Are people who say "my bass never goes out of tune" crazy?

[bertbass]

Are you supposed to tune it then?

[Bilbo]

Yeah, what's this 'in tune' malarky?

[superclive]

My Lakie never goes out of tune once the strings have worn in. But it lives and goes everywhere in a hard case. Gig bags = tuning?????

Also how many of us rarely change strings and how many change after 1 or 2 gigs?

[bassmachine2112]

Mine all stay in pretty much tune although they will go a bit flat when it,s hot and a bit sharp when cold but nothing much.
Keeping them in cases helps a lot.
Usually when they wander it,s the strings that are coming to their end.Ironically it,s my Ricky that,s the most stable of all of them.

[TomDuff]

Mine goes out when the guitarist messes with it just to annoy me - wouldn't mind so much if he would tell me which ones he had changed!

[Jimryan]

I'm afraid to say my P never goes out either.

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1377859409' post='2192822']
How accurate are modern electronic tuners anyway?? Do they vary?? Do they suffer from hot or cold??
[/quote]

Most tuners are are highly stable and accurate but some are less "fussy" than others about what they consider to be in tune. I've used a few pedal/portable tuners which will happily declare a string as in tune when I can hear its not because they allow to much leeway.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1377811738' post='2192362']
Wow - so what is it about me then. Leave any bass for 24 hours and it's a bit out of tune. Usually the whole thing has gone a bit flat or a bit sharp.
[/quote]

Green wood? I have an OLP Stingray copy - an affordable bass in every respect - and it hardly ever goes out of tune, and I hardly play it at all at the moment. I just check it before I play, just to make sure, and that's it. I hardly ever make much adjustment to the tuners, if any at all.

Environmental factors all take their toll though. Differences in heat and humidity could put it out of tune, but if you keep your instruments in their case, it shouldn't be affected by that as much (until you take it out of the case).

The strings on my acoustic guitar were all slightly sharp when I tuned it the other day, and the strings have gone rusty from just sitting in my room. The most likely cause is the humidity lately. My bass stay in a different room in it's case, and the strings are perfectly in tune, and haven't rusted.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1377879918' post='2193208']
Most tuners are are highly stable and accurate but some are less "fussy" than others about what they consider to be in tune. I've used a few pedal/portable tuners which will happily declare a string as in tune when I can hear its not because they allow to much leeway.
[/quote]

Indeed. I use a Boss tune (TU-80, I think it is. Just handheld, not a pedal), and it seems very accurate, compared to my last one, which was a Planet Waves tuner, which if it worked at all, wasn't the most accurate. It wasn't unreliable either, the Boss is just a bit better than it, in my opinion. (in fact, it's a lot better).

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1377859409' post='2192822']
How accurate are modern electronic tuners anyway?? Do they vary?? Do they suffer from hot or cold??
[/quote]

Here's a little video that explains it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ5VvRTTmgE

[Skol303]

Of the basses I own, the cheapest one (bought for the princely sum of £30) holds its tuning the best.

Go figure.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1377886885' post='2193319']
Of the basses I own, the cheapest one (bought for the princely sum of £30) holds its tuning the best.

Go figure.
[/quote]

I was actually once told that on a custom guitar, if you took all the strings off at once to restring it, you'd wreck it. I called BS on that, but then, I've never tried it. Maybe more expensive guitars are more temperamental? I would have thought they would be more stable.

[3below]

I am so disappointed, I thought I was so lucky my basses stay in tune. I thought they were endowed with special qualities. Now it seems other basses do as well, lots of them. Ah well, you can't have it all.

[martthebass]

My Status with not a gramme of wood on it never goes out of tune, honest guv.

My MM and Rick do to lesser or greater extents, the MM holds tuning for months, the Rick for weeks.

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1377811197' post='2192348']My Aria never goes out of tune. Everything else moves a little when they get taken somewhere or the temperature changes a lot.[/quote]

Wouldn't quite go so far as saying 'never', but both my SBs are very stable beasts. Even this unseasonal outbreak of Summer has only sent them a cent or three flat.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1377813740' post='2192407']I get to learn a lot of covers so I'm possibly more sensitive. It all goes horribly wrong if I'm not in tune with the record I'm learning.[/quote]

Not all recordings are in tune though. A lot of early Decca stuff (Stones, Small Faces etc.) seems to be a quarter tone o.n.o off; It was common practice back in the day to adjust the speed of a recording to either give it a bit more oomph or to bring it inside the 2 mins 30 limit for radioplay. Also, there's no guarantee that Turntables, tape decks and I daresay CD players run at the same speed as the mastering equipment, & I harbour a suspicion that some MP3 rippers affect pitch slightly too. Add into the mix that plenty of artists (e.g. Early Sabbath, Bon Scott era AC/DC, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc.etc.) downtune a semitone, & occasional retuning on the fly is a given if you're learning a mixed bag of covers.

Unless your bass is drifting wildly off pitch in a short space of time, I'd not be overly concerned.

P.

[The Dark Lord]

I tune my USA P, with Rotosounds on, before each gig and never have to tune it between songs.

I'm quite an aggresive pick player too.

We usually do two sets and I always check before the 2nd set, just in case one of the tuners got knocked - but it's always bang on.

I usually take a Steinberger Synapse as a compact backup base - and although I always check it before I use it ..... I don't think I have EVER had to touch one of the tuning knobs since I bought it .... amazing technology those Steinbergers.

Edited August 30, 2013 by The Dark Lord

[Cameronj279]

Everytime I pick up my bass I tune. Generally the tuning pegs get knocked about a bit if it's been in the gig bag but if it's just been in the house it's generally fine.

[MiltyG565]

This doesn't just apply to basses. My mate's telecaster holds it's tune for weeks. My Yammy strat holds it's tune for about a week. My new Les Paul copy, however, is constantly out of tune.

[LiamPodmore]

Whilst i'm not gigging i tune my Fender maybe once a month. My Squier gets tuned every time i pick it up, because normally it sits there for 6 months (The strings are nearly 2 years old 'cause i've used it so little that i've not changed them) before i use it again. A few years ago i used to ride a bike to band practice. One day i was hit by a car and landed on my bass. Got to rehearsal and it was still perfectly in tune from the practice before.

Liam

[thepurpleblob]

So... in summary... that's me told then

[thepurpleblob]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' timestamp='1377893239' post='2193429']
Not all recordings are in tune though. A lot of early Decca stuff (Stones, Small Faces etc.) seems to be a quarter tone o.n.o off; It was common practice back in the day to adjust the speed of a recording to either give it a bit more oomph or to bring it inside the 2 mins 30 limit for radioplay. Also, there's no guarantee that Turntables, tape decks and I daresay CD players run at the same speed as the mastering equipment, & I harbour a suspicion that some MP3 rippers affect pitch slightly too. Add into the mix that plenty of artists (e.g. Early Sabbath, Bon Scott era AC/DC, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc.etc.) downtune a semitone, & occasional retuning on the fly is a given if you're learning a mixed bag of covers.

[/quote]

It's rarely a problem but does turn up on old 70s stuff. If it's something tricky and I have an irrational desire to get it spot on, I tweak the audio in Transcribe! so we agree (quicker than tweaking me, so to speak).

[Guest bassman7755]

To OP - the tuning weak point on most basses is the way the string is wound on the tuning peg, ideally use the fewest possible number of neatly stacked winds.

[Lozz196]

Both of my basses hold tune well, however I find that if, due to temperature/humidity, they go out of tune, it`s all four strings by roughly the same amount. They don`t go out of tune when I`m playing, no matter how hard I hit the strings. Which is nice.

[discreet]

Sounds like no-one has as many tuning problems as this guy!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas&list=RD02jdC2eQCa8Cw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas&list=RD02jdC2eQCa8Cw[/url]

[Jono Bolton]

My P Bass never used to stay in tune particularly well, and I thought I was going to have to fork out for a new set of tuners, but instead I took them apart, cleaned, and rebuilt them. Now the tuning's rock solid, I haven't had to worry about it in ages.