tuning by ear

[Vampyre]

...i just cant seem to do it

ive been playing for almost 2 years now and im still having trouble tuning my bass simply by ear (that is if i put my low E in tune and the rest out i cant get the entire bass in tune)

what can i do to help develop my ears?

[KellyM]

What method are you using to tune? Frets, or harmonics? I find it a lot easier to tune with harmonics when tuning by ear. All you have to listen for are the "beats" produced by the two frequencies of the two strings fighting against one-another. The closer they get to being the same pitch, the slower the frequency of the beats, until when the two pitches match, the beats go away.

One thing that may be causing you problems is that your bass may not be intonated properly, so when you tune the strings to each other, the bass may still sound out of tune when you play it.

It sounds to me as if your ears are good enough to tell when your bass is not playing in tune, therefore if it is tunable, you should be able to tune it.

Kelly

[slackerdefined]

when I first started playing, I had no idea how to tune either, even though I've heard explainations of it before, simply because I had no idea what I was looking for. It's really quite simple though, once you realize what you need to hear.

Here's what you need to do; assuming your intonation is alright and you have an electronic tuner, tune your E and A strings(or any two adjacent strings) to where they're suppose to be. Now, using the E and A strings as an example, fret the 5th fret on the E and pluck both strings at once, and listen to the sound it makes. Do the same with the 17th fret. Notice how it sounds like one solid note? This is the sound you're listening for, showing that it's in tune. Now fret any other fret, hit both the strings, and listen for the humming. If you get this sound when you hit the 5th fret on the E and the open A string, it means the bass is out of tune. The only thing you need to do after knowing what to listen for is to slowly adjust the tuning, while sounding the notes and turning the tuning peg until it goes from the humming sound to the clear sound of one note. You'll have to hold the notes in while tuning, so pluck the strings and use the same hand to turn the peg while fretting the 5th fret.