think, but a piano is tuned tempered, meaning slightly out of tune so you can play any key alike.
So if you tune your bass, or giutar, perfect you'll have an intonation problem.
A better way to tune tempered is the the old 5th-fret: D-string 5th fret is an G, etc.

Ok I see that i have been confusing some people on my tuning technique. This is called Harmonic tuning so it wont make a normal bass noise it will make a high pitch tone. So you press lightly on the STRING ABOVE THE 5TH FRET. and do the same for the next string and so on. As for the person who said He doesn't know how to slap and Pop, Slapping is when you strike the string on your bass with your thumb going up the string. (So your thumb is facing toward the tuning pegs).It will make a slap noise along with note you played. The pop is when you put one of your fingers under your string and pull. It will make a kinda 'pop' noise.Do the slap above your pick-ups and do the pop right in front of the pick-ups. It is best if you have the flat pick-ups (the magnet ones don't do as well with slap).It will be hard for awhile but practice and you'll do fine



P.S. how do you change your Quote at the bottom of the page.