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Feeling out of tune while on stage?

Bass'd on a true story

Bass'd on a true story

Jun 28, 2015
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#1
Shortest post of my life, but does anyone else consistently feel like their bass is out of tune while they are performing? The past 3-4 gigs I've done, my bass sounds out of tune in my monitors. I tune my bass with a muting pedal tuner between almost every song lately out of paranoia. It's always 100% in tune and we have people who record our gigs nearly every time. When I listen to our gigs recorded, the tuning/intonation is as good as anyone could ask for.

Does anyone else have this problem? It's beginning to drive me crazy. It makes me hold back my playing, because I feel like I'm a 1/4 step out of tune half the time.
 
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#7
Bass'd on a true story said:
I think it's mostly from not having good/consistent monitors. I generally have a solid ear and I don't have any injuries that I'm aware of at this moment. I've wondered a lot of it's some kind of phasing issue with monitors vs PA or something to that effect. I'm gonna start researching in-ears. I think that's the next step for me.
Click to expand...
One other thing, you may want to visit your doc and get your ears examined/cleaned. Maybe too much wax or something else. Just in case.
 
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#8
Sometimes happens to me. Once it was because the depth and level of my chorus was all the way up and I usually have them at 3:00.

Sometimes who knows? Can be phasing from.sub's under the stage or monitors?

It isn't just you, but who knows what it is...

Too high of a tegretol level (seizure medication) can make sounds appear 1/2 step flat, but that would probably apply to Every instrument at the same time.

Certain strains of weed sometimes make basslines sound wonky too.

Probably some trick the brain plays on us.
 
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#12
Bass'd on a true story said:
Does anyone else have this problem? It's beginning to drive me crazy. It makes me hold back my playing, because I feel like I'm a 1/4 step out of tune half the time.
Click to expand...

I have felt out of tune on stage, not continuously though. We had a guitarist that refused to use a tuner,
although I suggested we would be better off tuning on the same digital tuner.
(He believed tuning by ear was more reliable)
That could have been a reason for feeling out of tune.

ubernator said:
Too high of a tegretol level (seizure medication) can make sounds appear 1/2 step flat, but that would probably apply to Every instrument at the same time.

Certain strains of weed sometimes make basslines sound wonky too.

Probably some trick the brain plays on us.
Click to expand...

I never knew that Tegretol did that to the ear and I've taken it for a good decade.
It could be an explanation for the tuning problems I had when I started playing bass & guitar.
It did change after I built off taking Tegretol as medication, I thought my ear was getting more solid to tuning.
On the other hand, we were stoned out of our heads sometimes, I didn't experience tuning problems when high.
 
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#13
dreamadream99 said:
I used to hear tuning discrepancies when we tuned with different tuners. Tuning with the same tuner fixed that.

Also there was this one time when the rhythm guitar wasn't strobed, and it was out higher on the neck.
Click to expand...

When I switch to fretless the rest of the band seem play out of tune.

Seriously though I have experienced this after a three gig weekend, the Sunday afternoon venue had bands on before us who were very loud and I assumed my ears were fatigued with noise.

Occasionally have similar issues at venues with mains voltage drop as well, almost like a chorus effect but only on lower notes.
 
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#14
Stempelloos said:
I have felt out of tune on stage, not continuously though. We had a guitarist that refused to use a tuner, although I suggested we would be better off tuning on the same digital tuner.
(He believed tuning by ear was more reliable)
That could have been a reason for feeling out of tune.



I never knew that Tegretol did that to the ear and I've taken it for a good decade.
It could be an explanation for the tuning problems I had when I started playing bass & guitar.
It did change after I built off taking Tegretol as medication, I thought my ear was getting more solid to tuning. On the other hand, we were stoned out of our heads sometimes, although I didn't experience tuning problems when high.
Click to expand...
read up on the side effects. The only time I experienced it was in a hospital with a meathead max dose type of doctor (the amount of seroquel he was giving me at the same time was criminal, probably why I have not been able to beat the diabetes since, and that was 6 years ago). I called my job on the phone in there, and when a coworker answered, his voice was all funky deep, and I recognized exactly what it was.

Have not been on that high a dose ever since, and in the last 6 years I have been on the same dose.

But sometimes weed will make even rush recordings sound like geddy Lee can't play lol. The last time I had that feeling of being out of tune, my last show actually, I had made it a point to turn down the offered smoke session until after we played.

Usually it makes me.hear every single nuance, bionic ears.
 
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