My Musicman ALWAYS sounds (kind of) out of tune

If you can tell you're one or two cents off; congrats, you have fantastic ears.

Unfortunately, guitars of any stripe are never entirely in tune with each other. There are many compensated tuning methods available, but really, your best bet is to take it to a skilled luthier and let them give it a once-over. It could be something as complex as an improperly-placed bridge, or you may just need a better set of strings. Hell, you may just be playing too hard. There are lots of possibilities.

 

And your band mates might be out of tune!!

 

When I tune my guitars by ear, I'm consistently about 40-50 cents sharp. Then when I check it with a tuner and correct the tuning, it sounds flat to me for a bit until I get used to it. Occasionally I've wondered why I seem to hear everything as about a half-step flat; does that mean what I think people's voices sound like is flatter than what they actually are? Strange.

 

Probably not related to your problem at all, but I had been having a problem with my P bass sounding out of tune (sharp) on the lower frets of the E and A strings. The 12th fret intonation was dead on. Turns out the nut slots needed to be filed down a bit to prevent pulling the first couple frets going sharp (plus I tend to fret too hard). Filing it down a bit, being careful to set the witness point correctly, made a world of difference. By the way, I bought sized nut files for the job.

 

Stingrays bring out a lot of sympathetic harmonics and over tones too that I don't hear from most other basses...could be what's gnawing at your ear.

 

+1. Exactly my thought. Every time I had to record a Stingray it was a little bit wierd because so much odd harmonics for me. The only stingray that I enjoyed recording was a Stingray fretless with a Pau Ferro fingerboard.

 

You could try lowering the pickup. Different strings might help too; Ernie Ball Slinkys will sound good on that bass, all other things being proper.

 

Are your strings very close to the pickup? I had a stingray with this issue, that was the cause.

 

How long have you been playing? When I started on electric my poor technique caused me to play out of tune.

 

nut too high forcing you to pull strings out of tune could be one thing, but I doubt EBMM would let one leave the factory like that. if the nut has been replaced? could happen.
pickup to high can do that. yup.

new strings and a complete setup up to include checking those would be where I'd start.

 

Improper setup could cause your open strings to be perfectly in tune, and most of what you fret to be out of tune.


We'll need details, though. Have you had it set up? Has it sounded like this forever, or just after a string change? Does it seem any worse higher up the fretboard? Do you play with high action?

 

Too weird, I've been playing for over forty years and with many different basses during that time. The only time anybody told me I sounded out of tune was when I was jamming with a guitarist and drummer since I've known since high school and the guitarist looked at me and said I sounded out of tune. The bass was a 94 SR5. Probably just a coincidence , but it wasn't the first 5 string I played and not the first active bass I played. When I saw the title of the thread it brought back that memory. And no, I'm not dissing Ernie Ball basses, I actually like them, just a weird coincidence. Jim

 

That was my thought too, I can't see EBMM sending out a bass with a crappy nut job.

 

The pickup too close to the strings can cause false harmonics ... although that is probably not the problem here.

 

Everyone's tuning to the same standard (e.g. A-440), right?

 

Wow! That's a huge bass!

 

+1 - Not all tuners are created equal either. Try using the same tuner as everyone else and see if it still sounds out of tune. I used a Fender stompbox tuner for a while and it was never quite in tune with the other tuners in the band. If you've got a keyboard in the band, I would suggest tuning to them and see how that goes.

 

You should get a fEARful.

 

I'd had this happen. I've also somehow pushed the tiny recessed button on my tuner causing it to tune a few cents sharp. Playing half a show with my head cocked, that "who farted" look on my face until I discovered the problem.