• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Anybody else got a bass with unreal tuning stability?

#42
This has to be a great big non-issue. :hmm:

The strings are going to get cold/hot or all temps in between and they will wander in tensions and pitch by normal - almost diurnal changes - all day long.

Even putting your hands on your strings and warming them up will cause them to change tension - so this is really not a situation where the bass itself is adding to or changing the tuning.

I leave four or five basses in stands when I don't think an earthquake is scheduled that day or so - and they ALL will change up or down tuning as a group and you can't tell me I have twenty tuners that are ALL defective.

They are just responding to the temperature changes and since the strings are alive (they better be!) they will change by normal molecular activity.

Mechanically any bass is also subject to heat and even humidity changes too - so if my bass(es) didn't change from one temp to another - even in the same day - I'd be suspicious that my strings were all dead now and needed to be changed.

I feel that the tuners are a very small incidental to staying in tune since if they moved (a ring and screw gear don't have inherent weaknesses in that way) - there's something else going on.

Musical instruments are (almost) a living thing as they are subject to moon phases and seasons and climates just like you.

Expecting more or less is just fantasy and unrealistic IMNSHO.
 
#45
All my basses hold a tune well - it's a by-product of proper string installation and streching to make sure they are firmly seated in the bridge and tuners.

I don't own the basses that stood out in terms of holding a tuning for longer than expected. My old Steinberger was great for that, as well as the Dingwall AB-1 I used to own.
 
#47
all of my conklins have been ridiculously stable - i've gone months without playing certain ones, and picked it up and it was in perfect tune. i've dropped my main fretted onto the drum kit before (leaning over to talk to the drummer and the old straplock popped). it bounced 3 times on the drums before it hit the ground, and it didn't even go out of tune.
 
#51
I have had Zons for 10+ years now, and the only time they need tuning is is the keys get tweaked in the gig bag during transport. When they are on the wall I can pull them down and they just don't move. I would credit the graphite neck - it just doesn't move. No truss rod to adjust (these are older ones) and I've never needed it. Necks are dead straight and stable.
 
#52
bassybill said:
I've done three gigs this week and not had to even touch the tuning on my bass at all (and I use a Hipshot to drop to D quite frequently). Pretty remarkable, really.

The bass in question is my J with the Status graphite neck.
Click to expand...



DING DING DING!!! Yep, that's been my experience with my graphite-necked instruments too: I've got a Modulus Quantum-6 SPX that I leave in a recording studio that has no heat or HVAC for 12 hours every day, and regardless of the season when I take that instrument out of the case it's still in tune. And lately my Steinberger L-2 only gets used about once every 9 months...and yet every time I've pulled it out of the case in the past 4 or 5 years it's still been in tune!
 
#55
I don't see the point in taking pride in a bass staying in tune when you haven't played it.
First, play your instrument; way too many people put a lot of effort into creating an expressive artwork to sit it on the shelf.
Second, tuning rarely goes more than 10 cents either way but it will be out of tune. Humidity and temperature changes reak havoc on wood. There is usually a hell of a lot of wood in a bass. Check your ears and your tuners.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back