What is with me and A strings?

[Member8675309]

I've seen best-of-the-best orchestral musicians tune by ear, on stage, in front of an audience paying $100+ per seat. I've seen a world famous fretless bass virtuoso glance at his tuner during a song to check his intonation. Heck even Edgar Meyer puts tape on his fingerboard to mark the positions. Playing in tune is musicianship 101 so do whatever it takes.

I’m still trying to figure out how you tune silently, with the “sound”, which I guess meant volume, off, (knowing your tuner is busted) in a busy, loud venue. Dude must have the hearing of a, I don’t know, cat or whatever animal with super hearing.

I was listening to Hendrix the other day, and in the beginning of one of his songs he said, “Give me an A.” One pluck from the bassist and he was good to go.

 

[IamGroot]

Problem with tuning? Gibson makes these really cool guitars that tune themselves.

My basses rarely go out of tune after coming to playing temp. More often, its the guitar thats off.

I check my tuning on the go, using open strings when tbe chance arises.

I did have a D string on a fretless that wouldnt stay in tune for a high energy jazz jam....it was a TI flat that was unwinding. It finally broke and I kept on playing. Peole talked about that for a while.

 

[Treadstone71]

Thanks for the input everyone...I was only in for three songs, so it wasn't nearly long enough to repair the situation. I've been in this situation before...hell, while playing at my own wedding, I realized the bass I borrowed was horribly set up, and the A string saddle literally collapsed sideways on me - like the string sitting on the fretboard and completely unplayable. That's fine...I can deal with that. The problem here was that I could hear the string was off, but the tuner insisted it was spot-on...in the moment, with an unfamiliar setup I assumed I was wrong. Never making that mistake again.

Anyhoo, everyone (including my own bandmates who were in the audience) insisted they didn't hear anything wrong. Even if they're being kind, I'm going to chalk it up to experience and move on.

 

[popcat]

Thanks for the input everyone ...but the tuner insisted it was spot-on...in the moment, with an unfamiliar setup I assumed I was wrong. Never making that mistake again.

I would take thine other person's offending "tuner" - as you politely call it - and smash it, and bash it, and crush it, then throw it like The Hulk tossing a horseshoe. In the long run, you would be thanked by the Gods that be.

 

[jackn1202]

I think I figured out what happened.

The TU-2 has a very small display for what note is being tuned to. In your case, A. Your A string could have gotten pretty flat since the last time it was tuned. The display shows the note, but for sharps and flats it shows this tiny little dot next to the note. For example, for an A flat, it would show [ .A ]. I'm guessing you were low and didn't see the tiny dot.

I know this because it happened to me today. I never use tuners, I always tune by ear when I can, but I was playing a church gig and couldn't tune out loud on stage. I borrowed a TU-2 and tuned between songs from EADG to DGDG for the last song. Except, I didn't see the tiny dot from my lofty 6'4", and accidentally tuned to D#G#DG. Band leader was hacked off, to say the least. It was fine, I just played all my parts on the top two strings, and it served me right for not using Sacred Tuning...

...but there you go. Mystery solved. Thought you might like to know.

 

[JoeWPgh]

Another issue is that the nut could be mis-cut, with the witness point at the headstock side of the nut. This would make the open note dead on, but fretted notes a bit off.

 

[faulknersj]

Thanks for the input everyone...I was only in for three songs, so it wasn't nearly long enough to repair the situation. I've been in this situation before...hell, while playing at my own wedding, I realized the bass I borrowed was horribly set up, and the A string saddle literally collapsed sideways on me - like the string sitting on the fretboard and completely unplayable. That's fine...I can deal with that. The problem here was that I could hear the string was off, but the tuner insisted it was spot-on...in the moment, with an unfamiliar setup I assumed I was wrong. Never making that mistake again.

Anyhoo, everyone (including my own bandmates who were in the audience) insisted they didn't hear anything wrong. Even if they're being kind, I'm going to chalk it up to experience and move on.

That is a great takeaway! As others have stated, another great takeaway is to trust your ears, and insist on tuning up in between songs. This is when the vocalist talks to the crowd and no one even notices you getting that A string up to speed. Cheers!

 

[Treadstone71]

The TU-2 has a very small display for what note is being tuned to. In your case, A. Your A string could have gotten pretty flat since the last time it was tuned. The display shows the note, but for sharps and flats it shows this tiny little dot next to the note. For example, for an A flat, it would show [ .A ]. I'm guessing you were low and didn't see the tiny dot.

Y'know, I'm not 6-4, but not noticing the dot (or knowing its purpose) could have easily happened. Given that it's warming up now, and all my instruments are slightly sharp, I could have overtuned.

Thanks! There's a strong possibility this is what happened. Geez...I better check to see if the TU-3 I bought has the same dot.

 

[Microbass]

I use a Boss TU2 and always have it set to chromatic rather bass/half step.
The band I've been in for 16 years has always been a half step down.

My new band had our first gig in March. First song has a huge sounding drum fill to kick us off.. The second chord is an open C# (down tuned E string).. and I've tuned to Eb - sounded awful. Luckily drop C# has been a staple in other bands and using the same bass for those 16 years I detuned almost instantly as I can get within a few cents of doing just over a 1/4 turn on the tuning peg. Very embarrassing and I've still not lived it down...

Oddly as well when doing the new bands demo, I slapped on some new strings and set up, intonated, all good. The drums were already down and I was recording via DI in my livingroom. When we added the guitar the bass was noticeably out of tune everywhere. I've always done my intonations and never had this happen before. My tuner showed me as being out across the board, so I had to re-record.