Double Bass Bow/Pizz Intonation differences

[mrbojangles82]

Ok, something has to be really seriously messed up for the pitch difference to be a semitone… I measured it on my bass just now and it was only 13 cents. Maybe tailpiece, maybe soundpost, but something is not right (and seriously so… intonation changes mean something structural is shifting).

While it is true that the effective length and mass may change, I'm sure that's a very much smaller effect than the tension increase. You can't see the strings move over either the nut or the bridge, and they'd have to move by a reasonable fraction of a millimetre to have any appreciable effect.

I mistyped that. It was at worst nearly a 1/4 tone, but usually less than that.

 

[Andrew McGregor]

Ah. That's a bit more reasonable… still a lot though.

 

[marvin spangles]

Sounds serious enough to merit getting your bass looked at. You might also consider checking your tuner. Cheap tuners are unreliable in my experience. In noisy gig situations you need to be able to trust your tuner because it is highly unlikely that you will be able to hear accurately the pitch of your open strings. As for the difference between tuning with arco or with Pizz. If your gig is going to be mostly pizz. then tune using pizz. Allowing for the flattening effect of the plucked string there should be a neglegible difference in the pitch. i noticed also that you cleaned your strings with sand paper. Try propyl alcohol it will not damage your string.