Sure I check tune at every practice and gig. I may not have a degree but I have been playing horns, keys, banjo, guitar, bass since I was 12 & my instructors were strict on tuning. When I check my bass, it is slightly out of tune if any. there is an occasion it may be a little more. The MIM jazz I owned was the best. Hate to say this, but the Squier was the 2nd best on staying in tune. I live in South Alabama, close to the beach.
"don't just have the overlay on the LCD of your tuner" gee, I never thought about checking that,
I was mostly trying to be funny, but you have just clarified my point, and I think the post and title may be a little exaggerated. Being just a tiny bit out of tune and having to adjust it, *is not in tune.* That is just normal operation. When I pick up my bass or guitar from one day to the next, I may just need to nudge one or two strings, but that still means it was a little out of tune.
If you are in fact going from and air-conditioned home, out into humid weather, into an air-conditioned club which then gets heated up by the lights and crowd, then going back to your home, then repeating that the next day or week without needing the absolute slightest bit of tuning, you are very lucky.
I believe what you are saying is true, if not slightly exaggerated. If the atmospheric conditions and your playing style allow your basses to truly "always be in tune," so be it. Basses inherently need less adjustments than guitars. I do know several pros who are experienced and good enough to tune themselves by ear on stage, but they do check and make adjustments.
My concern is I think I'm seeing a lot of people who have a looser definition of being "in tune" than they should.
My passion for the subject is mainly to make sure less experienced players are not misled to believe that being just a tiny bit out of tune, is the same thing as being in tune. With the advent of cheap electronic tuners, tuning is one of the very few things we can have near absolute control over as a musician.
So for the less experienced players out there:
1) If the needle on that tuner doesn't settle on dead center for at least a couple seconds, you are not in tune by modern professional standards.
2) It is best practice to "tune up" to the pitch, not down to it, so if you are a little sharp, go down a little flat and tune up to dead center. (Tuning down to pitch is undesirable on stringed instruments because it leaves a little slack in the tuner gears, since you are loosening the string to do so. When you "tune up" you are tightening the string and meshing the gears together tightly. Imagine pulling rope through something (tuning up), versus pushing rope through something (tuning down). If you tune down, When you start playing, you will pull out the slack and pull your string out of tune.)
3) absolute mathematically perfect tuning is essentially impossible with a stringed instrument, however, electronic tuners do a good job of averaging out the frequencies, so if you are dead center on a decent quality tuner, that's good enough.
4) it is absolutely normal and desirable for a string to start out a tiny bit sharp, and settle on dead center perfect for at least a few seconds, then go a tiny bit flat. If you start on dead center perfect, and it immediately rolls a tiny bit flat, that is not in tune. Do not settle for any worse than dead center perfect for at least a couple seconds. If your string won't stay dead center, try to average it out between sharp, perfect, and flat, and it's probably time for a new strings, or possibly a new tuner.
5) if you haven't already, start using these practices today, and every single time you pick your instrument up, so you can get used to what it sounds like to really be in tune.
