How do you tune your bass?

[r_bnks]

Rack tuner.

 

[mrjim123]

Jeez-o-pete, if you buy the bass already in tune then there's no need to ever tune it.

Seriously, I have a pedal tuner and a clip-on tuner. I use both at different times.

 

[Agent0]

I’m another that asked for a G before having tuners, and I start with G now. Just the way I was taught I guess. In my big band The BL always asks the piano player for an A for the saxes and a B flat for the brass so I check against those too.

 

[Topkat13]

E,A,D and G.

 

[BOOG]

You’re either in tune or you’re not. Doesn’t matter what road you take to get there. It only matters if you like the road you took, or not.
My “go-to” is the PANO-TUNER ‎Free Chromatic Tuner: Pano Tuner app on my phone but on a gig, I have a small board that includes a tuner pedal.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

I bought this in 1985. Still use it. Great tuner. Highly visible lights, hands free, on/off, silent tuning, no ugly tuners hanging from the headstock, built like a tank.

 

[rufus.K]

Headstock clip-on these days.

Way back when... another instrument's reference note, pitch pipe, note or chord on a record. I remember when I got my 1st rackmount tuner, I thought I'd finally made it to the space age

 

[waynobass]

This little thing, at the beginning of a practice or show, then never again that day.

 

[Gruff]

Way back in the 1980s, an 'A' tuning fork and harmonics on the 5th and 7th fret to tune the other strings.

These days - a Boss TU-12EX tuner, a Boss TU3 tuner pedal for my electric basses. My fender acoustic bass has a built-in tuner but at the most inconvenient position, so I use a £5 clip on tuner, same on the upright clipped onto the bridge. Occasionally the "A from the oboe" when playing upright at orchestra, which is a fun bit of theatre.

 

[rtav]

Back in the 70s we put on Yes’ Roundabout - the long E intro was perfect for the starting point. From there it was harmonics.

Now i use a headstock tuner or my Pitchblack pedal.

 

[Doug4321]

I have an E tuning fork still. Used to use that to tune the E harmonic on the A string, then use harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets to tune. Seemed much more accurate than fretting at the 5th fret and matching to the open string. But I had round wounds with good harmonics. E strings are a little funky though so sometimes check the 12th fret harmonic on the E string against the E on the 7th fret of the A string. The guitar players would tune to me since their instruments would fall out of tune more often. Give ‘‘em an E and also a D for their open D chord.

Nowadays, electric tuners, I just randomly go around checking open strings and harmonics, especially 12th fret harmonics, and do some back and forth checking, kinda random. The fretted E at the 12th fret on the G string seems important to double check

If anyone read all that, they’re probably feeling bored now.

 

[wysiwyg248]

You are the 2nd one to mention the landline thing (in the kitchen on the wall with a long ass coil cord of course lol)
I never heard of that before!

LOL, those were the days. I used to tuned the G string first because for some reason I locked that tone, but my first bass teacher (Dan Pliskow) used a tuning fork (A) and told me about the phone land line trick. I also used to tune using the fifth fret and looking at the adjacent string to resonate (vibrate), this was helpful in gigs where the noise was very high but you need to be have good vision.

 

[icefly]

Boss TU3
Or buit-in tuner from Zoom B1Xon
Or some cheap clip-on tuner; Korg is now on my GAS list.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I started playing in 1973. Back then there were no headstock tuners. The way we tuned was you found the E somewhere, maybe from a band mate, “give me an E” or maybe from a record, or a tuning fork, or if you were lucky enough to have a keyboard in the band you got it from them and everything was tuned to THAT low E.
To do that once you got the low E (by ear) you fingered that E string in the 5th position and found the open A. Fingered the A string in the 5th position and found the open D and so on and so forth. So from the top down. It was necessary to do it that way. Then if you had time or maybe an old string you were struggling with you would fine tune with 12th position harmonics.

Skip ahead 50 years. All my guitars have headstock tuners. I have not asked for an E in over 20 years. Maybe longer. These days I find myself tuning from the high E up.
E-D-A-E. Then I always fine tune from the low E down with 12th fret harmonics to finish. And ALWAYS tuning in to the note (not loosening but tightening)

Not sure why I started doing it that way some undetermined amount of years ago. I just do now. In the end my bass is in tune. So I guess it doesn’t matter. Or does it? What do you do? How do you tune your bass? Does anymore call for an E anymore lol?

I also used to tune to others.

Now, I have a tuner.

It's chromatic, it picks up all notes, it tunes silently, and acts as a mute switch.

 

[2cooltoolz]

Boss TU3

i find even looking at the picture calming and reassuring!

 

[Michael Favata]

Thank you to everyone who replied here on this thread.
I learned something.
I appreciate all of you….