SwamiRob Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Was having a mess around with my pretty poorly intonated fender bullet the other day and noticed that although tuning it was impossible because something was always put, I seemed to be able to play in tune by bending notes a little here and there. Until then I'd never noticed myself doing anything like that, but was just wondering if this is a bit of a habit you might pick up, to hear a note initially been out of tune for a fraction of a second and altering it, or just getting used to an instrument that isn't particularly tuneful, or maybe been used to where the pitch of notes should be and working off that. Either way without really having put any effort into thinking or practicing correcting the tuning I seem to have been doing it which I didn't really expect to be able to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PURPOLARIS Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 I used to play with a guitarist who would regularly bend a string to get to a note instead of using the actual note. Slightly different but I thought he was a great guitarist. Maybe you're a great bassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwamiRob Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 Heh, I do alright but I wouldn't say pitch is a strong point, take me ages to find root notes sometimes, however I'm usually ok at transcibing a lot of stuff after that if it's not mega difficult. Just seem to do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bassman7755 Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 [quote name='SwamiRob' timestamp='1450699624' post='2934918'] Was having a mess around with my pretty poorly intonated fender bullet the other day and noticed that although tuning it was impossible because something was always put, I seemed to be able to play in tune by bending notes a little here and there. Until then I'd never noticed myself doing anything like that, but was just wondering if this is a bit of a habit you might pick up, to hear a note initially been out of tune for a fraction of a second and altering it, or just getting used to an instrument that isn't particularly tuneful, or maybe been used to where the pitch of notes should be and working off that. Either way without really having put any effort into thinking or practicing correcting the tuning I seem to have been doing it which I didn't really expect to be able to do. [/quote] Fine as an emergency measure (e.g. using someone elses poorly set up bass at an open mike night) but no substitute for a properly intoned bass. Does beg the question of why you dont just fix the intonation ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I think you should get your Fender Bullet intonated correctly and then put those 'adjusting notes on the fly' skills to good use on a fretless ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 You can achieve the same effect by not tuning up accurately and then bend each note as you play it. If it's fretless you don't need to tune up or bend ... just go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwamiRob Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 It is the plan to get it sorted out, done my best but it doesn't wanna play along, not sure whether it's the cheap strings or something else but just can't get it in tune. Got some circle ks ready for it and its mostly the b that's the problem so that should sort it, just got other bits that I'm gonna leave for a tech to do. For the time being it'll do, good practise for when I might eventually be able to afford an upright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bassman7755 Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) [quote name='SwamiRob' timestamp='1452166858' post='2947139'] It is the plan to get it sorted out, done my best but it doesn't wanna play along, not sure whether it's the cheap strings or something else but just can't get it in tune. [/quote] How high is the nut ? Ideally it should be low enough so that the clearance of an open string over the first fret is the same as that over the 2nd fret when you finger the 1st fret. If its much higher than this then its pretty much impossible to get the whole neck in tune - even you adjust the string length to get correct intonation at the 12th fret, then everywhere else except open and the 12th fret will be out of tune. Edited January 9, 2016 by bassman7755 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwamiRob Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 Yeah the nut is the main reason that I want a tech involved, tuning to B standard and the B is a .142 so that'll need some filing that I wouldn't dare do myself. That and I wouldn't be surprised if it needed a fret dress or (please no) an entire refret, it's a pretty old thing and looks like whoever's owned it most of it's life didn't like going past the 5th fret too much. It's mostly the B that has intonation issues unsurprisingly, especially with the cheap strings, but I for the time beign I've tried to balance it more toward it being in tune till about the 7th fret, because there's no way I need anything higher on that one or the E particularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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