Forgot my tuner

[N.F.A.]

An old Danny Gatton instructional video I used to have said that the telephone dial tone is F#. That could work in a pinch, if you were near a phone somewhere.

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by gmahoog

I have a chromatic tuner that can be set for Bb instruments with 1 button push. I tuned the E string to F and then ear/tuner tuned the rest of the strings up a half step. It didn't take long after the first song started to realize what happened. I'll still use the tuner but am very careful now.

I've had that happen too. It's amazing how fast you can retune a 6 string bass while simultaneously playing a song if you have to!
A couple of times I've forgotten my tuner. My standard response is, " Oh darn, now I'll have to use my binaural organic tuning system (my ears)!"

[fclefgeoff]

I play a Modulus. Haven't had to tune in years...

[jaxstarke]

My speaking voice is E so if I need to tune all i have to do is start talking to myself. I do that a lot anyway. If I can get one string in tune then the rest are a breeze. Hit the 5th and 7th fret harmonics and tune accordingly then hit a few octaves up on the neck just to make sure and away you go.

[RDUB]

I've forgotten my tuner in the past too.

Some gigs it doesn't really help. I did a theatre show recently with two keyboards. One had some real tuning issues, so tuning seemed to shift from night to night. A440 on my tuner didn't match either one...

[garak7]

I love the new tuners, but it takes me about 4 times longer to tune that way. I am old and used to getting an A from the keyboard player, or out of midair if I have to.

[wrench45us]

way back when ('65-'66), my brother had a Harmony bass that had undersized tuners and a fixed bridge (no intonation adjustment) and there were no electronic tuners (we had pitch pipes -- imagine a bass pitch pipe) and I always assumed tuning a bass was difficult if not impossible

so when I decided to take bass up I went with the Steinberger system because I heard they stayed in tune. Not quite true, I have to tweak my A and D string about once a week. My ears have gotten worse with droputs in high frequencies, but it's much easier to hear and tune a bass than when I was a kid.

[jgroh]

I didnt actually buy a tuner until about 5-6 years ago after playing for 22 years at that point. I always tuned by ear by listening to a guitarist/keyboards.

[throughthefire]

I tuned my daughter's guitar by harmonics the other day. She thought I was some sort of witch-doctor.....

On the theme of forgetting things; I turned up recently at a gig with bass, tuner, strap.... my wife opened the car and said "Where's the amp?"

[charlie monroe]

I have a tuner in my rack and a Tuning fork in my gigbag.
I generally use the rack as a light show and take an A from the keys or guitar...

[Emibass]

Do you tune??? Come on, it´s a bass, nobody will notice!!!!

[warnergt]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Can't believe it...forgot my tuner.

I saw a show recently. The guitarist got out of tune and didn't
have a tuner. I was embarrassed for him. It was awful. He
fiddled with his guitar for what seemed like an eternity. The
other guys in the band got into a little jam to cover for him.
I'll bet it was five minutes before the show got going again.

[JoeWPgh]

If you are playing with an actual acoustic piano, forget the tuner. You have to tune to the piano and there's no way around it.

[FrenchBassQC]

Not knowing this is like not knowing that you have to hold your breath when learning to swim... Come on, am I getting that old??????

[brianerwin]

What's a tuner???

Just kidding, Been playing sax for over 30 years, you gotta tune that all the time.
I have to deal with a couple things. Since I play in the community band, we play outdoors.
That is a challange as sometimes weather conditions change and we all fall out of tune when that happens, so we
just make adjustments on the fly.

Also at church we tune up with the piano but there are double french horns in our group.
Sad part is that they tune up on one side of the horn but forget the other side and they can't even tune up with
each other. I am constantly fighting myself to keep in tune with them.
It is interesting how they don't think about tuning both sides of the instrument.

I just had to buy another tuner for my bass. It seems that acoustic woodwind tuners can't seem to get the low B and E of a bass.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by brianerwin

I just had to buy another tuner for my bass. It seems that acoustic woodwind tuners can't seem to get the low B and E of a bass.

I've used a couple of tuners that get "confused" by very low open strings. I just use the 5th fret harmonic instead and that works fine.

[Waterpilot]

Originally Posted by dalkowski

Which amazes me to no end. IMO, it's another example of how technology is making us dumber.

I'm an idiot. I'm totally dependent on my tuner. No one ever told me otherwise and still haven't sat down to work on that. One of these days...

[Shardik]

I know how to tune by ear. But still a stage tuner is a great tool. It is not only about tuning up, but also staying in tune.

Temperature is an important issue here, where it gets below freezing half of the year. This means the temperature wary quite a lot, and it can also do that during a gig. Just hitting the pedal and using 5 seconds between songs now and then to verify the tuning silently is a great feature.

[Steamtronic]

I'm the bass. The band tunes to me.

(By "The Band" I mean the guitar player ).

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Can't believe it...forgot my tuner. Didn't need upright or effects so I left the pedalboard at home with the tuner on it and forgot to get my pocket tuner. Man, was I lost! I couldn't tune my bass all night and I just had to guess, and I was so far out of tune that the headlining acts were completely thrown for singing, and the gig was a total disaster and everybody was mad at me. And then we had the second show, and a total repeat of the first show happened.

Not really...



Actually I got a pitch from the piano and tuned by ear before the audience got there. I was dead-on all night, and even caught it when a string occasionally drifted slightly. If I hadn't screamed "I forgot my ******* tuner," nobody would have known.

I understand that there are a lot of folks who play an instrument who don't know how to tune it without a tuner. One day you will forget your tuner, too. Learn how to tune your dang bass by ear or everyone WILL be mad at you...trust me.

That's the beautiful thing about bass guitars. They stay in tune much better than 6 stringers. Thankfully you didn't have to do anything in drop C#. lol