Are you changing your tunings between each song? I guess in that case it would make a lot of sense. I'm usually tuned up in seconds with my phone and never have to touch it again. Who are these poor saps who's bass can't stay in tune for a few hours?
What I wonder is what happens when the bassist's pedal tuner and the guitarist's pedal tuner do not agree with each other?
"Who are these poor saps..."
Me, I'm one of those saps.
No intentional change of tuning, but as the venue fills up, the temperature changes, the venue's air-con kicks in to combat the heat and humidity flowing in from outside through the open door and that generated by the patrons themselves. One bar I regularly played in didn't have a door, just patio folding doors — Patrons liked us, management liked us, but I suspect we stopped getting gigs there because they had to divert band-funds to the air-con electricity bill.
With constant fluctuating temperature, my upright needs little nudges and tweaks — even a set break is enough to disrupt the tuning, the strings cooling on the break and then encountering warm hands after sitting under the blast of air-con.
I imagine things will be similar but opposite when I return to Canada, ie waiting for the bass to warm up after being carted from the car through the cold snowy winter wonderland to the venue during load-ins.
Then there are the people who may not have quality tuning machines, they've bought the best bass they can afford but the tuning drifts due to aforementioned climactic differences and tuning machines that basically suck. Not everyone is blessed with the perfect combination of strings, tuners and wood that is immune to heat/cold.
"
What I wonder is what happens when the bassist's pedal tuner and the guitarist's pedal tuner do not agree with each other?"
Been there done that, too. The guitarist tunes to me as does the fiddler, or everybody tunes to the keyboard if there is one. Differences in Tuning is why I ditched my Korg Pitchblack, it was out, wayyyy out (sharp by too many cents audible-to-the-naked-ear) compared to any of my other tuners (that and it couldn't track the low E on the DB).
Why are tuners so expensive?
'Cause they're bloody-well worth it, and besides — they're not expensive, they're cheap!
Prices have come down since the days of the Conn strobe tuners.
... not to mention the portability factor.
