I still can't tune the thing!

[embellisher]

You'll get it eventually with a reference tune, like the others have said.

For me, it's easy. After playing for 20+ years, I can hum a low E and tune to that. It's usually within 2 or 3 cents when checked with a tuner.

 

[Velkov]

Some people are tone deaf and will never be able to even tell that an instrument is out of tune.
Some people are not so bad and need a good reference note and once they have it they can tune a whole instrument to it. (I'm in that category)
And then there is those people with the "perfect pitch" gift of God. There was a guy in one of my classes last year that could tell any note. He would hear it and just say, "D#." In his case it was a waste because he didn't even play anything. He just new enough theory to show off his perfect pitch. There is courses that you can take to improve your pitch but I don't know if you can ever get as good as those few gifted people that were just born that way.

 

[fleabass89]

I don't have perfect pitch, but it's almost as good by thinking of a song, like the other people said, and tuning from your mind.

 

[punkfunkfreak]

i use the blues scale as a tuning reference on my bass.
but 5 and six string basses are a hassle!
failing that i use the 5th fret technique....works out good, as long as ure sure ure bass isnt warped.
if u think it is, try out the same thing, just on the next scale up. if its out to a tuner, then theres summat up.!

i think ive explained it right...i dunno , i tried!

 

[Chakan]

I could be wrong, but doesn't a normal telephone dial tone give you a nice E to work with?

 

[Johnny BoomBoom]

I seem to remember that an article in Bassist magazine pointed out that the 'mains hum'(at least in the UK - different countries may have differnet frequencies) you get when you turn an amp up quite high is actually only 3% lower (or higher - can't remember which) than G on a bass. So if you tune your 'G' string (keep it clean!) to the mains hum, the rest of the bass can be tuned to that!

Not much use if you're doing an unplugged set though.....

 

[JimM]

I have an autistic friend named Norman who has perfect pitch.You can be out in the middle of nowhere with him and say "hey norm,give me a "C",and he'll say"hummmmmm..."and it will be right on the money.

He also remembers strange things like dates"hey Norm,when did we first meet ?He'll say"september 19,1982"or whatever.bizzarre,eh?

 

[Angus]

Originally posted by punkfunkfreak
i use the blues scale as a tuning reference on my bass.
but 5 and six string basses are a hassle!
failing that i use the 5th fret technique....works out good, as long as ure sure ure bass isnt warped.
if u think it is, try out the same thing, just on the next scale up. if its out to a tuner, then theres summat up.!

i think ive explained it right...i dunno , i tried!

Firstly:

Secondly: Do NOT use the "5th fret technique". Frets are perfectly in tune, and tuning like that will make your 5th fret in tune, but not your open strings, etc. Use the harmonic over the 5th fret on the lower pitched string, and the harmonic over the 7th fret on the next adjacent string. Tune until you do not hear any more waves. Much more in tune, and much easier to tune, than by using your method.

 

[punkfunkfreak]

well, see the guy above, hes smarter than me....listen to him.

i kinda explained wong again.

 

[kiwlm]

Hmm, although I use the 5th 7th fret harmonic tuning myself all the time, I have read bad things about it, just quoting from one of the sites:
http://users.adelphia.net/~cygnusx_1/equal_temperament.html

Here is what all of this means to the guitarist: You must not, at any time, use harmonic tones at the 7th fret as a point of reference (skilled piano tuners could use them because they know how many beats to introduce between 4th and 5th). Harmonic tones at the 7th fret are pure 5ths, while in equal temperament each 5th must be lowered slightly. To tune by harmonics at the 7th fret (as occasionally ill-advised) will make the guitar sound entirely unacceptable on some chord forms.

 

[dlloyd]

Firstly:

Secondly: Do NOT use the "5th fret technique". Frets are perfectly in tune, and tuning like that will make your 5th fret in tune, but not your open strings, etc. Use the harmonic over the 5th fret on the lower pitched string, and the harmonic over the 7th fret on the next adjacent string. Tune until you do not hear any more waves. Much more in tune, and much easier to tune, than by using your method.

Fretted basses are equally tempered. The fifth fret method cannot be wrong if your fret is in the right place. Harmonics are "perfectly" intonated. An equally tempered instrument tuned by harmonics is, by definition, out of tune.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Hmmmm ...a 3-year old thread - most of those posters - like Yawnsie and Angus are long gone - lost in the ether!!??

 

[dlloyd]

Hmmmm ...a 3-year old thread - most of those posters - like Yawnsie and Angus are long gone - lost in the ether!!??

I didn't spot that.

Some good advice on developing internal reference pitches.

 

[Guiseppe]

Aside from being the first song I learned, you play on all open strings (well, I play them on the 5th fret, because I like the intonation better, but that's just me) and can reference E, A, D, and G...

I'm usually in the ballpark, but I'd hope to have a tuner around if I could...when I'm gigging, I tune off whoever I think has the best ear (which is me some of the time)...it's BAD to be badly out of tune, but much worse to be badly out of tune when the rest of the band is, too.

 

[DDXdesign]

Clarification/correction of an earlier post - Telephone dial tone in the US is an F.

 

[Virus]

Clarification/correction of an earlier post - Telephone dial tone in the US is an F.

What about in the great white north? Us canucks have got phones too.