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Double Bass Tuner for DB?

L

lyle

Jan 10, 2004
1,086
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37
Vernon, B.C. Canada
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#1
Hey I recently ordered an Upton hybrid with a solo II and I was wondering whats the best method of tuning? I'm thinking of picking up a boss tu-2 anyway for my (dare I say:eek: ) guitar/ EB pedal board and was wondering if it will work well with my solo II. At the music shop I work at we also carry clip on tuners that work by vibration, they recomend them for cello's but since I already need the TU-2...

what do you guys think?

sorry if I sound ignorant in anyway:smug:
 
#2
I've found that the clip on tuners that my acoustic guitar and mandolin friends use don't always work on double bass.

Since you have a pickup, a tuner with a short cord would do the trick.

I use a Korg CA-30 and they work fine.

Touch
 
#4
Just my $0.02 is to avoid what I bought -- a really cheap tuner with a LCD display and single blinking LED. The LCD is invisible except under lighting conditions which tend to accompany rooms with perfect acoustics. The blinking LED is 2 colors, which my eye can't distinguish.

Someday I will change the LED color and then hide the whole shebang inside my amp with just the LED poking out.

OTOH my old Korg LED-based tuner is just wonderful.
 
#6
I use the Korg GA-30 at home and it works well for bass...the separate settings for bass or guitar seem to make a difference in how well it senses notes.

I have a clip-on for my upright, but it has trouble in a noisy room, sometimes doesn't read one of the strings, and tunes the D string flat. Once tried to tune the upright in an orchestra pit and it was useless.

For gigs, I've been running a Boss TU-2 off the effects send of my Clarus. With the mute button in, I can have silent tuning with the BugBass. The Boss does a great job of sensing notes quickly and locking in on them...I use the chromatic mode that displays note names and has flat/sharp arrows on each end of the scale. Same can be done with the little Korg.

With the TU-2, don't try to run a bass through it into the amp though...it seems to thin the tone a little bit.
 
#13
I’ve done some guitar teching on the road in years past and I’ve owned and used quite a few tuners. I you look at what an experienced pro tech uses you will never see fewer than two or three different tuners being used to tune one instrument. This is partly to cover the event of failure but also because different instruments cause different tuners to react differently and some are easier to use with a specific instrument. You’ll also see quite a few pros using a monitor or headphones when they tune and that says a great deal about not ever relying on just the visual feedback from a tuner…your ears are always the final word.

As Eddie Gomez puts it you have to “make friends” with any acoustic instrument and you also have to make friends with a tuner. The problem with acoustic instruments is you get a lot of overtones along with the fundamental and this confuses tuners. You can tune your bass with reasonable accuracy with most tuners available if you’re aware of this and find the combination of harmonics and open notes the tuner most easily recognizes. An even, consistent touch pizz or arco, open note or harmonic is essential to getting the best results from any tuner. Some units will be physically easier to use, some will work better with a particular instrument, some will have certain features you prefer and it takes trial and error to find what works for you. My preference is not to use units that have only a series of lights like a Boss TU-2 or a Korg rackmount (some guys love these things) rather than a needle like the Boss TU-12H. The TU-12H is one I’ve used a lot and is what comes to gigs when traveling light. My favorites by far for pure tuning functionality are mechanical strobe tuners but they’re large, expensive, delicate and completely impractical for a musician to drag around on gigs. Peterson has had digital strobe tuners out for several years though that offer strobe accuracy with higher durability, smaller size and lower cost. I’ve been using a first generation Peterson VS 1 for several years and if I had to choose just one tuner it would without question be the one. It tunes in enough octaves that you can weed out the harmonics that typically confuse a tuner and I find the strobe type display the most accurate even as the note decays. They also make a strobe stomp box version that I haven’t used but I’ve heard very good things about from players and techs alike. I don’t wanna sound like a shill for Peterson but the stuff they make is very, very good and that’s born out by how many of them you seen in the rigs of guys who tune and set up instruments for a living.

Bottom line in any discussion of which tuner though is that if you can tune quickly and accurately with a tuning fork or piano you can learn make most tuners work ok. Some are just easier than others.

jeff
 
#14
Silversorcerer said:
Korg. The one that's about $15 is great. I have another Korg that clips on that is chromatic. It works well also. And for $10 you can get an adapter that plugs into the simpler on that and clips on also. Love 'em.
Click to expand...

+1 My Korg GA30 has been running strong for a good six or seven years now. Picks up DB and BG through pickup or mic, is cheap as chips and last very well despite the plastic casing- mine's been dropped on numerous occasions and never even flickered. I think I've changed the battery once.

edit- although as others have said you have to use your ears as well.
 
#15
I often play cello and URB with piano or organ and I would not use a tuner since the pitch of organ or piano varies with the season (temperature, humidity, etc.). Better use your ears (or calibrate tuner with the piano/organ).

But if you play with other instruments that are tunable or electronic I guess a tuner is OK.

By the way, I have learnt that brass bands in Europe uses A=442Hz (not standard 440Hz). Check out what is A frequency in the orchecstra before you rely too much on your tuner...

Best regards,

Anders
 
#16
I use a Korg GT-12. Apparently it has been discontinued and replaced with the GT 120, although appearance-wise they are quite different.

I like it a lot better than the GA-30 that I still keep in my bass bag as a backup. Of course it cost like 4x as much.

I do not ever run it as part of my signal chain. I just use it for checking pitch on open strings before practicing, before a gig, and sometimes between sets. Running the cable from the pickup to the input works much better than the built-in mic, unless I am in my music room at home. Maybe that has to do with the harmonics and overtones mentioned above.

And like others have noted, many of the gigs I do are w/ a piano (i.e. not an electric keyboard), which is more often than not never exactly at A=440Hz. So my "perfectly tuned" open strings are then out of tune ... I have thought of tuning up or down to match the piano, but that can affect string tension, which will bother me if it is too far out of whack.

I think flatback mentioned using the clip-on variety attached to the bridge for practicing, esp. working on thumb position, which I thought was a great idea.
 

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